Mingus Ah Um

Description

MINGUS AH UM (Columbia CS-8171), featuring an all-star group including Jimmy Knepper, John Handy, Booker Ervin and Curtis Porter (aka Shafi Hadi), was Charles Mingus’ first LP for Columbia. By the mid-50s, Mingus had formed his own publishing and recording companies to protect and document his growing repertoire of original music. He also founded the “Jazz Workshop,” a group which enabled young composers to have their new works performed in concert and on recordings. One of those albums was Mingus AhUm, an extremely personal work that once again showcased Mingus’ unique talent for breaking new ground. “Fables of Faubus” is one of Mingus’s most explicitly political works. The song was written as a direct protest against Arkansas governor Orval E. Faubus, who in 1957 sent out the National Guard to prevent the integration of Little Rock Central High School by nine African American teenagers. The extensive original liner notes, included below, were written by Diane Dorr-Dorynek, who by this time was not only Mingus’ publicist and agent, but also his lover.