a hardboiled rumble

Mingus Ah Um, recently reissued once again and now apparently expanded into a 2-CD set, still seems sort of ageless when I listen to it today. Some of the big man’s essential tunes are here – after all, whenever I think of the pure exhilaration of Charles Mingus when he’s truly on, first things first is the vehement hard bop of “Boogie Stop Shuffle” whistling through the eaves. While there are indeed several other Mingus records that are more inventive or more adventurous to make his reputation as one of jazz’s foremost modernists (don’t know why, something like Pithecanthropus Erectus come to mind), it is probably Mingus Ah Um that best captures the right amount of his characteristic ferocious bombast tempered with quiet moments.

Mingus spent a fair share of this record paying his own unique forms of tribute to some of his forebearers: Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Lester Young and Jelly Roll Morton (from which “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”, his brooding farewell to Young, is particularly evocative). These shout-outs lend Mingus Ah Um its atmosphere full of anachronistic sparks to which I have always been irresistibly drawn somewhat when I was still in the pink of my youthful ignorance about some of these jazz titans.

So while most folks remember Mingus and his compositions as being animated by a raw fury, closer listening to Mingus Ah Um actually best illustrates about the man in that his music does require a certain amount of finesse as well. These days I have unreasonable cravings for the more ungainly regions of this record. “Self-Portrait In Three Colors”, which I never did know was originally penned for John Cassavetes’ debut film Shadows (which was scored by Mingus no less), now reveals itself in all its makeshift glories. “Pussy Cat Dues” does not do too badly too, Mingus leading his band through the serpentine glands of his mercurial song arrangement not unlike a rogue trying to shake off the throes of sensual enchantment or something.