The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD calls this album "an extended tribute to ancestors" (and awards it one of their rare crowns), and Mingus's musical forebears figure largely throughout. "Better Git It In Your Soul" is inspired by gospel singing and preaching of the sort that Mingus would have heard as a child growing up in
Watts, Los Angeles, California, while "
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is a reference (by way of his favored headgear) to saxophonist
Lester Young (who had died shortly before the album was recorded). The origin and nature of "Boogie Stop Shuffle" is self-referential: a
twelve-bar blues with four themes and a
boogie bass backing that passes from
stop time to
shuffle and back. "Self-Portrait in Three Colors" was originally written for
John Cassavetes' first film as director,
Shadows, but was never used (for budgetary reasons). "Open Letter to Duke" is a tribute to
Duke Ellington, and draws on three of Mingus's earlier pieces ("Nouroog", "Duke's Choice", and "Slippers"). "Jelly Roll" is a reference to jazz pioneer and pianist
Jelly Roll Morton and features a quote of
Sonny Rollins' "Sonnymoon for Two" during
Horace Parlan's piano solo. "Bird Calls", in Mingus's own words, was not a reference to bebop saxophonist
Charlie "Bird" Parker: "It wasn't supposed to sound like Charlie Parker. It was supposed to sound like birds – the first part." "
Fables of Faubus" is named after
Orval E. Faubus (1910–1994), the
Governor of Arkansas infamous for his 1957
stand against integration of
Little Rock, Arkansas, schools in defiance of
U.S. Supreme Court rulings (forcing
President Eisenhower to send in the
National Guard).
Columbia Records refused to allow the lyrics to the song to be included, 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. 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". ==Edited and unedited versions==