The critics argue whether Ah Um or rather The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is the definitive Mingus album. What is certain is that this 1959 recording presents a comparatively straightforward bassist Mingus as composer and leader.

The individual pieces are very different and yet accessible at all times. With Better Git it in Your Soul, a gospel-inspired piece as opener, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, a slow obituary to the recently deceased Lester Young, and Fables of Faubus, a musical parody of the governor of Arkansas, three pieces became jazz classic.