Mingus Ah Um is a studio album by American jazz musician Charles Mingus which was released in October 1959 by Columbia Records.[1][2] It was his first album recorded for Columbia. The cover features a painting by S. Neil Fujita.[5] The title is a corruption of an imaginary Latin declension. It is common for Latin students to memorize Latin adjectives by first saying the masculine nominative (usually ending in "-us"), then the feminine nominative ("-a"), and finally the neuter nominative singular ("-um") implying a transformation of his name, Mingus, Minga, Mingum.