Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus is a 1963 (see 1963 in music

1963 in music

-Events:*January 1 – The Beatles start a 5-day tour in Scotland to support the release of their new single, "Love Me Do".*January 4 – At Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy, Dalida receives a Juke Box Global Oscar for the year's most-played artist on juke boxes....

) album by jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 composer and bassist

Bassist

A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...

 Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...

.

Historical Context

Many of the tracks on this album had been recorded or have since been rerecorded, some under different titles, on other albums. For example

1. "Theme for Lester Young" – "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
   Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
   "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is a jazz standard composed by Charles Mingus originally recorded by his sextet in 1959 as listed below, and released on his album Mingus Ah Um. Mingus wrote it as an elegy for saxophonist Lester Young, who had died two months prior to the recording session...
   
   " on Mingus Ah Um
   Mingus Ah Um
   Mingus Ah Um is a jazz album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released on Columbia Records in 1959. It was his first album recorded for Columbia. The cover features a painting by S...
   
   
2. "II B.S." – "Haitian Fight Song" on Plus Max Roach and The Clown
   The Clown (album)
   The Clown is an album by Charles Mingus recorded and released in 1957 on Atlantic Records as SD-1260. It is the follow-up to 1956's Pithecanthropus Erectus and features the improvised narration of Jean Shepherd. A deluxe edition of The Clown was issued in 2000 on Rhino featuring two bonus tracks...
   
   (also recorded as "Hog Callin' Blues" on Oh Yeah
   Oh Yeah (album)
   Oh Yeah is a 1962 album by jazz musician Charles Mingus. It was recorded in 1961, and features the leader singing on three of the cuts and playing piano throughout.-Track listing:...
   
   )
3. "Freedom" – "Freedom" on Epitaph
   Epitaph (Mingus)
   Epitaph is a composition, and a live album, by jazz musician Charles Mingus. It is over 4000 measures long, takes more than two hours to perform, and was only completely discovered during the cataloguing process after his death...
   
   
4. "Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul" – "Better Git It in Your Soul" on Mingus Ah Um (also "Better Git Hit in Your Soul" on Mingus at Antibes
   Mingus at Antibes
   Mingus at Antibes was originally a double album recorded at a live 1960 performance at Juan-les-Pins by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus; it was released in 1976....
   
   )
5. "Hora Decubitus" – "E's Flat, Ah's Flat Too" on Blues & Roots
   Blues & Roots
   Blues & Roots is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded in 1959 and released in 1960. It has been reissued twice as a CD, first by Atlantic Records, and then again by Rhino Entertainment in 1998....
   
   
6. "I X Love" – "Duke's Choice" on A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry
   A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry
   A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry is an album by jazz bassist Charles Mingus. In spite of the title, the album does not contain any poetry. "Scenes in the City", however, includes narration performed by Melvin Stewart and written by actor Lonne Elder with assistance from Langston Hughes...
   
   .

Freedom

Freedom, by Charles Mingus (excerpt)

This mule ain't from Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

,

this mule ain't from the South.

But this mule's had some learning,

mostly mouth-to-mouth.

The lyrics, "This mule ain't from Moscow", might be a reference to a Moscow Mule

Moscow Mule

A Moscow Mule is a buck or mule cocktail made with vodka, ginger beer, and lime which was popular during the vodka craze in the United States during the 1950s. The name refers to the popular perception of vodka as a Russian product.-History:...

, a drink made of vodka and ginger beer popular in the 1950s, but is likely also referring to African-American slaves as the "mule".

Mingus performed a number of other songs with spoken poetry or narration:

• "Scenes in the City"
• "The Chill of Death"
• "The Clown"
• "Weary Blues" (read by Langston Hughes
  Langston Hughes
  James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
  
  ).

Several of his other pieces have lyrics:

• "Fables of Faubus"
• "Oh Lord, Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me"
• "Devil Woman"

Track listing

All tracks written by Charles Mingus, except where noted.

1. "II B.S." – 4:46
2. "I X Love" – 7:38
3. "Celia" – 6:12
4. "Mood Indigo
   Mood Indigo
   "Mood Indigo" is a jazz composition and song, with music by Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard with lyrics by Irving Mills.-Disputed authorship:In a 1987 interview, Mitchell Parish claimed to have written the lyrics:...
   
   " (Duke Ellington
   Duke Ellington
   Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
   
   /Barney Bigard
   Barney Bigard
   Albany Leon Bigard, aka Barney Bigard, was an American jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist, though primarily known for the clarinet....
   
