Commenting on this album in 1962, Billboard magazine wrote: He seems to be everywhere, everywhere that is but on his usual instrument®. Charles Mingus, one of the most impressive musicians in the history of jazz, doesn't play a single note on the bass for a change, but leads the band from his (blues-)piano - the instrument that he always used for composing. He hits the keys, he sings the blues, he shouts and he encourages - apparently Mingus really found the need to express himself loudly in this album. (Doug Watkins stood in for him on the contrabass. ) ""Oh Yeah"" is definitely Mingus's most powerful and passionate album. He calls on two hot, intensive saxophonists - Roland Kirk and Booker Ervin - as well as Jimmy Knepper on the trombone. Kirk is the main soloist, but all three wind-players deliver expressive improvisations, carrying out a non-stop dialogue with one another, and pushing one other to achieve maximum energy. The music is wild and ecstatic, but it's not free jazz, remaining - as it does - grounded in blues and gospel. ""Hog Callin' Blues"" is an enthralling shuffle with a wealth of riffs, ""Devil Woman"" a clever slow blues with inventive wind figures. ""Ecclusiastics"", with it's constant change of rhythm and expression alternating between gospel and blues has the most complex form. Blues has always been a part of a black church service, said Mingus. ""Eat That Chicken"" (a homage to Fats Waller and his favourite food) even plays around with an old-time, Dixie feeling. Humour is never far away. Even in the atomic bomb song (this too, a sort of churchy blues) one hears the words: -Don't let 'em drop it! Stop it! Be-bop it!This Speakers Corner reissue LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. More information under http://www. Pure-analogue. #com. All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid. Recording: November 1961 at Atlantic Studios, New York City, by Tom Dowd and Phil IehleProduction: Nesuhi ErtegunRelease date: 2/9/2022Original label: Atlantic