Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin’ (2021 Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series 180g Reissue LP)

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin’ | Vinyl LP, 2021 Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series Reissue (BST 84003, 180g, Optimal)

• One of the defining hard bop albums, recorded in a single session on October 30, 1958 at Van Gelder’s Hackensack studio with Lee Morgan (aged 20), Benny Golson, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt
• Four Golson compositions including “Along Came Betty” and “Blues March”, both of which became jazz standards, alongside Timmons’s “Moanin’” with its famous churchy piano introduction
• Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series: all-analog mastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media in Germany

Bobby Timmons plays four bars of gospel-inflected piano, the band answers with a unison figure, and Moanin’ announces itself. That opening is one of the most recognised sounds in jazz, and it defined a version of the Jazz Messengers that many listeners still consider the group’s peak. All four sidemen were from Philadelphia. Benny Golson, the tenor saxophonist and the group’s musical director at this point, wrote four of the six pieces: “Are You Real”, “Along Came Betty”, “Blues March”, and the three-part “Drum Thunder (Miniature) Suite.” Two of those compositions, “Along Came Betty” and “Blues March”, entered the standard repertoire and have stayed there. Lee Morgan, who was 20 years old when this was recorded, plays with the fire and directness that would make him one of the most important trumpeters of the 1960s. Timmons’s piano, grounded in blues and church music, gives the rhythm section its particular character. Jymie Merritt’s bass and Blakey’s drums do the rest.

The album was originally self-titled and later renamed for the popularity of Timmons’s opening track. It was Blakey’s first album for Blue Note in several years, returning to the label after recording for a run of other companies, and it marked the beginning of a relationship that would continue for the rest of his life. “Come Rain or Come Shine” (Arlen and Mercer) is the only standard: the rest is original material, and Golson’s writing in particular sets out the hard bop vocabulary that the Messengers would explore through dozens of subsequent lineups. Produced by Alfred Lion. Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder at his original Hackensack studio (he moved to Englewood Cliffs the following year). Liner notes by Leonard Feather. This 2021 Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media in Germany.