When poet Walt Whitman crowed "I contain multitudes," he presaged Charles Mingus, who played his booming, agile bass and wrote with a rainbow palette, as if tomorrow had arrived early. Unlike Ellington and Monk, with whom he is linked as prime movers of jazz composition, Mingus breathes life into each piece by energetic exhortation and relentless example. Players who inhabit the music play over the top, beyond earthly capabilities. Your ears won't believe that most of these ambitious, multilayered pieces are for standard bop quintet (sax, trumpet, piano, bass, drums). This heady mix of heavy hits from Mingus's first flush of fame (1956-61, those years captured in full on the Passions of a Man box set) bears titles suggesting inexhaustible complexity and earthiness: "Pithecanthropus Erectus" (cries from man's misty origins), "Reincarnation of a Lovebird" (aching, arching melodies inspired by Charlie Parker's best licks), "Ecclusiastics" (homegrown Bible thumping). Mingus wears many hats jauntily: ensemble leader ("Cryin' Blues"), bravura soloist ("Haitian Fight Song"), gospel shouter ("Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting"), pivotman for myriad tempo shifts throughout. Top-shelf sidemen include Jackie McLean, Jimmy Knepper, Mal Waldron, John Handy, Booker Ervin, Roland Kirk, and the first work with Mingus's greatest rhythm teammate, drummer Dannie Richmond. Mingus makes every list of jazz must-haves, and this set's a hearty representation. --Fred Bouchard