Mingus Ah Um
Encyclopedia
Mingus Ah Um is a jazz
album by Charles Mingus
, recorded and released on Columbia Records
in 1959. It was his first album recorded for Columbia. The cover features a painting by S. Neil Fujita
.
on CD calls this album "an extended tribute to ancestors" (and awards it one of their rare crowns), and Mingus's musical forebears figure largely throughout. "Better Git It In Your Soul" is inspired by gospel singing and preaching of the sort that Mingus would have heard as a child growing up in Watts, Los Angeles, California
, while "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
" is a reference (by way of his favored headgear) to saxophonist Lester Young
(who had died shortly before the album was recorded). The origin and nature of "Boogie Stop Shuffle" is self-explanatory: a twelve-bar blues with four themes and a boogie
bass backing that passes from stop time
to shuffle and back.
"Self-Portrait in Three Colors" was originally written for John Cassavetes
' first film as director, Shadows, but was never used (for budgetary reasons). "Open Letter to Duke" is a tribute to Duke Ellington
, and draws on three of Mingus's earlier pieces ("Nouroog", "Duke's Choice", and "Slippers"). "Jelly Roll" is a reference to jazz pioneer and pianist Jelly Roll Morton
; "Bird Calls," in Mingus' own words, was not a reference to bebop legend Charlie "Bird" Parker
: "It wasn't supposed to sound like Charlie Parker. It was supposed to sound like birds - the first part."
"Fables of Faubus
" is named after Orval E. Faubus
(1910–1994), the Governor of Arkansas infamous for his 1957 stand against integration
of Little Rock, Arkansas
schools in defiance of U.S. Supreme Court
rulings (forcing President Eisenhower
to send in the National Guard
). It is sometimes claimed that Columbia refused to allow the lyrics to be included on this album, though the liner notes to the 1998 reissue of the album state that the piece started life as an instrumental, and only gained the lyrics later (as can be heard on the 1960 release Presents Charles Mingus
.)
to be added to the National Recording Registry
in 2003.
; certain songs were shortened by several minutes. These six tracks were first restored in 1979 and three other recordings were discovered. Later reissues contain both the full-length versions of the original nine tracks and the three new tracks.
All songs composed by Charles Mingus
, except 12, composed by Sonny Clapp. Original shortened song lengths are given within parentheses.
Bonus tracks on later reissues
Tracks 1, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 recorded on May 5, 1959; tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 11 and 12 recorded on May 12, 1959. All tracks recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studio
, New York City
.
, an album recorded later in 1959 (with unedited versions of five tracks shortened on the original LP release).
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
album by Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
, recorded and released on Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
in 1959. It was his first album recorded for Columbia. The cover features a painting by S. Neil Fujita
S. Neil Fujita
Sadamitsu "S. Neil" Fujita was an American graphic designer known for his innovative book cover and record album designs.-Background:...
.
Pieces
The Penguin Guide to JazzThe Penguin Guide to Jazz
The Penguin Guide to Jazz is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which are currently available in Europe or the United States...
on CD calls this album "an extended tribute to ancestors" (and awards it one of their rare crowns), and Mingus's musical forebears figure largely throughout. "Better Git It In Your Soul" is inspired by gospel singing and preaching of the sort that Mingus would have heard as a child growing up in Watts, Los Angeles, California
Watts, Los Angeles, California
Watts is a mostly residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles, California.-History:The area now known as Watts is located on the Rancho La Tajauta Mexican land grant...
, while "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is a jazz standard composed by Charles Mingus originally recorded by his sextet in 1959 as listed below, and released on his album Mingus Ah Um. Mingus wrote it as an elegy for saxophonist Lester Young, who had died two months prior to the recording session...
" is a reference (by way of his favored headgear) to saxophonist Lester Young
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....
(who had died shortly before the album was recorded). The origin and nature of "Boogie Stop Shuffle" is self-explanatory: a twelve-bar blues with four themes and a boogie
Boogie
Boogie is a repetitive, swung note or shuffle rhythm, "groove" or pattern used in blues which was originally played on the piano in boogie-woogie music. The characteristic rhythm and feel of the boogie was then adapted to guitar, double bass, and other instruments. The earliest recorded...
bass backing that passes from stop time
Stop-time
In tap dancing, jazz, and blues, stop-time is an accompaniment pattern interrupting, or stopping, the normal time and featuring regular accented attacks on the first beat of each or every other measure alternating with silence or solos. Stop-time appears infrequently in ragtime music...
to shuffle and back.
"Self-Portrait in Three Colors" was originally written for John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
' first film as director, Shadows, but was never used (for budgetary reasons). "Open Letter to Duke" is a tribute to Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, and draws on three of Mingus's earlier pieces ("Nouroog", "Duke's Choice", and "Slippers"). "Jelly Roll" is a reference to jazz pioneer and pianist Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
; "Bird Calls," in Mingus' own words, was not a reference to bebop legend Charlie "Bird" Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
: "It wasn't supposed to sound like Charlie Parker. It was supposed to sound like birds - the first part."
"Fables of Faubus
Fables of Faubus
"Fables of Faubus" is a song composed by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus. One of Mingus' most explicitly political works, the song was written as a direct protest against Arkansas governor Orval E...
" is named after Orval E. Faubus
Orval Faubus
Orval Eugene Faubus was the 36th Governor of Arkansas, serving from 1955 to 1967. He is best known for his 1957 stand against the desegregation of Little Rock public schools during the Little Rock Crisis, in which he defied a unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court by ordering the...
