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Moanin'

Moanin'

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Legendary h ard bop drummer Art Blakey may have an extensive discography, but his Jazz Messenger album ‘Moanin’ is regarded by most aficionados as his finest. Drummer and bandleader Art Blakey provides the aggressive, driving pulse that propels the Jazz Messengers and is so characteristic of the hard bop style. Blakey was 39 at the time of this recording, the Jazz Messengers had already progressed through several lineups, and Blakey remained the only constant. Despite the changing personnel, the Jazz Messengers remained the archetypal hard bop group, characterized by an emphasis on the blues roots of the music. Blakey is notable for his aggressive drumming, use of polyrhythm, musical interactions with his soloists, and his personality. Blakey felt strongly that jazz was underappreciated in America and he sought to bring it to a broader audience. As a bandleader, he provided his musicians with ample space for solos and encouraged them to contribute compositions and arrangements. He constantly added new talent to his band and made no effort to prevent musicians from leaving the Jazz Messengers.

Golson performed with artists such as Tadd Dameron, Lionel Hampton, and Johnny Hodges before joining the Dizzy Gillespie band on a tour of South America from 1956-58, the same years Morgan played for Gillespie. Golson's tunes "Are You Real?," "Along Came Betty," "The Drum Thunder Suite," and "Blues March" lend a notable variety and versatility to Moanin', utilizing varied song forms and musical styles. As an improviser, Golson's smooth tone and fluid lines contrast with and complement the aggressive playing of Lee Morgan. In the first theme, ‘Drum Thunder’ Blakey’s mallets create a rolling thunder cloud with punctuations from the horns, and a dramatic solo from Morgan as befits the building of the storm behind him. Golson's "Are You Real?" is a more straightforward hard bop tune featuring a 32-bar chorus and a faster tempo. The standard "Come Rain or Come Shine" is performed with the attention to melody and arrangement not typically associated with hard bop, but is convincingly and faithfully represented by the Jazz Messengers.The album stands as one of the archetypal hard bop albums of the era, for the intensity of Blakey's drumming and the work of Morgan, Golson, and Timmons, and for its combination of old-fashioned gospel and blues influences with a sophisticated modern jazz sensibility. The album was identified by jazz critic Scott Yanow as one of "17 Essential Hard Bop Recordings". [6] AllMusic gives it a five-star review, stating: " Moanin' includes some of the greatest music Blakey produced in the studio with arguably his very best band. ... ranks with the very best of Blakey and what modern jazz offered in the late '50s and beyond." [1] Influence [ edit ] Art Blakey’s place in thepantheon of the all-time jazz greats has long been established and never disputed.

Over the years The Jazz Messengers amassed a huge amount of original compositions, and each new member of the band was supposed to know them all. Blakey didn’t allow the musicians to use sheet music on stage, so when you got the call to join the band you had your work cut out for you! Brian Lynch is one of the trumpeters who joined the band in the 80’s, and a guy I’ve become friendly with. He told me the story of when he got the call from Blakey. Art told him “be on the next plane to Paris, we have a gig one week from today”. Brian spent the next week furiously studying the Messengers’ records, trying to learn every song he could. Of course, the first song Art called on his first gig was one he hadn’t learned, and Brian had to just hang on and hope for the best! After the gig, Blakey took him aside and told him that better not happen again. How’s that for trial by fire??Through his policy of continually renewing his Jazz Messengersgroup he would constantly be seeking the cream of the rising young players thus giving them a solid grounding and place to hone their craft. Trumpeter Lee Morgan was on fire with his big tone, inventive and melodic improvisation and still retaining the exuberance and brashness of youth. As such, the list of musicians who have passed through the Messengers academy is a veritable who’s who of jazz up until his death in 1990. As a bonus, here’s a very cool interview with pianist Benny Green about playing with Art.He describes his first time on the bandstand with Art at the drums and how incredibly powerful he was.

His thunderous approach, deep rooted swing and signature press roll on the snare drum made him one of the most instantly identifiable and influential drummers in jazz.Another important associate of the hard bop movement, Horace Silver would also play an important part in Blakey’s development, and in fact the Jazz Messengers band was under Silver’s leadership. The Rising Stars of Tomorrow In the ’60s, when John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman were defining the concept of a jazz avant-garde, few knowledgeable observers would have guessed that in another 30 years the music’s mainstream would virtually bypass their innovations, in favor of the hard bop style that free jazz had apparently supplanted. As it turned out, many listeners who had come to love jazz as a sophisticated manifestation of popular music were unable to accept the extreme esotericism of the avant-garde; their tastes were rooted in the core elements of “swing” and “blues,” characteristics found in abundance in the music of the Jazz Messengers, the quintessential hard bop ensemble led by drummer Art Blakey. In the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, when artists on the cutting edge were attempting to transform the music, Blakey continued to play in more or less the same bag he had since the ’40s, when his cohorts included the likes of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Fats Navarro. By the ’80s, the evolving mainstream consensus had reached a point of overwhelming approval in regard to hard bop: this is what jazz is, and Art Blakey — as its longest-lived and most eloquent exponent — was its master.



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