Tonight at Noon: A Love Story

This book was a nice surprise for me. After reading BENEATH THE UNDERDOG, I was hungry for a more comprehensive and objective analysis of Charles Mingus. In TONIGHT AT NOON, his wife Sue tells a touching story of how the two met and sadly, how the two of them coped with ALS and Mingus's slow and painful physical decline. Sue begins with her own life from childhood all the way up to and including a lousy marriage that would eventually end in divorce. At this point, the story goes by a bit slower than one would hope, but it is necessary in understanding her behavior later on in life. It is at the time of her separation from her husband that she is introduced to Mingus in New York City. The story goes through the typical ups and downs of any serious relationship, but as it progresses to Charles's dealings with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), the nature of the story takes a dark, yet touching turn. One of the most obviously touching moments was when Sue and Charles along with many other cats from the old days were invited to the White House to celebrate the artform of jazz. Fortunately, Jimmy Carter was always an avid jazz fan, and was the first president to publically recognize the genre. It would have been a major tragedy if Mingus were to miss out on such an honor - at the very least, such an absence would have strengthened Mingus's reasoning that all jazz musicians are not appreciated until they are gone. This was the same reasoning that was the motivation for Mingus's 'The Clown'. Unfortunately, by the time he visited the White House, he was wheelchair-bound, and when he was recognized by name and asked to stand up, he was unable to. It must have been a serious horror to feel as if the world never truly recognized you until your last days, and then be unable to stand, or let alone talk about it with others. The story takes darker twists and turns when Sue and Charles are confronted with assisted suicide as a possible alternative to the slow and painful death he was enduring from the disease. In the long run, the couple even visisted a witch doctor in Mexico who claimed to have an ALS cure, where Sue and Charles would spend their final weeks together. I found this book to be extremely touching, although it is more of a love story (as the title suggests) than that of a biographical work of Mingus. On the other hand, who better to convey to the reader what Charles Mingus was really like than his own wife? Look elsewhere for a broader representation of Mingus, but turn to TONIGHT AT NOON for a true understanding of Mingus the human being.

Charlie Mingus, the legendary bassist/composer has long been one of my favorite jazz musicians. Many have called him "irascible, demanding, bullying, and probably a genius." I can attest to the "genius" part. As a bassist Mingus has few peers. He elevated his instrument into the front line of a band with his "pulsating sense of rhythm and powerful tone." My admiration for him led me to buy the book, "Tonight At Noon: A Love Story." The title comes from one of Charlie's best compositions. Sue Mingus, his widow and fourth wife, writes this extraordinary memoir with elegance, passion, and honesty. Their's is an improbable love story, especially given their racial, social, and temperamental differences. He was a brilliant, volatile, eccentric artist, and a product of L.A.'s Watts ghetto. Sue Graham, a Midwestern WASP and debutante, graduated from Smith College, and worked as a journalist in Europe and New York. The two met in 1964. Unlike many memoirs on the market today, this lady has a powerful tale to tell - and she can really write! One of the most moving and fundamental feelings I was left with after concluding this love story, and it is just that, is that Charlie Mingus was so very special, not just as a musician, but as a man. The first part of the memoir covers the period of the couple's courtship and marriage, beginning when they met to the onset of Charlie's illness, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, (ALS), commonly called Lou Gehrig's Disease, in 1977. The latter half deals with his last years, and their terrible battle against his affliction for which there is no cure. Sue cared for him until his untimely death in 1979, at the young age of 56. Physically and emotionally exhausted, Sue traveled to India to scatter his ashes in the Ganges. She says, "He had more energy than ninety people running down the block when he was frozen in a wheelchair" (commenting on his final days in Cuernavaca, Mexico). Jazz and art were Mingus' wonderful obsessions. He brought Sue into his world with all its exoticism, confusion, exhilaration, hostilities, excesses and unpredictable confrontations. Hers is the story of a loving and tumultuous marriage, and her own personal odyssey inside and outside its confines. Her writing on Mingus' shared thoughts, on many topics, makes for fascinating reading, and provides insight into the mind of this talented, complex man. At one point she writes, "He was so worried he might fail to express something on his mind that he was compelled to state it instantly, examine it, get a reaction to it. Sometimes I thought if he failed to express himself to the world around him, he would go out of his mind." Another discerning comment about living with a creative genius and asserting one's own priorities: "Artists get away with their ambiguities and immoralities because they leave something behind, maybe not to their own children, but to the world. The rest of us leave our children behind, whose judgment will add to our own." There

I am glad Sue Mingus wrote and published this book. After personally meeting her briefly in Australia in January 2002, a chance encounter on a tennis tournament during Mingus Big Band tour, I can relate the book to the author. And thanks to the book, I can relate better to Mingus himself and to his music. I saw him only once in a European concert in 1972. I was a young man then and could not understand much of what was performed. My appreciation of his music has being growing ever since.This is a great book ! But it is too short. I deliberately read it slowly, several pages every night, in order to enjoy it more and to give some time perspective to Sue's and Charles's life together. It is not only about Charles, it is about Sue as well.Also, Sue Mingus provides in the book the best description of Mingus music that I ever encountered:"Any musician will tell you that Mingus music requires multiple skills. ... You need to read like a classical player, improvise like a jazz musician, play well in the ensemble, and, on top of everything else, have a personality."That, in simple terms explains why the music of Charles Mingus will still be played, or at least listened to, in 100 years from now.

Someone finally wrote a book about mingus that unlike the other biographies gives a personal insight into mingus the man and the artist. This book written by Mingus' widow kept me riveted.

Exquisitely written, Sue Mingus has achieved what many did not think was possible. She's exposed us to Charles Mingus's world - his genius, torment and raw emotions in all their complexity, written with love, empathy and unsparing honesty. She's also delved into her own beginnings, family relationships, tumultuous marriage to Charles, and so much more. To me, her writing is like poetry but strikes at the core of all she covers. My only criticism is that this book didn't go on for another 266 pages!!