Mingus Ah Um

Mingus Ah Um
Album by Charles Mingus
Released	1959
Recorded	May 1959
Genre	Jazz
Length	Original: 45:56
	Reissue: 72:33
Label	Columbia
Producer	Teo Macero
Professional reviews
All Music Guide [1]
Charles Mingus chronology
Blues & Roots (1959)	Mingus Ah Um (1959)	Mingus Dynasty (1959)

Mingus Ah Um is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released in 1959.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz 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 more direct reference to Lester Young (who had died a couple of months before the album was recorded). "Boogie Stop Shuffle"'s origin and nature is self-explanatory: a twelve-bar blues with four themes and a boogie bass backing that comes and goes. "Self-Portrait in Three Colors" was originally written for John Cassavetes' first film as director, Shadows, but wasn't used (for budgetary reasons). "Open Letter to Duke" is, of course, a tribute to Duke Ellington, and draws on three of Mingus's earlier pieces ("Nouroog", "Duke's Choice", and "Slippers"). "Bird Calls" is an equally obvious reference to Charlie Parker, and "Jelly Roll" to Jelly Roll Morton.

"Fables of Faubus" is named after Orval E. Faubus (1910–1994), the infamous Democratic Governor of Arkansas, famous 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 Brian Priestley (in his liner notes to the 1998 reissue of the album) says that the piece started life as an instrumental, and only gained the lyrics later.

When Columbia first issued the album, six of the nine numbers were shortened in order to fit them on the LP. When in 1979 these six tracks were restored, three other recorded tracks were discovered, and the reissue contains both the full-length versions of the original tracks and the three new tracks: "Pedal Point Blues", "GG Train", and "Girl of My Dreams".

Title Explanation

The name of Mingus Ah Um is derived from a Latin study form. It is commmon for Latin students to memorize Latin adjectives by first saying the masculine nominative singular form (usually ending in a -us), then the feminine nominative singular ending (a), and finally the neuter nominative singular ending(um). Thus the adjective Magnus (big, great) is memorized as Magnus, -a, -um. (This would be pronounced like magnus ah um.) Mingus happend to be fourtionate enought to have a name ending in a Latin noun ending, and proceeded to use this as an album title.

Track listing

1. "Better Git It in Your Soul" (7:21)
2. "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" (4:46/5:42)
3. "Boogie Stop Shuffle" (3:41/4:59)
4. "Self-Portrait in Three Colors" (3:08)
5. "Open Letter to Duke" (4:56/5:49)
6. "Bird Calls" (3:12/6:18)
7. "Fables of Faubus" (8:13)
8. "Pussy Cat Dues" (6:27/9:13)
9. "Jelly Roll" (4:01/6:15)
10. "Pedal Point Blues"
11. "GG Train"
12. "Girl of My Dreams"

(All compositions by Charles Mingus)

1, 6–10: recorded 5 May 1959; Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City.

2–5, 11–12: recorded 12 May 1959; Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City.

Personnel

• John Handy — alto sax (1, 6–7, 9–12), clarinet (8), tenor sax (2)
• Booker Ervin — tenor sax
• Shafi Hadi — tenor sax (1–4, 7–8, 10), alto sax (5–6, 9, 12)
• Willie Dennis — trombone (3–5, 11–12)
• Jimmy Knepper — trombone (1, 7–10)
• Horace Parlan — piano
• Charles Mingus — bass, piano (on 10)
• Dannie Richmond — drums

Sources

• Brian Priestley. Sleeve notes to 1998 reissue of Mingus Ah Um (Columbia CK 65512)