(1910–1994), the Governor of Arkansas infamous for his 1957 stand against integration
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
of Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
schools in defiance of U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
rulings (forcing President Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
to send in the National Guard
United States National Guard
The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...
). It is sometimes claimed that Columbia refused to allow the lyrics to be included on this album, though the liner notes to the 1998 reissue of the album state that the piece started life as an instrumental, and only gained the lyrics later (as can be heard on the 1960 release Presents Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus is an album by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus, recorded and released in 1960. To produce an atmosphere, Mingus makes spoken introductions "live" in the studio: hence the album's title....
.)
Reception
Mingus Ah Um was one of fifty recordings chosen by the Library of CongressLibrary of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
to be added to the National Recording Registry
National Recording Registry
The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, which created the National Recording...
in 2003.
Track listing
When Columbia first issued the album in 1959, six of the album's nine songs (tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9) were edited in order to fit them on the LPGramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
; certain songs were shortened by several minutes. These six tracks were first restored in 1979 and three other recordings were discovered. Later reissues contain both the full-length versions of the original nine tracks and the three new tracks.
All songs composed by Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
, except 12, composed by Sonny Clapp. Original shortened song lengths are given within parentheses.
- "Better Git It in Your Soul" – 7:23
- "Goodbye Pork Pie HatGoodbye Pork Pie Hat"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is a jazz standard composed by Charles Mingus originally recorded by his sextet in 1959 as listed below, and released on his album Mingus Ah Um. Mingus wrote it as an elegy for saxophonist Lester Young, who had died two months prior to the recording session...
" – 5:44 (4:46) - "Boogie Stop Shuffle" – 5:02 (3:41)
- "Self-Portrait in Three Colors" – 3:10
- "Open Letter to Duke" – 5:51 (4:56)
- "Bird Calls" – 6:17 (3:12)
- "Fables of FaubusFables of Faubus"Fables of Faubus" is a song composed by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus. One of Mingus' most explicitly political works, the song was written as a direct protest against Arkansas governor Orval E...
" – 8:13 - "Pussy Cat Dues" – 9:14 (6:27)
- "Jelly Roll" – 6:17 (4:01)
Bonus tracks on later reissues
- "Pedal Point Blues" – 6:30
- "GG TrainG (New York City Subway service)The G Brooklyn–Queens Crosstown Local is a rapid transit service of the New York City Subway. It is the only full-time non-shuttle service that does not enter Manhattan...
" – 4:39 - "Girl of My Dreams" – 4:08
Tracks 1, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 recorded on May 5, 1959; tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 11 and 12 recorded on May 12, 1959. All tracks recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studio
CBS 30th Street Studio
CBS 30th Street Studio, also known as Columbia 30th Street Studio, and nicknamed "The Church", was an American recording studio operated by Columbia Records from 1949 to 1981 located at 207 East 30th Street, between Second and Third Avenues in Manhattan, New York City...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Personnel
- John HandyJohn HandyJohn Richard Handy III is an American jazz alto saxophonist.-Biography:In the 1960s, Handy led several groups...
– alto sax (6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12), clarinetClarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
(8), tenor sax (1, 2) - Booker ErvinBooker ErvinBooker Telleferro Ervin II was an American tenor saxophone player. He was perhaps best known for his association with bassist Charles Mingus....
– tenor sax - Shafi Hadi – tenor sax (2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10), alto sax (1, 5, 6, 9, 12)
- Willie DennisWillie DennisWillie Dennis was an American jazz trombonist known as a big band musician but was also an influential bebop soloist...
– tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
(3, 4, 5, 12) - Jimmy KnepperJimmy KnepperJames M. Knepper was an American jazz trombonist.He was a good friend and arranging/transcribing partner of bassist and composer Charles Mingus. Knepper was twice on the receiving end of Mingus' legendary temper...
– trombone (1, 7, 8, 9, 10) - Horace ParlanHorace ParlanHorace Parlan is an American hard bop and post-bop piano player.He is noted for his contributions to the classic Charles Mingus recordings Mingus Ah Um and Blues & Roots....
– piano - Charles MingusCharles MingusCharles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
– bass, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
(with Parlan on track 10) - Dannie RichmondDannie RichmondDannie Richmond was an American drummer who was best known among jazz fans for his work with Charles Mingus, and among pop fans for his work with Joe Cocker, Elton John and Mark-Almond....
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
50th Anniversary Legacy Edition
In 2009 Sony's Legacy Recordings released a special 2-disc 50th Anniversary Edition of Mingus Ah Um. In addition to the complete album, the Legacy Edition includes three alternate takes: "Bird Calls (alternate)" (4:54), "Better Git It In Your Soul (alternate)" (8:30), and the standout "Jelly Roll (alternate)" (6:41). Oddly, the Legacy Edition of Mingus Ah Um also includes Mingus DynastyMingus Dynasty
Mingus Dynasty is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released in 1959, and was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.- Track listing :All compositions by Charles Mingus except where noted.# "Slop"# "Diane"# "Song With Orange"...
, an album recorded later in 1959 (with unedited versions of five tracks shortened on the original LP release).
Sources
- Priestley, Brian. Sleeve notes to 1998 reissue of Mingus Ah Um (Columbia CK 65512)