Beneath the Underdog

Charles Mingus, bassist, composer and bandleader, was one of the towering

figures of American twentieth-century music. In this acclaimed memoir, Mingus

documents his childhood on an Army base in Arizona, his difficult teenage

years in Watts and his musical education from the likes of Louis Armstrong,

Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker. In a unique and lyrical voice, his story

charts the highs and lows of a life lived to the full. Beneath the Underdog is

also a portrait of life in the forties and fifties, and of ideas of identity

and race in America. Above all, it is a powerful tale told through the eyes of

an inspiring, anguished and extraordinary musician.