Charles Mingus - Original Album Classics (2013)

Charles Mingus was a jazz giant, even if most of the world had no idea, and his broad and varied compositional touch and immense social and musical vision made him a maverick even when he was trying to stitch the past and the future of jazz all together, hanging on to the old while inventing the new, a difficult hat trick that he pulled off more often than he didn’t. This set collects 1959’s brilliant Mingus Ah Um (featuring the classics “Better Git It in Your Soul” and “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”) and Mingus Dynasty (“Mood Indigo”) albums with 1962’s (it was actually recorded five years earlier in 1957) Tijuana Moods ("Dizzy Moods") in a single package, a combination that works well, spotlighting Mingus at one of his creative high points in the late '50s.