Mingus Ah Um

Album Notes & Community Reviews

Serving as an extended tribute to his musical forebears, 'Mingus Ah Um' balances homages to jazz pioneers like Lester Young and Duke Ellington with compositions steeped in gospel fervor and the blues. The album's dynamic range is captured in the shifting tempos of "Boogie Stop Shuffle" and the somber elegance of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," all driven by Mingus's famously passionate and commanding leadership. Notably, the album's original release featured several tracks edited for length and controversially omitted the incendiary lyrics to "Fables of Faubus," a direct political critique of Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, which was presented as an instrumental at the insistence of Columbia Records.