{"id":40203,"date":"2007-03-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/mingus-ah-um\/"},"modified":"2007-03-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-14T00:00:00","slug":"mingus-ah-um","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/mingus-ah-um\/","title":{"rendered":"Mingus Ah Um"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\">Constructed as a tribute to his musical influences and mentors, Charles Mingus\u2019 <i>Mingus Ah Um <\/i>is both joyfully exuberant and methodically disciplined. Released in 1959, it was also an album where Mingus brought jazz to the political realm with the track \u201cFables Of Faubus,\u201d a response to former <state><\/state><place><\/place>Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, who adamantly opposed the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on school integration. <\/p>\n<p>Those unfamiliar with Mingus\u2019 work will likely recognize the first two songs on <i>Mingus Ah Um<\/i> in at least some form. \u201cBetter Git It In Your Soul\u201d opens the album up with a joyous \u201coh yeah!\u201d in the background. Buoyed by Mingus\u2019 virtuosic bass playing, \u201cSoul\u201d harkens back to early 20<sup>th<\/sup> century jump blues and gospel. The next track, \u201cGoodbye Pork Pie Hat,\u201d is bluesier, highlighted by John Handy\u2019s tenor saxophone. <\/p>\n<p>Regarded as a stern perfectionist with a sometimes mercurial temper, to describe Mingus as difficult is one of the greatest understatements in jazz. Still, difficulty doesn\u2019t necessarily mean inaccessible \u2013 and the vast majority of <i>Mingus Ah Um<\/i> proves that by being one of the most accessible \u201cessential\u201d jazz recordings. \u201cPussy Cat Blues\u201d is a great example of Mingus\u2019 power as a bandleader: the music is breezy, effortlessly transporting a listener into a darkened jazz club. But the effortless sounds of Horace Parlan\u2019s piano against John Handy\u2019s smooth clarinet could only be achieved by masters. <\/p>\n<p>Listening to \u201cFables of Faubus,\u201d one can\u2019t help but marvel at how jazz was once as popular as rock and hip-hop. And like rock and hip-hop, the savviest of artists could use their medium to bring about political change. You can\u2019t help but envision the music being played in the background of an \u201codd couple\u201d-like sitcom or \u201cfish out of water\u201d movie of today. But that mocking tone is at the heart of its brilliance. <\/p>\n<p>In a little more than a year, Mingus released another masterpiece (<i>Mingus Dynasty<\/i>) and one of the seminal live jazz albums of all time, <i>Mingus At Antibes<\/i>. Out of these three masterpieces, <i>Mingus Ah Um<\/i> edges out <i>Dynasty<\/i> and <city><\/city><place><\/place><i>Antibes<\/i>, but not by much. Assured, bold and massive in its ambitious scope, <i>Mingus Ah Um<\/i> is the crowning achievement of jazz\u2019s most celebrated bassist. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7916],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40203","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-charles-mingus","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40203"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}