It’s 1957, and Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus defies a presidential order and blocks the integration of the Little Rock school district. Bassist Charles Mingus, an outspoken civil rights advocate, immediately writes one of the greatest jazz protest songs of all time.
“Fables of Faubus” was intended for his 1959 landmark album, “Mingus Ah Um.” Columbia Records, however, refused to allow the caustic vocal version to be included. Record execs were keenly aware of the dangerous volatility in American society and worried about putting a match to a powder keg. The full version, with lyrics, was finally recorded in 1960 for “Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus.”
As one music reviewer wrote, “the fact that the song caused such controversy shows what turbulent times these were and what touchy issues race relations were.” Other critics proclaimed “Fables of Faubus” as Charles Mingus’s defining contribution to the Civil Rights Movement, and the perfect jazz protest song. It is part lampoon of Orval Faubus as a fool, as Mingus calls him, and part a dissonant, sometimes atonal, reflection of the times and growing cultural tensions in America.
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