Tijuana Moods is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded in 1957 but not released until June 1962.[1][2][3] It was reissued in 1986 on CD as New Tijuana Moods with four additional alternate takes and as a double LP with five alternate takes. Two-CD expanded versions with further alternate takes were issued by RCA in 2000 and by Columbia in 2010.
In his notes to the 1986 reissue, Ed Michel said that "[h]ardly anything was recorded as a complete take" and so both the originally issued takes and the alternate versions had been assembled by editing additional sections into base takes.[4]
The name "Charlie Mingus" appears on the cover of the original album. Mingus hated all nicknames derived from Charles ("Don't call me Charlie; that's not a man's name, that's a name for a horse"[5]).
DownBeat (p. 80) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[Tijuana Moods is] the 1957 masterpiece on which Mingus asserts full control over his longform chops."
DownBeat (12/01, p. 90) - 4.5 stars out of 5 - "This collection allows us to observe Mingus in the midst of his truly creative process."
Uncut (8/01, p. 96) - 5 stars out of 5 - "[A] mindblowing collection....Its breathtaking scope prefigures many innovations made under the rock rubric in the Sixties."