Mingus Vinyl Smells Like Money, Sex, & Gunpowder

Mingus Vinyl Smells Like Money, Sex, & Gunpowder

Charles Mingus is one of my favorite jazz artists because he is just as brilliant, funky and unstable as his music is. He is a musical genius that was just as knowledgable in jazz as he was about guns, pimps, religion, white america, philosophy, and Tijuana prostitutes. I recently attended a seminar at Cuyamaca College with jazz legend and world renown saxophonist Charles McPherson, a former employee of Mingus he told us a story about a night club in New York that was ran by some shady cats, that at the end of the night(gig) ended up owing Mingus money and didn’t pay. Mingus just kinda calmly walked away from the club owner and towards the house grand piano, opens it up and starts ripping out the piano strings with his bare hands. Nobody in the club reacted, they stood there in shock and amusement. This is how I feel when I listen to his 1959 album Mingus Ah Um.

Mingus Ah Um is probably my favorite jazz album and has some of his better known tracks such as “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” and Fables of Faubus”(famous for its criticism of Governor Orval Faubus, who prevented the Little Rock Nine from attending school) . My two personal favorites are the opening track “Better Git in Your Soul” and “Boogie Stop Shuffle”. “Better Git in your soul” is uptempo yet very soulful. It starts off with the head. Then at 1:08 we get our first chorus with a alto sax solo. At 1:28 this weird reoccurring drone sounding (I believe to be trombone) part. I think of this part as a B section. At 1:58 all horns drop out and Mingus gets to shine with the drums and piano. Then that weird drone almost bee buzzing horn part comes back. Then at about 3:37 my favorite part occurs as all of a sudden it’s Sunday morning in the song and the gospel hand clapping starts as the rhythm section cuts out and a sax begins to solo. This is Mingus’s early gospel upbringings coming through his music and what makes this song stand out. Then at 4:05 the band comes back in and the hand clapping stops and the sax just keeps soloing like nothing ever happened. Then at 4:38 we get the first of three little drum breaks. In between the drum breaks are the 2 main melodic ideas. Not your typical trading 4’s standard thing but similar. At 6:12 we are back to head and slowly come to a close at 7:18. All throughout the structure there is some scat like singing and some “Oh Yeahs” here and there in the background. Then there is “Boogie Stop Shuffle” an awkward driving melody that is still groovy, elegant, and experimental. It’s a good example of Mingus’s bass style, one of his more complex and melodic then your standard jazz walking bass lines, yet still as driving. The song starts with the head that kind of has two different melodic ideas. Both kinda based off a boogie woogie style blues riffs. At 0:56 we get our first sax solo over a chorus. Then the piano gets a turn at 1:45 and back to another sax at 2:26. Then a epic drum solo at 3:34 and a clean run through the chorus, and you guessed it another sax solo at 4:16. Then the band totally falls off the hinges and derails beginning at 4:37 and we get a cool crash and burn ending. The Album ends with a corky track titled “Jelly Roll”. I am not sure if this is a tribute to Jelly Roll Morton or the slang for female genitalia. With Mingus it could go either way. The song itself does sound like it is showcasing some jazz roots with a classic authentic like sound. This is what makes Mingus Ah Um a great example of hard and postbop, Mingus’s blend of gospel and experimental music. Classic jazz tracks like “Jelly Roll” to songs of political activism like “Fables of Faubus”. The music could go any direction with Mingus. All gloves were off with Mingus. In more ways then one. He could go fisticuffs with the best in and outside of the club.

Mingus Ah Um is one of fifty recording in the National Recording Registry and was rereleased with three additional tracks for it’s 50th anniversary. It features Mingus on bass and piano, Dannie Richmond on drums, Jimmy Knepper and Willie Dennis on trombone, Horace Parlan on Piano, and several saxophonist including John Handy and Booker Ervin. The cover art was a painting by Sadamitsu Neil Fujita. Since its release in 1959, it has served as a guide to jazz, American, and black music enthusiasts world wide.

works cited

Mingus, Charles Mingus Ah Um Columbia Records 1959

Beneath the Underdog: His World as Composed by Mingus

Alfred A. Knopf 1971

Interview https://youtu.be/sQIuocAQ8tY