After several sessions with
Columbia
and
Candid
,
Charles Mingus
briefly returned to
Atlantic
and cut the freewheeling
Oh Yeah
, which has to rank as the wildest of all his classic albums.
Mingus
plays no bass whatsoever, hiring
Doug Watkins
to fill in while he accompanies the group on piano and contributes bluesy vocals to several tracks (while shouting encouragement on nearly all of them).
had always had a bizarre sense of humor, as expressed in some of his song titles and arranging devices, but
often gets downright warped. That's partly because
is freed up to vocalize more often, but it's also due to the presence of mad genius
Roland Kirk
. His chemistry with
is fantastically explosive, which makes sense -- both were encyclopedias of
jazz
tradition, but given over to oddball modernist
experimentation
. It's a shame
Kirk
only spent three months with the band, because his solo interpretations are such symbiotic reflections of
' intent as a composer. Look no further than "Hog Callin' Blues," a stomping "Haitian Fight Song" descendant where
honks and roars the
blues
like a man possessed.
' vocal selections radiate the same dementia, whether it's the stream-of-consciousness
couplets on "Devil Woman," the dark-humored modern-day
spiritual
"Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me," or the dadaist
stride
piano bounce of "Eat That Chicken," a nod to
Fats Waller
's comic
novelties
. Elsewhere, "Passions of a Man" sounds almost like
musique concrete
, while "Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am" nicks some
Monk
angularity and "Ecclusiastics" adds some testifying shouts and a
chorale
-like theme to
'
gospel
-
hybrid.
is probably the most offbeat
album ever, and that's what makes it so vital. [Some reissues add three bonus tracks from the session, first released on
Tonight at Noon
.] ~ Steve Huey