Mingus Ah Um
Mingus Ah Um is a jazz album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released on Columbia Records in 1959.
Songs
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 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 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 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.
Title
The title of Mingus Ah Um is derived from a Latin study form. It is common for Latin students to memorize Latin adjectives by first saying the masculine nominative singular form (usually ending in "-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".
Reception
Mingus Ah Um was one of fifty recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry in 2003.
Track listing
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".
 "Better Git It in Your Soul" (7:21)
"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" (4:46/5:42)
"Boogie Stop Shuffle" (3:41/4:59)
"Self-Portrait in Three Colors" (3:08)
"Open Letter to Duke" (4:56/5:49)
"Bird Calls" (3:12/6:18)
"Fables of Faubus" (8:13)
"Pussy Cat Dues" (6:27/9:13)
"Jelly Roll" (4:01/6:15)
"Pedal Point Blues" (6:30) bonus track
"GG Train" (4:39) bonus track
"Girl of My Dreams" (4:08) (Sonny Clapp) bonus track
(All compositions by Charles Mingus, except #12)
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, 12)
Jimmy Knepper — trombone (1, 7–10)
Horace Parlan — piano
Charles Mingus — bass, piano (with Parlan on 10)
Dannie Richmond — drums
Sources
Priestley, Brian. Sleeve notes to 1998 reissue of Mingus Ah Um (Columbia CK 65512)
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