Presented with The Jam Session
Bass player extraordinaire Charles Mingus, who died in 1979, is one of the essential composers in the history of jazz, and Beneath the Underdog, his celebrated, wild, funny, demonic, anguished, shocking, and profoundly moving memoir tells of his God-haunted childhood in Watts during the 1920’s and 1930’s; his outcast adolescent years; his apprenticeship, not only with jazzmen but also with pimps, hookers, junkies, and hoodlums; and his golden years in New York City with such legendary figures as Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. Mingus moved from shabby roadhouses to fabulous estates, from the psychiatric wards of Bellevue to worlds of mysticism and solitude, but for all his travels never straying too far, always returning to music. This special concert will pay tribute to the man and his story.
Beneath the Underdog – The Music of Charles Mingus will be performed by Claes Brondal on Drums, Bob Hovey on Trombone, Essiet Okon Essiet on Bass, Eric Schugren on Saxophone, and piano to be announced.
Doors open at 6:30 pm for refreshments compliments of UNION CANTINA.