Books like Mingus Speaks come around once in a lifetime, and Music editor Mary Francis’s enthusiasm for the project is palpable. That’s why we asked her to introduce this episode of the UC Press Podcast, a discussion with writer and former music critic John Goodman, complete with music and archival clips from Mingus’s interviews. Take it away, Mary!
When I first encountered John Goodman’s interviews with Charles Mingus I could hardly believe my luck. Detailed reflections from one of the great jazz composers and performers don’t surface every day, much less in-depth interviews that hadn’t been in the public eye. Not all artists are articulate, or even willing to talk much about their work. But I had a hunch that Mingus in his own words would be something special.
The interviews don’t disappoint. In his podcast, Goodman calls Mingus, “an incredible talker,” and that’s an understatement. Mingus’ voice, individual and idiosyncratic from the first quote (“Don’t take me for no avant-garde, ready-born doctor.”), reaches off the page to grab your attention. Reading his words it is easy to imagine how absorbing it must have been to sit at a bar, sipping Pernod and soda and listening to him discourse. Mingus was as nimble and inventive a raconteur as he was as a performer and composer. Goodman’s questions don’t just receive answers: they inspire passionate, detailed anecdotes, counterproposals, Socratic volleys of queries, reminiscences, rants, jokes, nuanced appraisals, praise for colleagues and friends, sarcastic cracks, testimonials to the ideals that guided Mingus’ artistic practice. Listen to the podcast for a snippet from one of the interviews: Mingus Speaks, “machine-gun style,” as Goodman observes, rapid, fluent, sharp.
The idea of authenticity ties together much of what Mingus had to say. Mingus’ high standards for authentic artistic, professional, even ethical practices shine through these interviews from his first reflections on the skill and study required for true musical mastery. Mingus is celebrated as innovative, even avant-garde, but he was suspicious of the avant-garde label. He speaks repeatedly in the interviews of the importance of studying and mastering the traditions and history of music, not just jazz, but Bach, Varèse, masters of the blues, other original musical thinkers rooted in solid technique and deep respect of their traditions. Briskly scornful of improvisational practices that had little to do with coherent form and expressive structure, Mingus doesn’t hesitate to point out which emperors among the free jazz community were wearing no clothes.
Mingus is similarly forceful and articulate about race and musical identity, the shady practices of the music industry, the complexities of working with other musicians to create truly collaborative, expressive music. He isn’t abstract, he doesn’t mince words, his emotions inform his intellectual musings and punctuate his words with laughs, rushes of excitement, anger, moody pauses; his words have the same intensity and integrity as his music.
Ananya Roy and her colleagues at the #GlobalPOV Project, an initiative of UC Berkeley’s Blum Center for Developing Economies, have just released a stunning new illustrated video that explores the business of poverty. Roy is the author of Encountering Poverty (forthcoming from UC Press), a path-breaking book that will consolidate a new field of inquiry: global poverty studies.
Watch the video to learn about the surprising ways microfinance companies take advantage of the poor, how society tends to criminalize opportunism and innovation only when it comes from the lower classes, and why Roy is skeptical about the time-worn maxim, “If you teach a man to fish…”. Roy looks at what it takes to build a “pro-poor” economy—one that doesn’t profit off the labor, consumption, and debt of the poor. It’s a complex problem, and this project is a great start.
Follow the #GlobalPOV project on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and its website. And check back in 2014 for the first edition of Encountering Poverty.
Caldwell’s experience and her passion for thinking about how food impacts the world socially and culturally make her a perfect fit for Gastronomica. We’d also like to thank Darra Goldstein, founding editor of Gastronomica, and acknowledge the extraordinary contribution she has made to the prestige and success of the journal.
Library Relations Manager Rachel Lee recently sat down with Melissa L. Caldwell to talk about her research interests, life as an academic, and what she sees in the years ahead for Gastronomica.
Rachel Lee: Can you introduce us a little bit to your area of research?
Melissa L. Caldwell: The Anthropology of Food is one of my key areas of research, and I’m particularly interested in Russian society. Russia is such a dynamic place, there are so many things a going on, and food is a fascinating way to track the changes in that society.
In the Soviet era food was used by Soviet authorities to implement particular political ideas, provided as a reward, or denied as a punishment. The state was involved right down to designing the kitchens where people ate.
Now in the postsocialist era people are still using food as a conduit for political values, to express themselves as Russians and as members of a new economic society. I find it fascinating.
RL: What attracted you to editorship of the journal?
