Gabbard first hear jazz late at night on a transistor radio hidden from his parents after lights out. Developing a taste for jazz, he became fascinated with Mingus, but was only able to see him once before the musician died in 1979. Now, working with interviews with virtually everyone who worked with Mingus, the newly available papers surrounding the publication of his semi-autobiographical memoir (lots of names were changed, and stories with a grain of truth were magnified in some telling ways), and the music itself, Gabbard offers an impressionistic biography that places Mingus in the context of his times and the jazz world.