Customer Reviews

Ah Um 50th Anniversary (Legacy Edition)

5 star:		(4)
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Two discs 77 and 74 minutes each approximately. The sound is extraordinarily good,with open spaces between the instruments,which are crisp and clean. In addition,Mingus' voice can be heard very clearly (he sometimes shouts a bit when playing) in this music. The booklet has notes written by Michael Cuscuna. There is a track-by-track explanation,which gives much insight into this great music. Also included are quite a few nice photographs of the group in the studio. There is also a PDF file that can be accessed for more insight into this album.

This album,along with 1960's MINGUS DYNASTY (included here) is some of the best music Mingus ever released. The musicians who play here are some of the best jazz musicians in history. Names like John Handy,Booker Ervin,Jimmy Knepper,Dannie Richmond,and Roland Hanna make up most (but not all) of the group(s) for these two fine recordings.
Most Mingus listeners will already have these two albums in their collection,but having both in one package,with great sound is hard to pass up. For the uninitiated,this is jazz that belongs in your library,and should be your next purchase.

There are three bonus tracks appended to the 1959 release MINGUS AH UM-"Pedal Point Blues","GG Train",and "Girl of My Dreams". There are also three AH UM alternate tracks-"Bird Calls","Better Git It In Your Soul",and "Jelly Roll". The album MINGUS DYNASTY has one bonus track,"Srollin' (Nostalgia In Times Square)". This last track has a vocal by Honey Gordon,the daughter of one of Mingus' friends,Nat Gordon,who wrote lyrics for the piece.

Together,these two albums contain some of Mingus' most intricate and imaginatively scored parts for the various musicians. The fine producer Teo Macero worked with Mingus,bringing out some of Mingus' best writing. MINGUS AH UM was the better of the two albums,with the second not quite as intense as the first release. But both are landmark jazz albums,along with quite a number (BLUES AND ROOTS for one) of other Mingus albums. The combination of Mingus' writing and the high caliber of musicians heard here is unbeatable. This is timeless jazz which anyone who has a liking for jazz needs to hear. It's as simple as that.

This is a no-brainer 5 star recommendation. Many jazz lovers consider one or both to these recordings "Mingus Dynasty" or "Mingus Ah Um" to be among the great recordings of jazz history. I concur. You should get this "box set" instead of the individual recordings if you are at all interested in the music of Charles Mingus. It includes all the 1959 Columbia label material. Revel in the groove of what jazz is all about. Hear the classic compositions of Mingus, one of the few great composers in jazz: "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", "Better Git Hit In Your Soul", "Song With Orange In It". I could go on, but I want you to dig these classic recordings.

Bonne réédition : respecte bien l'acoustique du vinyle original (1959), sans remastering à la sauce techno.
En bonus, le CD de "Dynasty".
Recommandé.

This is an awesome CD. The sound is great as is the music. I love classic Jazz and hate the fact that this music is dying out and that the majority of our young people believe that contemporary pop and rap music are displays of great musicianship. The legends of Jazz from its origins through some of the people still alive who play it today were and are GREAT MUSICIANS. It is a crime that every city in the country is not required to have at least one publically funded radio and television station that is required to play Jazz and Classical music twenty four hours a day. The radio stations only play Top 40,Rap,Country, and Classic Rock( which I grew up listening to ). Too many schools in this country have had to eliminate their music programs so the majority of our young people are never exposed to either forms of music. This CD is essential to the collection of any fan of Jazz Music or music for that matter. If you don't currently have it in your collection, make it your next purchase. You will be astounded. Also, play it for some young children so they can hear for themselves what great musicians are supposed to sound like. Unfortunately, they will probably never hear playing this good again in their lives unless their school has a band program, they become a member of it, and their director is a trained music expert who exposes them to all forms of music. Good luck to them!