2024 stock 180gr pure virgin vinyl LP in Gatefold packaging. "Mingus Ah Um", featuring an all-star group including Jimmy Knepper, John Handy, Booker Ervin and Curtis Porter (aka Shafi Hadi), was Charles Mingus’ first LP for Columbia. The Penguin Guide to Jazz called this album “an extended tribute to ancestors” and awarded it one of their rare crowns.
Reception was also good when "Mingus Ah Um" was first issued. Leonard Feather gave the album a five-star rating in Down Beat, stating: “First let’s put your minds at ease about that weird title: it’s a corruption of an imaginary Latin declension (mingus-minga-mingum). Don’t ask why. It seems to me that Charles Mingus has now completely found himself, found a personal and vital direction. This is a consistently exciting and stimulating set. Mingus has something to say, knows how and through whom to say it, and it is all stated with communicative authority.”