Which Charles Mingus album do you love the most?

I love most of Charlie's work, and find it very difficult to choose one album that I love more than any other. But, if I am honest, Mingus Moves is the one I adore the most in recent times, and the one I play most frequently. How about you?

 

Tijuana Moods (cover used to my profile avatar here). It tells kind of a story, or tone poem, of like sleezy romance or something. So evocative like nothing else I've ever heard.

 

I love almost every one of them, but his Impulse! albums are the ones I keep coming back to : Black Saint, Mingus x5, and Plays Piano.

 

Right now 'Roots and Blues"

 

Mingus Ah Um

 

I second Ah Um. Also love Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.

 

Tijuana Moods for me too.

 

Truly, I tend to listen to the stuff with Dolphy the most as it is my favorite stuff (especially Cornell '64) but if we're talking strictly albums . . . Probably Black Saint & Sinner Lady but Ah Um would get a nod also.

 

Another big Mingus fan who loves it all. Instead of saying favorite, my most played winners by far, are Changes One and Changes Two. I wore out copies and they stay in rotation now. Don Pullen and George Adams were so great together and add Jack Walrath on Trumpet and vocal. These are amongst my favorite albums of all, any artist, all genre.

 

I probably love Live At The Bohemia the most, with Right Now Live At The Jazz Workshop second

 

Mingus Ah Um the best one

 

Ah Um for me too.

Maybe not his finest - that might be Black Saint & Sinner lady or CM Quartet - but showcases his various styles and has tunes that would become standards e.g. Better Git It In Your Soul, Goodbye PorkPie Hat, Fables of Faubus

 

Probably ^ this one, though I've been going back to Let My Children Hear Music quite a lot lately.

 

Black Saint for me. #2 is Pithecanthropus.

 

Blues & Roots.

 

Blues & Roots

 

Live Mingus albums are a big gap for me so I just ordered these.
Now listening to Ah Um. Yes it is fabulous.

 

Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. A top 20 jazz album for me.

 

I realize it is kind of cliche (due to its popularity), but Ah Um is such a masterpiece.

So for me it's that one and Let My Children Hear Music.

 

I like them all. But "East Coasting" has a special allure for me.

 

Mingus Dynasty

 

No question...for me it's Ah Um, with Tijuana Moods a close second.

 

I can only narrow it down to a top 4: Mingus Ah Um, Mingus Dynasty, Blues & Roots, and Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus.

 

Mingus Ah Um followed by Oh Yeah, Blues and Roots, Mingus at Antibes, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Let My Children Hear Music, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, and Mingus Dynasty.

 

Black Saint and/or Ah Um