An Evening With Robert Mugge

***Please note: This event will take place at the Books & Books in Coral Gables at 265 Aragon Ave. Tickets are FREE and books will be available for purchase at the event.

Kirkus Reviews proclaimed Robert Mugge’s Notes from the Road: A Filmmaker’s Journey
through American Music one of the “Best Indie Books of 2023.” Reviewing it on NPR’s Fresh
Air, critic Ken Tucker declared it, “The best thing I’ve read about what it’s like to direct films
since Sidney Lumet’s 1996 classic, Making Movies.”
Robert Mugge’s second book—Saloon Man: A German Immigrant Battles the Limits of Liberty,1870 to 1915—focuses on his great-grandfather, the “original” Robert Mugge who came to America at the age of seventeen; made his way to Tampa, Florida while it was still a settlement; and became a hugely successful businessman. Because his core businesses were alcohol-related at a time of oncoming temperance—and because he hired, partnered with, and supported African Americans during Jim Crow segregation—the “saloon magnate of Tampa” was also controversial.
As author Michael Tisserand writes in his foreword, “A hallmark of any Mugge film is that it is both a documentary and a celebration of lives that are lived with staggering amounts of
creativity. It is in this tradition that Saloon Man might be best understood.” Or as Mugge writes of his ancestor, “He created businesses the way others compose music, paint pictures, or write books: as an extension of his inner self.”
Noting that, in the book, “we see Mugge encounter and try to persevere over the forces of
history,” Tisserand asks, “What are the instances in which our personal histories meet world history? How do larger movements and events shape us, and when do we have the opportunities to shape them? These are questions that filmmaker and author Robert Mugge invites us to consider as we read his majestic accounting of the life of immigrant, entrepreneur and saloonkeeper Robert Mugge.” Tisserand concludes, “Few of us will be granted a chronicler who will bring such rigor and compassion to our lives—but all of us can benefit that this German-born saloon man and city builder ended up with a great-grandson who was born to tell the tale.”

Since 1976, Robert Mugge has produced more than three dozen documentaries about various aspects of American culture, with particular emphasis on traditional forms of American music. In his 2023 book, Notes from the Road: A Filmmaker’s Journey through American Music, Mugge described the making of what he considered to be his twenty-five key music films to date, from Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise and Gospel According to Al Green to Deep Blues and New Orleans Music in Exile. His 2024 book, Saloon Man: A German Immigrant Battles the Limits of Liberty, 1870 to 1915, is a biography of his highly accomplished great-grandfather, also named Robert Mugge. His latest film, unrelated to the book, is Deep Roots: The Art and Music of Bill Steber and Friends, which will be premiered in early 2025. In addition to his many years as an independentf ilmmaker, and more recent ones as an indie author, Mugge has served as Filmmaker in Residence for Mississippi Public Broadcasting and as an Endowed Chair Professor at Ball State University.

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