   ) – 4:43
5. "Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul" – 6:28
6. "Theme for Lester Young" – 5:50
7. "Hora Decubitus" – 4:41
8. "Freedom" – 5:10

• Some editions of this album such as AS-54-B on Impulse Records contains an alternate track listing, which excludes the track "Freedom".

Personnel

Tracks #1 and 4-8, recorded in New York on September 20, 1963:

• Eddie Preston
  Eddie Preston
  Eddie Preston was an American jazz trumpeter.He was born in Dallas, Texas and died in Palm Coast, Florida.Preston began playing in big bands after World War II, and did stints with Lionel Hampton , Ray Charles , Louis Jordan , Duke Ellington , and Count Basie...
  
   - Trumpet
• Richard Williams
  Richard Williams (musician)
  Richard Gene Williams was an American jazz trumpeter.Williams was born in Galveston, Texas, and played tenor saxophone early in his life before picking up trumpet as a teenager. He played in local Texas bands and attended Wiley College, where he majored in music...
  
   - Trumpet
• Britt Woodman
  Britt Woodman
  Britt Woodman was a jazz trombonist. He is perhaps best known for his work with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus....
  
   - Trombone
• Don Butterfield
  Don Butterfield
  Don Butterfield was an American jazz and classical tuba player.-Biography:Butterfield took up tuba in high school. He wanted to play trumpet, but the band director assigned him to tuba instead. After serving in the U.S...
  
   - Tuba
• Jerome Richardson
  Jerome Richardson
  Jerome Richardson was an American jazz musician, tenor saxophonist, and flute player, who also played alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet and piccolo...
  
   - Soprano, baritone saxes, flute
• Dick Hafer
  Dick Hafer
  Dick Hafer is an American jazz tenor saxophonist born in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.Hafer began playing clarinet at age seven and switched to tenor sax in high school. His first professional gig was with Charlie Barnet's orchestra in 1949. He played with Claude Thornhill from 1949 to 1950 before...
  
   - Tenor sax, clarinet, flute
• Booker Ervin
  Booker Ervin
  Booker Telleferro Ervin II was an American tenor saxophone player. He was perhaps best known for his association with bassist Charles Mingus....
  
   - Tenor sax
• Eric Dolphy
  Eric Dolphy
  Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. On a few occasions he also played the clarinet and baritone saxophone. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the 1960s...
  
   - Alto sax, flute
• Jaki Byard
  Jaki Byard
  Jaki Byard was an American jazz pianist and composer who also played trumpet and saxophone, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and stride to free jazz...
  
   - Piano
• Charles Mingus
  Charles Mingus
  Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
  
   - Bass, (narration, #8)
• Walter Perkins - Drums

Tracks #2 and 3, recorded in New York on January 20, 1963:

• Rolf Ericson
  Rolf Ericson
  Rolf Ericson was a Swedish jazz trumpeter. He also played the flugelhorn.- Early career :He moved to New York City in 1947 and in 1949 joined Charlie Barnet's big band and with Woody Herman in 1950...
  
   - Trumpet
• Richard Williams - Trumpet
• Quentin Jackson - Trombone
• Don Butterfield - Tuba
• Jerome Richardson - Soprano, baritone saxes, flute
• Dick Hafer - Tenor sax, flute, oboe
• Charlie Mariano
  Charlie Mariano
  Carmine Ugo Mariano was an American jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Cologne, Germany.-Biography:Mariano was the son of Italian immigrants....
  
   - Alto sax
• Jaki Byard - Piano
• Jay Berliner
  Jay Berliner
  Jay Berliner is an American guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. Starting with his first television experience at age 7 on NBC’s The Children’s Hour with sister Eve, his career has spanned the globe: from the Metropolitan Opera house , where he was house guitarist and mandolinist; to...
  
   - Guitar
• Charles Mingus
  Charles Mingus
  Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
  
   - Bass, piano
• Dannie Richmond
  Dannie Richmond
  Dannie Richmond was an American drummer who was best known among jazz fans for his work with Charles Mingus, and among pop fans for his work with Joe Cocker, Elton John and Mark-Almond....
  
   - Drums

• Bob Hammer
  Bob Hammer
  Howard Robert Hammer is a US-American jazz musician .Hammer studied at the Michigan State University and at Manhattan School of Music before taking private lessons by composer Henry Brant....
  
   - Music arranger
• Bob Thiele - Producer
• Michael Cuscuna
  Michael Cuscuna
  Michael Cuscuna is an American jazz record producer and writer. He is a leading discographer of Blue Note Records....
  
  - Reissue Producer
• Bob Simpson - Engineer
• Erick Labson - Remastering