Myself when I am real : the life and music of Charles Mingus

Preface; Introduction; Prologue: Better Get It in Your Soul; 1 Growing Up Absurd; 2 Black Like Me; 3 Making the Scene; 4 Life During Wartime; 5 Portrait of the Artist; 6 The Big Apple, or On the Road; 7 Pithecanthropus Erectus; 8 Mingus Dynasty; 9 Camelot; 10 The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady; 11 One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest; 12 Beneath the Underdog; 13 Let My Children Hear Music; 14 Changes; 15 Don't Be Afraid, the Clown's Afraid, Too; Notes; Bibliography; Discography; Acknowledgments; Index.
A pioneering bassist and composer, Mingus redefined jazz's terrain. He penned over 300 works spanning gutbucket gospel, Colombian cumbias, orchestral tone poems and chamber jazz, but got attention less for his art than his volatile behaviour. This biography offers a portrait of the musician.