Charles Mingus

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, is the greatest autobiography ever written by a jazz musician. It tells of his God-haunted childhood in Watts during the 1920s and 1930s; his outcast adolescent years; his apprenticeship, not only with jazzmen but also...

"Billie Holiday had one of the greatest voices of all time. She was a woman of breathtaking talent and global popularity who was unafraid of stirring controversy. She started a notable rebellion singing 'Strange Fruit,' which exposed the realities of Black life in America and earned her powerful enemies. Raw, emotional and brutally honest, 'Billie' is filled with incredible unheard testimonies from musical greats [and] showcases an American legend,...