61 release, Mingus chose music composed before he heard the revolutionary playing of Charlie Parker. 
The album features large ensembles and includes two swing-era contrapuntal ‘mash-ups’, with one song playing out of the left channel and another from the right.

VERVE ACOUSTIC SOUNDS SERIES: mastered fully analogue from the original tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, QPR pressing (180 g), firm tip-on gatefold (Stoughton Printing), padded inner sleeve.

Tracklisting
Charles Mingus    - Pre-Bird (1960)

A1  Take The "A" Train 
A2 Prayer For Passive Resistance
A3 Eclipse 
A4 Mingus Fingus No. 2
A5 Weird Nightmare
B1 Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me
B2 Bemoanable Lady
B3 Half-Mast Inhibition

Charles Mingus – bass / Max Roach - drums / Marcus Belgrave - trumpet / Ted Curson - trumpet
Clark Terry - trumpet / Hobart Dotson - trumpet / Richard Williams - trumpet / Robert Di Domenica - flute 
Harry Shulman - oboe / Eric Dolphy - alto saxophone, flute / Booker Ervin - saxophone / Yusuf Lateef - saxophone, flute 
John LaPorta - saxophone / Danny Bank - saxophone / Bill Barron - saxophone / Joe Farrell - saxophone / Eddie Bert - trombone 
Slide Hampton - trombone / Jimmy Knepper - trombone / Charles "Majeed" Greenlee - trombone / Paul Bley - piano / Roland Hanna - piano
George Scott - drums / Dannie Richmond - drums / Sticks Evans - drums / Lorraine Cusson - vocals