Mingus, Sue Graham

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Mingus, Sue Graham

PERSONAL:

Born in Milwaukee, WI; married second husband, Charles Mingus (a jazz musician; deceased, 1979); children: (first marriage) two. Education: Smith College, B.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Pantheon Books, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER:

Worked as a journalist in Europe and as a magazine editor and writer in New York City; currently music producer assisting the Mingus Big Band and Charles Mingus Orchestra to perform, record, and promote Mingus's work. Founder, Revenge Records, a music company. Founder and president, the Charles Mingus Institute.

WRITINGS:

Tonight at Noon: A Love Story, Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sue Graham Mingus is the widow of the late jazz legend Charles Mingus. She is a driving force in promoting and maintaining Mingus's music through live performances and recordings, and on a more personal level she has sought to give a human face to the artist through her biography, Tonight at Noon: A Love Story. Sue Graham met Charles Mingus in 1964 and began a tempestuous relationship with him that lasted until his early death from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) in 1979. Tonight at Noon offers a detailed picture of Charles Mingus as a volatile genius, a man passionate about his work, his personal life, and his perceptions of racism in America. Sue Mingus also writes candidly about her husband's last years, as his incurable illness robbed him of his ability to make the music that was so central to his life. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Tonight at Noon "a powerful and moving book … charged with insight into the personality of a jazz great." In the New York Times Book Review, Joyce Johnson characterized the biography as an "absorbing story," further observing that "there are passages that indicate that [Sue Mingus] eventually achieved a deep understanding of her husband."

Since Mingus's death, Sue Mingus has been a producer who has helped to found and promote the Charles Mingus Big Band and the Charles Mingus Orchestra, both of which regularly perform the artist's work in New York City and elsewhere around the globe. She is renowned for reclaiming and releasing bootleg recordings of her husband at work, many under her Revenge Records label. In an interview with the Independent, Sue Mingus stated: "Mingus is still speaking out, his uncompromising concern with justice and freedom of expression is as timely as any voice today."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Book, May-June, 2002, Adam Langer, "Charles and Sue Mingus: Blue Notes," p. 23.

Independent (London, England), August 18, 1999, Stuart Nicolson, "Mingus, the Next Generation: With the Mingus Big Band, the Great Jazzman's Widow Has Created the Perfect Tribute to His Uncompromising Music," p. 9.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2002, review of Tonight at Noon: A Love Story, p. 164.

Newsweek, May 20, 2002, Malcolm Jones, "Voices," p. 11.

New York Times Book Review, May 12, 2002, Joyce Johnson, "Epitaph for an Angry Man," 14.

Publishers Weekly, March 4, 2002, review of Tonight at Noon, p. 67.