MLC: I’ve always turned to Gastronomica for commentary that’s really interesting, both the scholarly articles and more popular pieces. We’re at a moment in Food Studies where there are so many different things going on in very different directions. Gastronomica has a really important role to play.
From a personal perspective I’ve been an author and edited special issues and collected volumes, and the editorship came at a time when I felt the challenge would be really exciting. It offers me the opportunity to be right in the thick of these exciting changes. This is a real moment of creativity in the field. There are so many conversations and ideas that are just starting to talk to one another.
RL: Why is now a great time to subscribe to Gastronomica?
MLC: Food studies is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary; there are new points of intersection of the different fields. People in Chemistry and Digital Arts might be exploring similar themes but from different perspectives. We want to pull together these ideas and publish the best research and be involved in exciting, provocative conversations.
RL: What are the important elements of the journal that you’ll be keeping?
MLC: I think it’s really important to say that Gastronomica will stay the same more than it will change. I want to keep the pleasurable aspects of the journal: the aesthetically and intellectually stimulating pieces and beautiful language and imagery. We want to build on its strengths and keep providing provocative and creative pieces that introduce readers to new arguments.
Over time we’ll be expanding the scholarly research articles, creating a place for Food Studies that captures the best in scholarship. There will also be a broader international focus that brings in the world outside North America and Europe. This is partly in response to the fact that there is an explosion of scholarly work in this area, work which will be really interesting to readers of Gastronomica.
RL: Is there anything coming up in 2013 that you’d like to highlight so librarians and readers don’t miss out?
MLC: Later in the year, do look out for an interview with Marian Nestle on the 10th anniversary of her book Food Politics. Its influence on scholars’ thinking about food, the state, and nutritional policy is unmatched: it really is one of the titles that put Food Studies on the map and we can’t wait to get her views 10 years on.
We’re also putting together a special issue on critical nutrition. A new wave of scholars are thinking about nutrition and nutritional science, and this special issue of Gastronomica comes from a recent workshop. The collection of essays will recreate the conversations between the workshop participants. It’s exciting to be experimenting with some different ways of publishing those discussions.
RL: I know that academics never really rest, but when you do get a chance to have some time off what do you like to get up to?
MLC: Well, I have a 2 year old who’s in love with her toddler kitchen, so there are a lot of tea parties and plastic ice cream sundaes in my house at the moment. We’ve got a lot of well-fed bears!
I also foster coonhounds, working with a national rescue group to give them forever homes. They’re just lovely; big, loud, noisy, goofy dogs.
I like to sneak off sometimes and go wine tasting – we live in California after all. And being professionally involved in Food Studies doesn’t stop me from enjoying cooking and eating. I have a recipe box created by my mother, with old family recipes. It’s full of old file cards where the splatters tell you which the most popular recipes are. That’s where I turn when I feel the need for some real comfort food.
Over the past three decades, a wine revolution has been taking place across the United States. There are now more than 7,000 American wine producers—up from 440 in 1970—and the best bottles are every bit as good as the finest wines of Europe.
In celebration of this burgeoning industry, Saturday, May 11th, is North America’s first-ever Wine Tourism Day. And what better way to celebrate than with a copy of American Wine, the essential guide to wines in all 50 states? American Wine is the first comprehensive and authoritative reference on the wines, wineries, and winemakers of America, brought to you by renowned wine author Jancis Robinson and U.S. wine expert Linda Murphy.
UC Press is running a book giveaway over at Goodreads. Enter to win one of ten free copies, and discover gems such as racy Rieslings from Michigan and bright-fruited Tempranillo from Texas.
David and Janet Carle, authors of Traveling the 38th Parallel: A Water Line around the World, report on their blog that the desalinization plant in Torrevieja, Spain—a 38th Parallel site they visited in 2010—is nearing completion after 10 years of construction. The Torrevieja plant will be the largest desalinization structure in Europe and the second-largest in the world.
Read more about the project’s environmental implications at the Carles’ blog, Parallel Universe.
We are pleased to announce that the Government of Japan honored UC Press author Merry White today with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon decoration. The award recognizes Professor White’s significant contribution to the development of Japanese studies and the introduction of Japanese culture in the United States.
Her most recent book, Coffee Life in Japan, traces Japan’s vibrant café society over 130 years, from the early coffee craze from the turn of the twentieth century, when Japan helped to launch the Brazilian coffee industry, to the present day. A recent interview with Professor White on coffee culture in Japan can be heard on Public Radio International’s program The World. Congratulations Corky White!
