Album #2 of 133 Albums Before In the Court of the Crimson King that Every Progger Should Know.
Released 14 September 1959.
A1. Better Git It In Your Soul (7:23)
A2. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (4:46)
A3. Boogie Stop Shuffle (3:41)
A4. Self-Portrait In Three Colors (3:10)
A5. Open Letter To Duke (4:56)
B1. Bird Calls (3:12)
B2. Fables Of Faubus (8:13)
B3. Pussy Cat Dues (6:27)
B4. Jelly Roll (4:01)
Charles Mingus, bass, composer
John Handy, alto saxophone, clarinet
Shafi Hadi, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Booker Ervin, tenor saxophone
Horace Parlan, piano
Dannie Richmond, drums
Jimmy Knepper, trombone (tracks: A1, B1 to B4)
Willie Dennis, trombone (tracks: A2 to A5)
Teo Macero, producer
Recorded at 30th Street Studio, NYC. May 5, 1959 (A1, B1-B4) / May 12, 1959 (A2-A5).
A famous music writer captured the essence of musical progressiveness in his original review of Mingus Ah Um.
“The nine pieces he created for this album do not represent a break from the past; rather they are a reflection of the past and an image of the present, seen through the mirror of tomorrow.” Leonard Feather, Downbeat, Nov 26, 1959.
I've heard a lot about Charles Mingus' influence on proggers. Especially in discussions about King Crimson. Edward Macan in his book Rocking the Classics, has described the middle section of King Crimson’s "21st Century Schizoid Man" as “Mingus-like.” Sure enough, if you mix the groove of "Better Git It In Your Soul" with the riffing approach of "Boogie Stop Shuffle" and the lightning unison runs of "Bird Calls," presto, you get the skeleton and the flesh of the propulsive instrumental section of "21st Century Schizoid Man." I don't think it's a stretch to say that Dannie Richmond's loose-limbed, florid drumming resembles Michael Giles' quite a bit.
"For me, the most important jazz record. When I first heard this, I realised that you could put country blues into jazz; it influenced me to put country blues into rock. I started writing when I heard songs like "Better Git It in Your Soul" and "Boogie Stop Shuffle." Another fabulous American composer, not one that's been recognised in the same way that someone like Duke Ellington has, but just as important. He wasn't accepted because he was trying to bring these other styles into jazz, and in those days, blues music was seen as common; it was not cool. A great man." - The Guardian, July 6, 2001
Of course, just across the way from Jack Bruce’s Cream was Jeff Beck’s Yardbirds, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Beck covered track two from this Mingus Ah Um, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” on Wired (1976).
PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS:
After the opening tour de force, a slow ballad is the natural thing. "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is e-flat minor memorial for New Orleans tenor saxophonist Lester Young. Imagine a funeral march, but with a light swing and chord substitutions.
With "Boogie Stop Shuffle," Mingus is back to a racing tempo with hot unison lines and splashy chords. Solos follow a b minor blues framework.
"Self-Portrait In Three Colors" is another ballad, this time lighter textured, with rich harmonies and an elaborate harmonic scheme. The chords wind into the wild with tones floating gorgeously around each other.
Although it's only 5 minutes long, "Open Letter To Duke" is a multi-part epic, moving quickly through four contrasting sections. The opening is built on chromatically descending chords that are more simply put together than they might sound. The slower second section features broad counterpoint between the wind instruments. Part 3 glides along on descending chromatics again (this part strongly resembles one of the sections of Robert Wyatt's "Moon in June" from Soft Machine's Third). Finally, there's a cheeky coda in B-Flat.
The B-side opens with "Bird Calls," music about off-the-handle enthusiasm. This is a high tempo vehicle for some sax blowing, with a lightning fast head in b-flat minor. The beginning of the song is a splash of dissonance as purposefully clustery chords underscore screechy sax lines. Predicting King Crimson again, the speedy, elaborate unison lines presage those little runs that climax the Schizoid Man instrumental, and UK's "Presto Vivace" for that matter.
On "Fables Of Faubus," the longest track on the album, Frank Zappa's later method of satire through ridicule gets a fully fleshed-out musical setting. But one of the major criticisms of this album is that this version of Faubus leaves out the acerbic lyrics about a bigoted politician. You’ll have to go to the Presents Charles Mingus album to get the whole picture. Richmond is great and snarky here, contributing some quirky grooves under the sax soloing. Mingus takes an extended solo, full of bluesy bent notes and dynamic curves.
"Pussy Cat Dues" is a Slow and slinky clarinet theme with a progression that modulates from D to E-Flat. There’s a series of solos on E-flat 12-bar blues - trombone then piano then clarinet then bass then sax.
Jelly Morton’s influence on Mingus can be heard through a similar sharp wit, harmonic adventurousness and those little yelled intrusions and character effects in the music. "Jelly Roll" is an easy-going ode with a theme based on chromatic scales, makes a pleasant end to the album. The whole band interacts perfectly with Richmond doing his modified tin-pan alley drumming. This final track on Mingus Ah Um concludes with a musical giggle.
LINK TO DISCOGS FIRST RELEASE RECORD.
GREAT REVIEWS, INTERVIEWS AND ONLINE ARTICLES:
Library of Congress National Registry
SOME RELEVANT YOUTUBE VIDEOS:
A portion of the BBC documentary “1959: The Year That Changed Jazz”
Jeff Beck covers Goodbye Pork Pie Hat on Wired
Andy Summers covers Boogie Stop Shuffle
Andy Summers covers Self Portrait in Three Colors
Andy Summers/Dennis Chambers/Darryl Jones cover Goodbye Pork Pie Hat live
A BOOK TO READ (WITH CAVEAT):
Charles Mingus - Beneath the Underdog
A lot of people despise this book. Mingus himself takes the reader on a guided tour of his uninhibited psyche. After about two sentences, it's clear that he's going to be an unreliable narrator. There's no aspect of his personal relationships, substance consumption and sexual proclivities that he's afraid to blurt out in print, undoubtedly in highly exaggerated and enhanced versions of what really happened. At times, there's a guilty, vicarious thrill at being in his internal world. And a lot of the time, you can't wait to escape the visceral brashness of it. What does come across is that Mingus was absolutely uncompromising about having total freedom in what he could express in every area of his life, and it's a clue to how he was able to vault jazz onto a more progressive plane. Frank Zappa later took a similar approach in the lyrical matter for his albums - no subject was off limits, no word too censorable.
Please note: This blog post is subject to change as I learn more great stuff about Mingus Ah Um!
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