Mingus Ah Um

Charles Mingus was only with Columbia Records for a brief spell in 1959, but the music he made there stands among the most inspired, restless jazz he ever put to tape. The flowing sadness of Goodbye Porkpie Hat, presented here unedited for the first time on CD, lands like a funeral chorus before turning sharply into a celebration of Lester Young’s life and improvising flexibility rather than his death. Then there’s the furnace-hot charge of Boogie Stop Shuffle, also unedited, hitting its peak through Booker Ervin’s Texas tenor sax and its tightly wound, blues-soaked tone. Across this range of feeling, these recordings capture exactly why Mingus felt so relevant to the 1990s generation. He swings, shouts, hollers and somersaults. His music can push you into foot-stomping motion with sheer intensity, or pull you toward something more tender through its lyrical weave of orchestral colour.