Charlie Mingus Charles Mingus - Triumph of the Underdog

Charles Mingus: Triumph Of The Underdog is the first comprehensive documentary about jazz bassist, bandleader and composer Charles Mingus. Mingus led a tumultuous life filled with trauma and frustration, joy and creativity. Not light enough to be considered white and not dark enough to fit into the black community, he was an outcast in American society who charted his own path. Likewise, his legacy as a 20th Century composer reaches far beyond conventional jazz idioms.

Exhaustively researched, virtually everything used in the film is extraordinarily rare - newly unearthed performance footage, previously unpublished photogrpahs, radio broadcasts, and private interviews. Abundant clips of Mingus in performance in the 1960s and 1970s perfectly illustrate both his joy and rage. Nine years in the making, this lucid involving portrait shows the many faces and tortured heart of a musical genius. He titled his 1971 autobiography "Beneath The Underdog," but by the end of his life, with his ambition and resolute sense of purpose, the underdog ultimately triumphed.

Performances include: "Epitaph," "Peggy's Blue Skylight," "Better Get Hit In Your Soul," "So Long Eric," "Sue's Changes," "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" and more.

A thorough, poignant profile of jazz legend Charlie Mingus, whose distinctive bass stylings and radical arrangements revolutionized the jazz scene. Includes an extensive personal background, detailing Mingus' struggles with psychological problems and Lou Gehrig's disease, as well as performance footage.