Mingus Ah Um is a studio album by American jazz musician Charles Mingus, released in October 1959 by Columbia Records. It was his first album recorded for the label. The title is a corruption of an imaginary Latin declension.
Recording & Production
The album was recorded by an eight-piece incarnation of Mingus’s Jazz Workshop. Sessions were held at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio in New York. Teo Macero, who as an A&R man for Columbia arranged the recording date, had a prior connection to Mingus — he had played alto saxophone on some of Mingus’s earlier Jazz Workshop recordings. For several tracks, one to three minutes of the performances were removed, both to meet the playing time constraints of the LP format and because producer Teo Macero felt the pieces were more effective in edited form.
Personnel
The musicians on the album were: Charles Mingus on bass; John Handy III, Booker T. Ervin Jr., and Shafi Hadi on saxophone; Horace Parlan on piano; and Dannie Richmond on drums. Jimmy Knepper (trombone) and Willie Dennis (trombone) also appeared on the session.
Track Listing & Composition Notes
The album contains nine tracks, all composed by Charles Mingus. Several tracks carry specific references:
- “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.
- “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.”
- “Fables of Faubus” is named after Orval E. Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas infamous for his 1957 stand against the integration of Little Rock, Arkansas schools. Columbia Records refused to allow the lyrics to be included, so the song was recorded as an instrumental. The version with lyrics was not recorded until October 20, 1960, for the album Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus on the Candid label, where it was released under the title “Original Faubus Fables” due to contractual issues with Columbia.
- “Better Git It In Your Soul” is inspired by gospel singing and preaching of the sort Mingus would have heard as a child growing up in Watts, Los Angeles.
Reissues & Editions
Unedited versions of several pieces were first released in 1979 on LP. The first widely available CD edition, released in 1987 as part of the “Columbia Jazz Masterpieces” series, used the original LP edits. The unedited version of the album was first widely released on CD in 1998 as part of the Sony Legacy series. In 2009, Sony’s Legacy Recordings released a special two-disc 50th Anniversary Edition that included the complete album along with alternate takes of three tracks, as well as Mingus’s companion album Mingus Dynasty.
Recognition
Mingus Ah Um was one of fifty recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry in 2003. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013. It was ranked number 380 on Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Albums of All Time in 2020.
Cover Art
The abstract cover art was designed by S. Neil Fujita, who also designed the cover of Dave Brubeck’s Time Out.