Beneath the Underdog

[Ronnie]

I recently read Mingus' book "Beneath the Underdog," and all I can say is WOW. What a life - even if most of it happened inside of his own head.

Anyway, there are a five chapters in the book that deal with his relationship with Thedore "Fat Girl" Navarro. Man, Fats was pretty deep himself. All of that talent and frustration.

Any of you interested in Fats should pick up the book, since there isn't very much literature out there on him. And no one can even begin to argue that Fats was one of the most incredible and influential trumpet players in the game!

Check it out!

Ronnie

[Xenoman]

Hey Ronnie. I just read a few sample pages from Amazon and it looks interesting to say the least. I am just finishing the Quincy Jone's biography so this is right on time. Good looking out...

How are things going? I haven't heard from you in a minute! How is the band coming? Your playing? Any grand new discoveries? We started at the same time so you know I want to find out how you're doing... I gotta try and keep up. I finally found a community band to play with and I got flat steam rolled the second day. Poor sight reading...

Later.

[Ronnie]

Man KC, Just keep working with it - sight reading takes a lot of practice. Most of the time, I'm still a bit behind the class. But when it comes to solos and other things that I've pre arranged - I'm doing well! Those little 19 year olds cant believe it. (no offense to anyone. I've also been reading from the Louis Armstrong book and the Charlie Parker Omnibook lately. Talk about a MM workout!

Ronnie

Fats on BeBop:

It's just modern music. It needs to be explained right. What they call bebop is really a series of chord progressions. None of us play this bebop the way we want to, yet. I'd like to just play a perfect melody of my own, all the chord progressions right, the melody original and fresh -- my own. (Fats Navarro commenting on bebop and his goals in music)