Fables of Faubus (1959)

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Fables of Faubus is a composition written by jazz double bassist and composer Charles Mingus. One of Mingus's most explicitly political works, the song was written as a direct protest against Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, who in 1957 sent out the National Guard to prevent the racial integration of Little Rock Central High School by nine African American teenagers, in what became known as the Little Rock Crisis.[1]

Key Lyrics

Name me someone who's ridiculous, Dannie.

Governor Faubus!

Why is he so sick and ridiculous?

He won't permit integrated schools.


Name me a handful that's ridiculous, Dannie Richmond.

Faubus, Rockefeller, Eisenhower.

Why are they so sick and ridiculous?

Recording and Reception

The song was first recorded for Mingus' 1959 album, Mingus Ah Um. However, Columbia Records refused to allow the lyrics to the song to be included, and so the song was recorded as an instrumental on the album. It was not until October 20, 1960 that the song was recorded with lyrics, for the album Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, which was released on the more independent Candid label. [2] Due to contractual issues with Columbia, the song could not be released as "Fables of Faubus", and so the Candid version was titled "Original Faubus Fables". [3]

Critic Don Heckman commented of the unedited "Original Faubus Fables" in a 1962 review that it was "a classic Negro put-down in which satire becomes a deadly rapier-thrust. Faubus emerges in a glare of ridicule as a mock villain whom no-one really takes seriously. This kind of commentary, brimful of feeling, bitingly direct and harshly satiric, appears far too rarely in jazz."[4]

Covers

The song has been recorded by other jazz musicians, including Gerry Mulligan, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Hunter, Oliver Lake, Project Trio and the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. The Normand Guilbeault Ensemble released a version called "Fables of (George Dubya) Faubus" in 2004.

On YouTube, there is a version, with the Metropole Orkest (conducted by Jules Buckley), with Christian Scott & Shabaka Hutchings as soloists as part of the BBC Proms of 2017.

The Mingus Big Band's recording of "Fables of Faubus", on their album Gunslinging Birds, features in the background the pianist playing tunes of the American Civil War, like the Confederate "(I Wish I Was in) Dixie" and the Union "Battle Hymn of the Republic."[5]

Reception

  1. Charles Hersch. Democratic Artworks: Politics and the Arts from Trilling to Dylan. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-3801-5. Retrieved from Wikipedia, February 1, 2021.
  2. Ingrid Monson,. Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa. 2007z Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press p. 183. ISBN 978-0-19-512825-3. Retrieved from Wikipedia, February 1, 2021.
  3. Ingrid Monson,. Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa. 2007z Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press p. 264. ISBN 978-0-19-512825-3. Retrieved from Wikipedia, February 1, 2021.
  4. Gene Santoro. Myself When I Am Real. 2001. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514711-7. Retrieved from Wikipedia, February 1, 2021.
  5. Fables of Faubus. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 1, 2021.