All Kindsa Music Mag

By Brendan Casey

1959 was and is easily one of the most radical, groundbreaking years in jazz history. 

It has Dave Brubeck’s Time Out (it plays with the possibilities of “irregular” time signatures, breaking free from the traditional jazz sound), Miles’s Kind of Blue, (based entirely on using musical “modes” to expand possibility and creative opportunity for an All-Star band), Art Blakey’s Moanin’ (taking an old school gospel and blues sound and giving it the modern hard-bop treatment), and it has Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz To Come (it’s edgy, unique improvisational emphasis pushed the boundaries of the sound of jazz music at the time, helping inspire the soon-to-come free jazz movement).

Another album that deserves a gloriously decorated pedestal for itself in the “Hall of 1959” is bassist and legendary composer Charles Mingus’s marvel: Mingus Ah Um. 

The album pays homage to the forefathers of jazz music (Duke Ellington on “Open Letter to Duke” and Jelly Roll Morton on “Jelly Roll”), contains a heartfelt tribute to the great tenor saxophonist Lester Young who passed earlier that year (“Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”), draws from the sound of nature with “Bird Calls” (which surprisingly has nothing to do with Charlie Parker), and has a fiery protest song aimed at the segregationist Governor of Arkansas Orval E. Faubus (“Fables of Faubus”) which contained lyrics so fiery for their time that Columbia Records refused to have them on the track – read them here anyways.

Charles Mingus had always been a master at drawing from all sorts of inspirations and styles of music – folk, blues and gospel to classical and beyond- but Mingus Ah Um really nails it all. You can hear them come together in its powerful 46 minute display.

One track off of Mingus Ah Um that blatantly and masterfully draws from tradition yet progresses the sound of jazz as a melting pot of American music is the ravishing heater “Better Git It In Your Soul”.

The tune is 7 minutes and 23 seconds long and contains some of the most entertaining instrumental music you’ll ever hear in your life. It’s playful, unique, lively, danceable, and so damn soulful.

Written in a fast ¾ time signature, “Better Git It In Your Soul ” is a swinging footstomper of a song, which is said to be inspired by gospel singing and preaching that Mingus was surrounded by, growing up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The song kicks off with one instrument at a time – starting with Mingus’s bass – riffing, as if filing into church and chatting with each other, right before breaking into song and taking off into the head as if mass has just begun and the opening hymn is underway. You can hear someone in the studio shout an electrifying “OH YEAHHHH”, praising the massive, beautiful sounds ripping through the air. You’ll hear that talk throughout the track, full of passion and energy. That’s soul, baby.

While we hear Jimmy Knepper on trombone tastefully glissando all over, emulating the sounds of bone legends like Kid Ory, we’re hit with sweet, airy solos on alto sax by John Handy and Shafi Hadi (not necessarily in that order) before Horace Parlan jumps into a foot-stomping blues vamp on the piano, with elements of call-and-response that are so crucial to this fast-paced and infectious rhythmic sound – all while the horns sit together and build huge energy, driving up from underneath, waiting to blast off, ready to wail – before they all drop out and start hand-clapping and shouting to a cookin’ and reverberating blues solo by Booker Ervin on tenor sax, so characteristic to his big tasteful sound.

A quick drum break by Dannie Richmond brings us right back into the pulsating tension built from the band. This continues twice more before shooting back into the head. Listen to the shouts of “LORD YES I KNOW” as the band bashes on, before soulfully sizzling out as the tune comes to a close. An incredible ride indeed.

You then quickly realize somewhere in that 7 minute masterpiece (that really felt like 3 minutes once you come to think of it), you kicked off your shoes, danced your ass off and you’re sweating. May you go in Peace.

That’s the power of Music. The power of Jazz. The power of the Holy Spirit. The power of Soul. The power of Righteousness. The power of Charles Mingus.

A comparable experience I’ve had to this effect in my life is when I was invited to Easter Mass by my buddy and football teammate (who was the Pastor’s son) at the Cathedral of The Holy Spirit in the East End of Bridgeport. As an Irish-Italian kid from Connecticut that grew up going to Roman Catholic services, I got hit with a feeling that I hope to God everyone will experience at some point in their life – whether a religious experience or not.

That Easter service had to have been something like four hours long but felt more like 45 minutes once all said and done. It was completely entrancing. Full of song, full of power, full of spirit, and full of soul. Truly such a great experience. I’d never felt so full of that feeling before, and since then it’s something I think of chasing after all the time, even outside of religion or spirit. Whether it be in music, or in writing, or in conversation – that feeling of intensity – putting your whole self in – is such an incredibly seducing and persuasive thing in the most virtuous way.

You can definitely experience this feeling by listening to music.

Off the top of my head, go listen to Muddy Waters Sings Big Bill Broonzy by Muddy Waters. Listen to “The Creator Has a Master Plan” by Pharoah Sanders. Listen to “It Tears Me Up” by Percy Sledge. Listen to Susan Tedeschi sing. Janis Joplin. Amy Winehouse. The Staples Singers. B.B. King’s “How Blue Can You Get?” from Live at Cook County Jail. Shit, listen to Showcase by Patsy Cline or “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by Hank Williams. It’s all spiritual to me. It’s almost like a feeling of ultimate fulfillment as a listener. Your mind can get it. Your heart can sense it. Your soul can feel it. 

I think that’s what we hear in “You Better Git It In Your Soul”. It’s an emotional river flowing full of passion and feeling. Intention and meaningfulness. And it’s a damn good time to listen to it.

And like the title says, “You Better Git It In Your Soul”…and if you didn’t? Listen up again.