Customer Reviews

Oh Yeah

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Give this one 12 stars! Hot hot hot record! You won't ever find music more alive then this, if you can sit down while Hog callin blues gets going then you're ready for the crypt. Genius genius genius! Stop it! Bebop it! My god this music is almost obscene in it's brilliance and vitality, at times the ecstasy approaches Klezmer territory, at others it's just sooooo blue that no one else should be allowed by law to even try to play the style after 1962. Filled with all the madness and beauty expected from Mingus, it just goes somewhere else. Rock musicians such as Zappa and Beefheart spent their entire careers trying to capture this feel and never even got close, not really even worth mentioning, I only do so in the event you are a rock fan and don't know this music, so buy this and hear the real deal. Still guranteed to scare the elderly, inspire you to holler and commit various acts of social irresponsibility, while still flooring anyone with musically sensitive ears. Glorious glorious music.

This is a great album for multiple reasons. But especially worth it for jazz history fans, and Mingus-heads in particular, because of the final track, an interview of Charles Mingus by Nesuhi Ertegun that must be almost half an hour long. (you'll want to change the genre coding on the one track from jazz to spoken word or something like that, so it doesn't interrupt the flow when you shuffle by genre).

Ertegun asks him why he decided to sing on this album. He explains in his reply that he always sings when he plays, they just happened to mike it for this album. I re-listened to some other Mingus albums and, sure enough, there he is in the background, singing, screaming, talking. I also liked when someone comes in, interrupts the interview, because an important call has come in for Ertegun. Mingus tells him, take your call, don't worry, just leave the tape recorder running and I'll keep talking. And he does.

Great stuff. The music is extraordinary too, it would be worth it even without the interview. He's certainly not a musician who would've become famous for his piano playing and singing. But he's a powerful enough personality and a big enough celebrity to do whatever he wants. I love him as a composer and on bass, with Ah Um probably being the best showcase of his real talents, but this is an excellent display of Mingus' gritty, funky, lax side, what you'd hear if you were lucky enough to hear Mingus and friends entertaining themselves at an after-hours party. "Wam Bam Thank You Ma'am" and "Eat That Chicken" are both tremendous, rollicking fun. "Ecclusiastics" starts off boring but gets fun before it ends. "Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop that Atomic Bomb on Me" is as intense as you would imagine from the title. Passions of a Man is a nice, odd, proto-psychedelic number. Good fun. Having Roland Kirk and Booker Ervin both soloing on sax adds another unique and welcome layer. Buy it, enjoy it, have fun, be safe.

Released in '61 at the beginning stages of the burgeoning avant garde jazz movement, OH YEAH marks the times with it's non-violent resistance. But, this is Charles Mingus,irascible, he's been labeled, and in fashion, OH YEAH contains a bit of civil disobediance.

"Hog Callin' Blues" starts out the album, which is of the most fun of all Mingus tunes, and really wails on account of Rahsaan Roland Kirk (who appears throughout OH YEAH).

"Devil Woman" contains Mingus in full blues shout.

"Ecclusiastics" is super charged gospel Mingus, a fun tune with a swingin' churchy hand clappin' break down section.

"Lord,Please Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me" is a fearful, jam, with Mingus audibly pleading with Jesus.

Mingus, as usual manages to cyringe a bit of rye humor in to this albums, and doesn't fail with this one--with the raucous Jelly Roll Morton style parody of minstrel "humor," "Eat That Chicken."

The first inklings of the '60s psychedelic rock genre are fathered with the politically charged and trippy "Passions of a Man."

With the newer reissue, you get a few more songs, most from his 1957 TONITE AT NOON album.

One of my very favorite of all of Mingus' albums, and essential for a full historical retrospect of 1960s America.

Couldn't speak more highly of this one, it's a barn burner.

This is one of Mingus' best albums and is unusual in several respects. Most notably Mingus plays piano, and the roaring insistent passages as well as soft comping are hugely effective. The three horns (Booker Ervin and Roland Kirk on sax, Jimmy Knepper on trombone) are powerful and soul stirring. In addition, Mingus' singing/vocalizing punctuate the sounds in a manner similar to drums and bass. For example, the opening "Hog Callin' Blues" begins with a righteously vocalized bop riff by Mingus, and is accompanied by fiery, sometimes dissonant sax work by the great Roland Kirk. The blues similarly colors many songs, but really, Mingus adds his imprimatur to all musical influences.

Ecclusiastics is a blues (well, a Mingus blues) with Mingus' prayer-like bop vocals and piano adding a spiritual dimension. This song is simply beautiful; I'd love to hear this sometime as an orchestral piece! The group shifts from soothing, Ellingtonian strains to buoyant noise in seconds; it is a beautifully realized composition.

"Oh Lord, Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me" is another musical prayer (with Mingus' famous line "don't let them drop it, stop it, bebop it"). And "Eat that Chicken" is, well, unlike anything: A rollicking song about "eating chicken," which is both farcical and a deeply felt appreciation of appetitive delights. It's a different number alright, but essentially spiritual and akin to a joyous gospel. Passions of a Man is a total surrealistic delight, with Mingus intoning Spanish (or is it a mixture of Spanish and Mingus-ese?) and shouts of "Viva!" set against the group's abstract "Latin." I don't know with what it compares, but it is a daring delight! The Atlantic re-release adds three songs from the 1964 "Tonight at Noon." These are very good, particularly the noirish "Invisible Lady, and are more on the Ellington side of the spectrum, featuring lush arrangements and excellent (but relatively more conventional) sax solos. If you can't get the re-release, you'll still have the essentials of "Oh Yeah."

