Charles Mingus and His Eviction From His New York City Loft, Captured in Moving 1968 Film

In Novem­ber of 1966, the great jazz bassist and com­pos­er Charles Min­gus was forcibly evict­ed from his apart­ment in New York City. Thomas Reich­man’s doc­u­men­tary Min­gus (above) cap­tures the sad moment when the musi­cian, with his five-year-old daugh­ter Car­olyn at his side, looks through his scat­tered belong­ings the night before city offi­cials arrive to cart every­thing away.

With the cam­era rolling, Min­gus plays a few notes on a piano and then picks up a rifle and shoots a bul­let into the ceil­ing. He finds a bot­tle of wine and gives a sip to his daugh­ter. He recites his own ver­sion of the Pledge of Alle­giance:

I pledge alle­giance to the flag–the white flag. I pledge alle­giance to the flag of Amer­i­ca. When they say “black” or “negro,” it means you’re not an Amer­i­can. I pledge alle­giance to your flag. Not that I have to, but just for the hell of it I pledge alle­giance. I pledge alle­giance to the flag of the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca. The white flag, with no stripes, no stars. It is a pres­tige badge worn by a prof­itable minor­i­ty.

Scenes from the apart­ment are inter­cut with footage of Min­gus and his sex­tet per­form­ing at a lit­tle club in Peabody, Mass­a­chu­setts called Lennie’s-on-the-Turn­pike. The com­bo fea­tures Min­gus on bass, Dan­nie Rich­mond on drums, Charles McPher­son on alto sax­o­phone, John Gilmore on tenor sax­o­phone, Lon­nie Hilly­er on trum­pet and Wal­ter Bish­op, Jr., on piano. The music includes parts of “All the Things You Are,” Take the ‘A’ Train” and “Secret Love.”

But the film is more about the man than the music. It records an espe­cial­ly painful moment in Min­gus’s life. He had hoped to use the loft at 5 Great Jones Street in Green­wich Vil­lage as a music school. In the final sequence, a crowd of reporters and cam­era­men jos­tle for posi­tion to record the humil­i­at­ing scene as Min­gus’s belong­ings, includ­ing his musi­cal instru­ments, are hauled out to the curb and loaded onto a truck. Tears appear in Min­gus’s eyes when the police block him from going back into the build­ing. When the cops find hypo­der­mic nee­dles among his things, Min­gus him­self is loaded into a police car and tak­en away.

Relat­ed con­tent:

1959: The Year that Changed Jazz

Thelo­nious Monk: Straight No Chas­er

How to Pot­ty Train Your Cat: A Handy Man­u­al by Charles Min­gus