Charles Mingus - The Albums Poll!

I was listening to this on the way to work, cracking up at Mingus do pretend banter: "Don't clap until the end of the set, and then it won't matter." A strong contender, as are Oh Yeah and A Modern Jazz Symposium.

Mingus Ah Um, I'm on record as saying this is the finest album ever recorded.

I've never understood the rep for that one. I mean, sure it's good, sure, but not all that exciting compared to some of the other options.

Anyhow, Mingus x 5 for me; with Black Saint and Pithecanthropus Erectus tied for second place (sort of).

*sure*

I'm going with Oh Yeah (on which Mingus doesn't even play bass, if memory serves) slightly over Blues & Roots and Mingus Dynasty.

I just searched for a PopMatters piece I wrote about Mingus Ah Um so I could quote it, but it was five years ago and man was my writing horrible back then -- so smug and self-satisfied! Damn.

Anyway, my point was that Mingus invented the album statement with MAU, but I'm not even sure I agree with that now. More likely, my love for this record is the beautiful ensemble playing, the risky compositions, and the tributes to Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Lester Young, and Orval Faubus all on the same record.

But if you don't think the sax/handclap break on "Better Get It in Your Soul" is exciting, then nothing I say here will help you, as your heart is dead. ;) BANTER!

I don't know, it just never really hit me the way I always expect it to--thanks mostly to its immense rep, I guess: Bsngs raving about it somewhere or othere, etc.

oops, that should be Bangs, obviously.

I think I'll go with The Clown, it's what got me hooked in the first place. But this is pretty close to impossible. Black Saint is genius as well and that's a whole other listening experience... So much greatness!

... and the freak version of Better Get Hit with Larry "Stormbringer" Coryell on guitar deserves a mention.

Y'all are gonna make me bust out my old poetry slam piece about how Mingus is Godzilla compared to the secondary monsters that are all other genres of music. Oh god I sucked as a poet but it was fun doing it live with a kick-ass jazz band at the Green Mill back in the day.

do it, dad!

Blues & Roots

Mingus Ah Um is great but so many of those tunes are bettered on Mingus x 5 (ie what deej said).

Yep, that too.

I'm going with Oh Yeah (on which Mingus doesn't even play bass, if memory serves)

Memory serves. He plays piano on it. It's not my very favorite, but it does have the best Mingus album cover!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WCFCT8GnL._AA240_.jpg

It's also got a lot of Mingus's raucous singing on it - and it's got the very weird "Passions of a Man" which is sort of like a Faust track.

I have heard your Mingus X5 but I respectfully disagree, tracks all seem watered down like hotel gin.

IIBS???

Even Haitian Fight Song?!

xpost

I was talking about "Theme for Lester Young" and "Better Get Hit in Your Soul" specifically, as they are versions of songs from MAU. "IIBS" is the best version of "Haitian Fight Song," I absolutely agree.

Y'all are gonna make me bust out my old poetry slam piece about how Mingus is Godzilla compared to the secondary monsters that are all other genres of music. Oh god I sucked as a poet but it was fun doing it live with a kick-ass jazz band at the Green Mill back in the day.

-- Dimension 5ive, Friday, December 14, 2007 5:30 PM

!!!!

BIG HOOS = reformed slam dude who once read at the Mill, would lurv to hear it

Nope. You'll have to go back in time and check me bombing with that piece at the Ann Arbor slam in '95.

haha my team had the requisite "name-drop jazz artists" piece, and in it I pantomimed bass. I took my cues from videos of Mingus!

lolololol

SWEEEEET.

haha

I declare today Charles Mingus Day

*Mingus Ah Um* but I could've gone w/Antibes, Black Saint, Let My Children Hear Music, MMMMM, Dynasty.

Oh Yeah was the first Mingus LP I got so that's a sentimental fave.

'

there is an entire concert of the 1964 sextet in Norway up on youtube

o, in case anyone else cares, Revenge! is April 18, 1964; Great Concert is April 19 (my b-day!), 1964

Wish my birthday had something as cool as that.

I have almost all of these, heard them all, and "Blues & Roots has it hands down for me. "Antibes," "Black Saint," and "Mingus Presents Mingus" are all about equal to it.

It's all sooo good!

also I could have sworn Mingus did a version of Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho but I don't know why

-- El Tomboto, Thursday, December 13, 2007 8:06 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Link

me too, but i thought about it for a while and remembered that when i was little we kept a mingus cd and a mahalia jackson cd in the stereo for the alarm clock... that song is forever in my subconscious. it makes me panicked whenever i hear it.

I feel old when people say they had cds when they were little. We didn't get a cd player until I was 14 I think. Was the 1st one in my year at school to get one I think, as I kept getting asked to tape people cd's I got.

I feel old when I see eBay & Craigslist listings for "LP Vinyl Record Albums"

what?

what age are you hoos?

Damn, I should've includedCornell 1964

MIngus Ah Um. It's the one that made me fall in love with Mingus -- and I think that 1959 trilogy of records (Ah Um, Blues & Roots and Dynasty) is an astounding run. But I don't think I've heard a Mingus record I don't like (I could've voted for Black Saint, Let My Children Hear Music, the Great Concert, Cornell, Tijuana Moods ... the list goes on.) Still haven't heard that UCLA gig, but it's only a matter of time.

I'm going with Oh Yeah, although my Mingus preference changes daily, and sometimes hourly. It could just as easily be Black Saint.

Ah Um, with x5 second.

Mingus preference changes daily

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady usually wins out though for me.

Ah Um is the album that I'd probably pull out if I wanted to convince a skeptical jazz fan of his greatness - it's a polished tour-de-force of composition, arrangement and musicianship, and it has enough of Mingus's quirky ideas that some of his personality comes through - even while it remains firmly within the tradition. You hear lots of Ellington in it, echoes of things Coltrane was doing around that time or would soon be doing, and so forth. However, I guess I just kind of prefer the Mingus albums that leave the rough edges intact, that blur the boundaries of jazz - mixing in blues, gospel, etc. - and where Mingus's edginess comes through.

I'm kinda surprised at the thought of a jazz fan being skeptical about the greatness of Mingus.

It's a purely theoretical example, I'll grant you.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Unless it's an ilx jazz fan being contrary of course.

Last day of votes, get them in.

6 hours left!

90 mins left for some Mingus voting!