I highly recommend this to all jazz fans, but it's an essential addition for Mingus fans. The bebop, blues, and spiritual idioms, Mingus' vocal and pianistic efforts, and the brash raucous notes alternating with orchestral statements are combined in an inspired, inspiring masterpiece.

This is probably my favorite Mingus release, even though "Mingus Ah Um" and "The Black Saint & the Sinner Lady" are probably technically superior (not to mention more accesible). As the title stated, this will please fans of Captain Beefheart and Screamin' Jay Hawkins as much as it will Mingus fans. The factor that makes this unique among his albums is his vocals - yes he sings! Mingus was always known for choosing offbeat song titles ("Better Get Hit In 'Yo Soul", "Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk"), but his lyrics are intensly surrealistic. Case point for the abstract lyrics is certainly "Oh Lord, Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me". Every song is a winner also, this is a rare album that you can play start to finish without hitting the skip button. The high point of the album probably is the final track, "Passions of a Man", which deconstructs - no, demolishes any sort of set rhythm. As much an essential as any of Mingus' more well-known classics.

This is one of my favorite albums from start to finish. When critics refer to Mingus as a genius, Check this album to see why. Roland Kirk dazzles on this one as do the soul/gospel tunes that Mingus composed. Mingus is a very capable singer and pianist and I recommend examining Eat that Chicken and Ecclusiates for some of the coolest music you can buy off Amazon.

this record, sadly overviewed over the years, maybe because its iconoclast character and the reason that Mingus plays not bass at all, but piano, is without any doubt, one of the great mingus group records, which is something to say. Besides, Roland Kirk and Jimmy Knepper are at the peak of their abbilities. Great fun music for anyone. The plus of three tracks (including the great Peggy's blue skylight) and the omission of an interview gives this record an essential quality for mingus followers.

"Oh Yeah" is an odd record-- even for Charles Mingus. On this album, the master bassist sits at the piano, hiring Doug Watkins to play bass for him and pulls up a microphone, singing (well, its more like a blues preach than a sing, but you get the picture) several numbers in his own inimitable style.

The resulting album is, well, its unique. Its often highly praised and even revered as a masterpiece by Mingus fans, but I think this has more to do with the novelty of the record than anything else as the music contained within isn't really all that powerful, and it lacks something else that most Mingus albums have-- tightness. I mean, its clear these guys are having a lot of fun with the material (or at least Mingus is), but I find it a bit too loose, a bit too much fun to bear witness on repeated listens. The fact that the music is largely conventional may have something to do with this-- I love Mingus precisely because he was so progressive, but this sticks to blues and gospel forms pretty much exclusively.

Now mind you, here's exceptions to every rule-- there's certainly some nice tenor soloing by guest Roland Kirk on Devil Woman" (and the piece is worth noting as one of the better of the shouts), "Oh Lord, Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me" is certainly amusing, but I disagree with most about "Haitian Fight Song" rewrite "Hog Callin' Blues"-- its so loose that the structure of the piece falls apart.

The reissue of this is the one to get, with three extra tracks (roughly half of "TOnight At Noon", with the other half to be found on the reissue of "The Clown"), worth the extra bucks simply for the lovely take of "Peggy's Blue Skylight", a nice feature for Roland Kirk on manzello and one of the better readings of a wonderful Mingus piece.

Still, as far as Mingus records go, its fairly unessential. If you enjoy his vocalizations on other albums, then take some time to check this one out-- two stars if it didn't have "Peggy's Blue Skylight", that performance really is unnervingly brilliant.

Blues, jazz, and gospel collide here in a way that is idiosynchratic and complex, but flows naturally through the awesome band assembled here (containing a young Roland Kirk in a featured role). Mingus was never more impressive and I'm not sure 20th century music has been more impressive either. A wild wild record and one that you really should hear.

This recording in part defines why I love Mingus so much, the man was a MAJOR risk-taker! Never content to sit in one area for long, Mingus not only went out ona limb, but had a lot of fun doing it, you can feel the joy as you listen, and judging by the musicians performances, the joy was contagious!

"Hog Callin' Blues" is unabashed, pedal to the metal shoutin' blues, literally, as Mingus just whoops and hollers with gleeful abandon encouraging the musicians to go for broke. "Ecclusiastics" and "Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me" show the influence of church music that Mingus grew up with, the slow gospel flavor mixed with passionate blues. In addition, "Eat That Chicken" is just HILARIOUS (and apparently sent many a vegetarian into an uproar), and the brilliance is uninhibited with tracks like "Devil Woman" and the very unpredictable "Passions Of A Man".

Mingus took a major departure here in another respect, by giving the bass to one Doug Watkins (who sadly died in a car crash not long after the album's release) who handles the task more than admirably. Opting to sit down at the piano and even SING, Mingus goes for broke to express how he feels deep down and let people in on more aspects of his inner world, the humor, the pain and everything else! Drummer Dannie Richmond heats things up considerably for all involved with his fiery and incredibly flexible playing. The pairing of Brooker Ervin and Rahsaan Roland Kirk on various reeds is nothing short of genius, between Ervin's pointed explorations on tenor and Kirk's crazy ecclectic palette of sounds, including tenor sax, flute, siren, stritch (a sort of mutant soprano sax) and manzello (a straightened alto sax). Jimmy Knepper adds pungent statements on his trombone, with much humor and agility.

Colorful and hilariously unpredictable is the only way I can think to describe this unique blues-drenched Mingus offering.