MINGUS AH HUM: ORIGINAL STEREO & MONO VERSIONS

180 gram. High Definition Vinyl Pressing For Super Fidelity. Direct Metal Mastering. The Penguin Guide to Jazz has called Mingus Ah Um oan extended tribute to ancestorso and awarded it with one of their rare crowns. It is, in fact, one of MingusAE most personal albums, and produced a series of songs that have become standards. oBetter Git It in Your Soulo 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 oGoodbye Pork Pie Hato is a reference (by way of his favored headgear) to saxophonist Lester Young (who had died shortly before the album was recorded). oBoogie Stop Shuffleo is self-explanatory: a twelve-bar blues with four themes and a boogie bass backing that passes from stop time to shuffle and back. oSelf- Portrait in Three Colorso was intended for the soundtrack of John CassavetesAE film Shadows, but due to budgetary reasons it was never used. oOpen Letter to Dukeo is a tribute to Duke Ellington, and oJelly Rollo makes reference to jazz pioneer and pianist Jelly Roll Morton. According to Mingus himself, oBird Callso was not a reference to Charlie Parker: oIt wasnAEt supposed to sound like Charlie Parker. It was supposed to sound like birds u the first part.o oFables of Faubuso is named after Orval E. Faubus (1910u1994), the Governor of Arkansas infamous for his 1957 stand against the 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 it is more likely that the piece was initially composed as an instrumental, and lyrics were only added later (they can be heard on the 1960 LP Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus). Mingus Ah UmAEs extensive original liner notes were written by Diane Dorr-Dorynek, who by that time was not only MingusAE publicist and agent, but also his lover.'