Art Blakey

2-LP SET!

Moanin’, presented here in both its Stereo and Mono versions, is widely regarded as one of the nest albums in the history of Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. It was the First LP by the third formation of the group, featuring Lee Morgan, Benny Golson (composer of most of the songs), Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt.

Lee Morgan was only 20-years old at the time the Jazz Messengers recorded Moanin’. His recording debut with Blakey had occurred the previous year at a session which featured an expanded version of the Jazz Messengers (called “the Jazz Messengers plus four”) on April 2, 1957.

Benny Golson is one of the last living legends of that era (he is 89 years-old at this writing). Before joining Blakey (with whom he would only collaborate during 1958-59), he had been in the bands of Lionel Hampton, Johnny Hodges, Earl Bostic and Dizzy Gillespie. After that, he would form the Jazztet with Art Farmer. In addition to being a superb tenor player, Golson contributed to the group as an arranger and composer (he penned the classic ballad “I Remember Clifford”, which paid homage to Clifford Brown). He wrote four of the songs from Moanin’. Pianist Bobby Timmons stayed with Blakey from 1958 to 1961. He participated on some of the best Jazz Messengers recordings (including, of course, the present album), and contributed such hits of his own as the title track, “Moanin’”. Like Morgan, Timmons died young due to cirrhosis of the liver in 1974, at age 38.


PERSONNEL:

ART BLAKEY, drums & leader
LEE MORGAN, trumpet
BENNY GOLSON, tenor sax
BOBBY TIMMONS, piano
JYMIE MERRITT, bass

Recorded at Hackensack, New Jersey, October 30, 1958

TRACK-LISTING:

LP1 The Stereo Version:

01. MOANIN’
02. ARE YOU REAL
03. ALONG CAME BETTY
04. THE DRUM THUNDER SUITE
05. BLUES MARCH
06. COME RAIN OR COME SHINE

LP2 The Mono Version:

01. MOANIN’
02. ARE YOU REAL
03. ALONG CAME BETTY
04. THE DRUM THUNDER SUITE
05. BLUES MARCH
06. COME RAIN OR COME SHINE
11. CENTRAL PARK BLUES