Album Rating: 4.0

"Let My Children Hear Music is the only one that truly blows me away."



"Cumbia and Jazz Fusion" and the pair of "Changes" albums are what you are looking for, then

Album Rating: 3.0

this will be my next Mingus



current Mingus of... Black Saint (not close) > Ah Um > Erectus > Let My Children > Blues & Roots > Mingus x5



thought I'd heard more than that, but there you go. It's a start!

Album Rating: 4.5

Mingus ranking is hard bc I've got a few very clear favorites, a few very clear duds (comparatively), and then a ton of solidly great 4.0s that I'd have trouble adequately ordering. Tier system is better I guess:



Unequivocally Top Tier: Black Saint; The Clown

Very Nearly /Basically Top Tier: Pithecanthropus; Ah Um; Let My Children Hear Music; Blues & Roots

A Small Shade Down from Top Tier but Still Amazing: Mingus x5; Presents Mingus; Money Jungle; Tijuana Moods; Tonight at Noon

Great, but Decidedly not Top Tier: Three; Dynasty; Oh Yeah

The Rest: East Coasting; Modern Jazz Symposium; Pre-Bird; Mingus (1961)



Still missing a few of his 70s albums.

Album Rating: 3.9

swap Dynasty and Ah Um, and them throw x5 into A tier, and then yeah that's as close to a good ranking as you'll get without including either Changes albums

East Coasting isn't a dud tbf, it's just very indistinct

Album Rating: 4.5

Toyed with the idea of Mingus x5 in A/second tier but 1. 'IX Love' and 'Mood Indigo'—while good in a vacuum—disrupt the mood/flow of the album a bit, and 2. its two best tracks (II BS and Better Get Hit) were already done - slightly better, to my ears - years prior. (The version of 'Ceilia' here, however, is an improvement over EAST COASTING's. Also 'Pork Pie Hat' > 'Theme for Lester Young'.



That it still manages to be an incredible album despite those pockmarks is really saying something, though.

Album Rating: 3.0

I've enjoyed everything thus far, to slightly varying degrees



it's not really "tiered" outside of Black Saint



looking to make some more concrete commitments elsewhere, like I (eventually) started to do with JoCo. Good info

Album Rating: 3.9

Better Get Hit is the superior version imo — that all three of Ah Um's calling cards are surpassed by recordings on other studio albs is one of the many reasons why it's by far his most overrated classic to me, need to wait around until Boogie Stop Shuffle and Bird Calls to get to the meat of it, and even then it's relatively slim pickings

Dynasty version of Mood Indigo cooks, but the x5 version does well to reinterpret it so distinctly

Album Rating: 3.0

erm yeah, so I have actually heard this before, definitely memorable



I bypassed it (presumably) for more "digestible" jazz for the simple reason (again, presumably) that the t/t is kind of a non-event at best and irritating at worst



I do enjoy the rest. Haitian Fight Song is v cool. Dat bass. A hard one to get the measure of as an overall album experience.

Album Rating: 3.6

"Cumbia and Jazz Fusion" and the pair of "Changes" albums are what you are looking for, then

Album Rating: 4.5

title track is epic tbh

Album Rating: 3.0

epic fail, yeah

only half joking

Album Rating: 4.5

Get out

Album Rating: 3.0

you’re a sad clown now

I do like much of this, but I need to enact some jazz rating separation before we descend into the equivalent of early-stage metalbro demon (who initially 4d everything)

Album Rating: 3.9

Have Pith Erectus and this on a single disc as part of a classic albums series, and that minus the t/t of this was on permanent loop for the family Christmas period along with Blue Train/Giant Steps (same story) and Kind of Blue

Opener obviously stomps, but Blue Cee into Lovebird is pure fucking class

Album Rating: 3.0

fair

I don’t have the benefit of mutual family jazz appreciation / interaction sadly