Product Description

If you simply can only have one Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers disc (and why would you stop there?), it absolutely must be MOANIN'. This 1958 Blue Note date is the cream of the early Messengers' studio sessions. The group of this period featured the wailing Lee Morgan (trumpet), the swinging Benny Golson (sax) and the soulful Bobby Timmons (piano) with longtime bassist Jymie Merritt by Blakey's side. All of the pieces fell into place here to create one of the most hard-swinging, blues-inflected records in jazz history.
Timmons' classic title cut sets the pace as it's laid-back call-and-response chorus and swinging bridge will get in your soul and start your head bobbing. Golson's bouncing "Are You Real"and the subtle "Along Came Betty" feature that golden Messengers ensemble sound that can't be matched as Blakey drives his men mercilessly. The most dynamic tracks, of course, arethe drum feature "The Drum Thunder Suite", a Blakey tour-de-force, and the powerful "Blues March" featuring Art's signature shuffle groove. A delightful reading of the standard "Come Rain Or Come Shine" caps it all off. This is the one to get first.

Track Listing

1. Warm Up
2. Moanin'
3. Are You Real
4. Along Came Betty
5. Drum Thunder Suite
6. Blues March
7. Come Rain Or Come Shine
8. Moanin' (2)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1412 in Music
• Released on: 1999-05-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.co.uk Review
This is truly one of the great classics of hard bop, with drummer Art Blakey leading arguably his greatest Jazz Messengers line-up through a driving programme that never lets up. Tenor saxophonist Benny Golson (whose composition "Along Came Betty" is heard here, subsequently becoming a jazz classic), brilliant trumpeter Lee Morgan and funky pianist Bobby Timmons (who wrote the hit title track) each take some of the best solos of their great careers and Blakey was never greater. No jazz record collection should be without this disc. It remains one of the premier items in Blue Note's catalogue, and rightfully so. It was issued as part of Blue Note's 1999 60th anniversary celebration, and original session producer Rudy Van Gelder did an excellent job remixing Moanin', adding warmth in the low end and far greater colour across the spectrum. The booklet opens like a gatefold LP with vintage black-and-white photos of the original session. --Skip Heller

Customer Reviews

Classic Jazz
This is the sort of Jazz you'll hear in (coffee) bars. More emphasis on the (drum) beat than, for instance, in Miles Davis 'Kind of Blue'. Excellent playing, original compositions. Title track is one of the all time classic, instantly recognisable jazz tracks.
No freak rythms but big bouncy jazz. Classic album on par with the aforementioned. Better still, less 'cool' and less 'boring'(can one really say this?) than many of Miles late 50's and early 60's stuff. Recommended as an introduction or addition to the uniniated of jazz (like me). Can't be disappointing.

Classic Jazz
This is the sort of Jazz you'll hear in (coffee) bars. More emphasis on the (drum) beat than, for instance, in Miles Davis 'Kind of Blue'. Excellent playing, original compositions.
No freak rythms but big bouncy jazz. Classic album on par with the aforementioned. Better still, less 'cool' and less 'boring'(can one realyy say this?) than many of Miles late 50's and early 60's stuff. Recommended as an introduction or addition to the uniniated of jazz (like me). Can't be disappointing.