#Moanin art blakey series#

It is at that point, through tireless playing and industry alliances, that Art Blakey began surfacing as more than a reliable percussionist. The Jazz Messengers, in their ever-changing form, but always led by Blakey, would cut all their 50вЂ™s output on the label. There he put together his first variant of the Jazz Messengers, making the rounds in the cityвЂ™s music clubs, before Donald Byrd helped him gain the attention of Columbia Records, who in turn handed him over to Blue Note. After his initial indoctrination into jazz drumming in the early 30вЂ™s, he spent close to twenty years touring with various orchestras, before a stint with the venerable queen bee of jazz piano, Mary Lou Williams, brought him to 52nd Street in New York. The spaces left by those future giants in the emerging and increasingly popular jazz scene, like in most cases, were filled out by those who either forswore passion for pure technique, or those happy and moderate enough to abet genius, rather than usurp it.ДЄrt BlakeyвЂ™s musical history is one of balanced headway and working-man ethos. And that his label would be responsible for putting out every note of early brilliance that Miles Davis, Clifford Brown and John Coltrane would breathe throughout the 50вЂ™s.

Or that Blue Note would play such a vital role in bringing the genre into the orthodox core, becoming the hub of jazzвЂ™ most electrifying and progressive seers. When Alfred Lion first heard Sam WoodingвЂ™s Orchestra in Berlin in 1924, I doubt he could have foreseen that his newfound fascination with jazz would culminate in him starting Blue Note Records in New York City just fifteen years later.

#Moanin art blakey series#

Moanin' now reappears as part of Blue Note Classic Vinyl Reissue Series (alongside Horace Silver's Song for My Father, Cannonball Addlerley's Somethin' Else, Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil and Joe Henderson's Page One, with more to come).ДЇor more on Blue Note artists old and new - and which includes articles on the label's history, artwork and some of the vinyl reissue albums look here.ДЄlbums in this Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series of reissues are available in New Zealand through Southbound Records here. вЂњFuck 'jazz-rock', this is the real thingвЂќ. it created a Messenger showpiece which stayed with the band for the rest of its daysвЂќ.ДЄnd as Robert Wyatt observed, вЂњWhat miracle fuel propelled this magnificent little band? Art Blakey's rock solid backbeat, that's what. Richard Cook described the composition Moanin' as вЂњthe kind of melodic tattoo which is, once heard, never forgotten. The swinging take on the Mercer-Arlen tune Come Rain or Come Shine at the end rounded out a record which confirmed that Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers вЂ“ which had recorded with Horace Silver and Thelonious Monk previously in other iterations вЂ“ was one of the great bands.ДЄnd here they had the material to prove it. Golson did only this one American recording with the Messengers but he wrote Blues March and Along Came Betty as well as Are You Real and, surprisingly, The Thunder Drum Suite in which you might have expected Blakey to have had a guiding hand, especially as he owns it's vibrant and hefty sound.Д«ut with Morgan as his foil, Golson was the real frontline star here on an album where the tunes were uniformly strong and the musicians interlocked with consummate ease. The youth of the players is extraordinary given the confidence and maturity in the playing: trumpeter Lee Morgan was just 20 and Timmons 22, which made Golson (29) and bassist Jymie Merritt (32) almost senior citizens.Д®ven leader Art Blakey on drums who had been around for two decades by this point was still only 39.Д«ut that blend of youth and experience, and great tunes like Along Came Betty and the stridently energetic Blues March, make for a classic jazz album. Yet the photographer credited isn't Francis Wolff who did so many classic jazz/Blue Note images but it is by Buck Heoffler (in the mood and manner of Wolff) and there is no designer credited although it looks like the work of Reid Miles.

Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's first 'living room' studio in New Jersey, this has all the sound and look of a classic Blue Note album. The story goes that the track Moanin' вЂ“ which was released a a single split over two sides of the 45 вЂ“ might not have been recorded at all but tenor player Benny Golson insisted the pianist finish off the little blues piece he would sometimes play at gigs between tunes. One of the greatest of the late Fifties swinging, hard bop albums on the Blue Note label,В this album вЂ“ like the self-titled album The Beatles, known as The White Album, of a decade later вЂ“ didn't actually have a title.Д«ut it became known immediately as Moanin' after pianist Bobby Timmons' arresting, memorable nine minute-plus opening track which put solid funk into jazz.