Congratulations to Krin Gabbard on winning the Jazz Journalists Association‘s 2017 ‘Jazz Book of the Year’ for Better Git It in Your Soul: An Interpretive Biography of Charles Mingus.

In addition to this significant recognition, Gabbard’s book has garnered praise from many corners:

“Will likely long stand as the definitive account of the genius, and enigma, that was this great bassist, bandleader, and composer. Certainly no one has heretofore delved as deeply and thoroughly into what made him tick.”—W. Royal Stokes Blog

“‘Better Git It In Your Soul draws the reader to listening to its subject’s productions. If already familiar with Mingus’ music, a reader may return to favorites with fresh ears and deeper insights. . . . Gabbard’s greatest personal contribution to understanding Mingus is his contextualization of events through his own broad, well-informed perspective.”—DownBeat

“Offers several lenses through which to view Mingus and his music. . . . There is much in Better Git It In Your Soul to limn one’s understanding of and approach to Mingus’ tremendous body of work as well as the challenges he faced and orchestrated as a black artist in America.”—The New York City Jazz Record

“This is a wonderful book! This book completely absorbed me. . . . You really took me in with your own emotional palette.”—NPR/On Point with Tom Ashbrook

“This isn’t simply a new telling of Mingus’ life story, although Gabbard does an excellent job of that in just under 100 concise and nicely paced pages. Gabbard also takes a deep dive into specific aspects of Mingus’ output. Most notably, he performs forensic work in exploring how Beneath the Underdog came to be.”—PopMatters

To get yourself a copy of this keeper, save 30% by entering discount code 16M4197 at checkout.


Krin Gabbard retired after thirty-three years of teaching at Stony Brook University, and he now teaches in the jazz studies program at Columbia University. His previous books include Hotter than That: The Trumpet, Jazz, and American Culture and Jammin’ at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema. He lives in New York City with his wife, Paula, and he is busy playing his trumpet and writing a memoir about his parents.

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