Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Moanin’ (1958 – Blue Note)

This was Blakey’s first album for Blue Note in several years, after a period of recording for a miscellany of labels, and marked both a homecoming and a fresh start. Originally the LP  was self-titled, but the instant popularity of the bluesy  opening track “Moanin'” (by pianist Bobby Timmons) led to its becoming known by that title. The rest of the originals are by saxophonist Benny Golson (who wasn’t with the Jazz Messengers for very long, this being the only American album on which he is featured). “Are You Real?” is a propulsive thirty-two-bar piece with a four-bar tag, featuring strong two-part writing for Golson and trumpeter Lee Morgan; “Along Came Betty” is a more lyrical, long-lined piece, almost serving as the album’s ballad. “The Drum Thunder Suite” is a feature for Blakey, in three movements, or themes: “Drum Thunder”; “Cry a Blue Tear” (with a Latin  feel); and “Harlem’s Disciples”. “Blues March” calls on the feeling of the New Orleans marching bands, and the album finishes on its only standard, an unusually brisk reading of “Come Rain or Come Shine”. Of the originals on the album, all but the “Drum Thunder Suite” became staples of the Messengers book, even after Timmons and Golson were gone.
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 Scott Yanow in his Allmusic essay “Hard Bop” as one of the 17 Essential Hard Bop Recordings.
Wikipedia

Tracklist:
1. Warm-Up And Dialogue Between Lee And Rudy
2. Moanin’
3. Are You Real?
4. Along Came Betty
5. The Drum Thunder Suite
6. Blues March
7. Come Rain Or Come Shine
8. Moanin’ [Alternate Take]

Personnel:

Art Blakey (drums)

Lee Morgan  (trumpet)
Benny Golson  (tenor sax)
Bobby Timmons (piano)
Jymie Merritt  (bass)

Recorded on October 30, 1958 at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey – Blue Note Records

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Curtis Fuller – The Opener ( 1957 – Blue Note Records)

 

With Curtis Fuller’s leader album “The Opener “, Blue Note beat Prestige to the shops, rush-releasing in August 1957, by which time Fuller’s sideman credentials with the label also included albums with pianists Sonny Clark and Bud Powell. A month later, Fuller sealed his arrival on saxophonist John Coltrane’s Blue Train (Blue Note, 1957). Now,51 years after its original release, The Opener tells us why. Combining a fluent technique shaped by J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding, his own deep melodicism, a knowledge of trombone stylists stretching back to Tommy Dorsey and beyond, and an embrace of Coltrane’s recent harmonic initiatives, Fuller fashioned an enduring jewel. He was assisted by a superb band comprised of rising stars saxophonist Hank Mobley, pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor.

Track List:
01 A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening

02 Hugore

03 Oscalypso 

04 Here’s to My Lady 

05 Lizzy’s Bounce 

06 Soon

Personnel:

Curtis Fuller (Trombone)

Hank Mobley (Sax Tenor)

Art Taylor (Drums)

Bobby Timmons (Piano)

Paul Chambers (Bass)

Original Release Date: June 16, 1957 (Label: Blue Note Records)
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