David R. Montgomery, author of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations and professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, was recently profiled as one of Sunset Magazine’s “10 Visionaries, Trendsetters, and Innovators” who are “redefining every aspect of gardening in the West—and changing the way we live, eat, and connect with one another.”
Montgomery was included for his work to highlight the importance of healthy soil in preserving civilizations. Dirt examines how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil—as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt.
Read on to learn about Montgomery and his wife’s project to restore their own back yard’s topsoil, and how it “has inspired him to think small-picture for his next book.”
For as long as I’ve been interested in the search for proofs about the existence of God, I’ve been interested in drawing them. Words and equations just didn’t seem like enough; to wrap my head around what these constructs were expressing, and to try to communicate them to others, I had to make pictures. As I wrote my new book, God in Proof: The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet, I was drawing every step of the way — and my publisher, University of California Press, let me stick some of my pictures in the text.
In doing, I soon discovered, I was retracing the history of proof itself. Long before the mathematical symbols and notation we generally use today, ancient proofs were drawn in diagrams and images.
Now that the book is finished, I want to share the fun I’ve been having by making these drawings with you. The press has agreed to pony up some free books for a drawing contest, and here’s how to win one: Draw a proof of something, divine or otherwise, and tweet a scan or photo of it to #GodInProof, along with any explanation you’d like to add. (You can also email them to proofs@godinproof.com.) Selected proofs will appear here, where they’ll be entered for a chance to win a free book. Entries with the highest number of social media shares win. Multiple submissions are allowed, but only one book is allowed per winning author.
Download the PDF version of the contest postcard here.
In this special edition of the UC Press Podcast, our Music editor Mary Francis introduces author Guy Ramsey, whom she’s worked with for 10 years. Read Mary’s account of the backstory behind the project, then listen to the podcast below.
I’ve worked with Guy Ramsey on some truly fantastic projects, starting with his ground-breaking Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop (2003), and continuing with his role as editor for our Music of the African Diaspora series.I have always loved Bud Powell’s music, and until now Powell’s legacy as an architect of the bebop idiom had not yet been given its due. I was excited about The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop right from the start because Iknew that Guy would be able to write something revelatory about Bud Powell, for a lot of reasons.
First, because Guy is a terrific pianist himself. If it takes one to know one, a versatile musician like Guy was bound to have plenty of insight into what makes Bud Powell’s musical language so inventive and compelling. Beyond his musical intelligence, Guy understands Powell’s seminal contribution to the history of jazz and cultural life in such a multifaceted way. Powell’s life, and the stories we tell about it, was shaped by tragedy: struggles against racial prejudice in its myriad forms, outright abuse at the hands of white authorities. But Powell’s life was also shaped by his own independence of mind about his goals as a composer and performer. Guy is able to work with the story of Powell’s life, use it as a lens through which we can look critically at the concepts of race and ‘genius.’ Guy’s portrait of Powell as an artist delves into the history of bebop and modernism in a way that should interest anyone who cares about modernism and the arts at midcentury.
One day Guy and I were discussing the project on the phone, and we got to talking about Jørgen Leth’s first film, Stopforbud (1963). Guy mentions the film in his podcast as a great introduction to Powell, and I share his enthusiasm. This gorgeous black and white short follows Powell, dapper and solitary, as he strolls the streets of Copenhagen, accompanied by the sound of his playing. Powell’s steps are sometimes on the path as he crosses a bridge or moves through a gate. But sometimes he strikes out across a field of stones, or a dock: he’s taking his own path, just as his music does. The visual and aural pairing is spare and expressive; like Powell’s phrasing, the camera angles are often unconventional, even challenging, but deliberate and convincing. I think both Guy and I appreciate the empathy Leth seems to have with Powell and his music, and I think Guy’s own approach to the amazing Bud Powell shows an equally rewarding empathy and insight.
“Every team—whether it is athletic, artistic, or academic—needs members who support the others, strengthening the glue that holds the team together and making the group more successful as a whole,” writes Friedman. “In some contexts individuals may excel, and in others they may fall short. Children need to learn how to adapt to both situations.” Read the full post at Psychology Today.
Books like Mingus Speaks come around once in a lifetime, and Music editor Mary Francis’s enthusiasm for the project is palpable. That’s why we asked her to introduce this episode of the UC Press Podcast, a discussion with writer and former music critic John Goodman, complete with music and archival clips from Mingus’s interviews. Take it away, Mary! 
