NEW LP
New sealed copy. 2021 Blue Note Classic Series reissue on 180 gram vinyl. Remastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio. Pressed by Optimal Media in Germany.
Recorded on October 30, 1958 and released later that year on Blue Note, this album marked Art Blakey’s return to the label after several years of working elsewhere. It also introduced one of the most enduring lineups of the Jazz Messengers and quickly became associated with its opening track, Bobby Timmons’ Moanin, which took off almost immediately after release.
The rest of the record is built around Benny Golson’s writing. His pieces shape much of the album’s identity, from the drive of Are You Real to the long melodic lines of Along Came Betty. The Drum Thunder Suite gives Blakey a central role across three connected sections, while Blues March draws on the feel of New Orleans brass bands. The session closes with a fast run through Come Rain or Come Shine, the only standard included. Golson was not with the group for long, and this remains the only United States studio album to document his time in the band.
Rudy Van Gelder engineered the session in his Hackensack studio, capturing both the precision of the ensemble and the energy that defined this version of the Messengers. Moanin is widely viewed as a defining hard bop recording for the way it blends blues and gospel foundations with the more modern vocabulary that shaped the late fifties.
TRACKLIST:
A1 Moanin'
A2 Are You Real
A3 Along Came Betty
B1 The Drum Thunder (Miniature) Suite
First Theme: Drum Thunder
Second Theme: Cry A Blue Tear
Third Theme: Harlem's Disciples
B2 Blues March
B3 Come Rain Or Come Shine
