Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Moanin' (Blue Note Essentials series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

Back in print as part of the Blue Note Essentials series, with etched runouts. Moanin' is the record that made the Jazz Messengers' name, with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Benny Golson on tenor and Bobby Timmons' title track as its calling card.

This edition

• Blue Note Essentials series
• Etched runouts
• Stereo

About the album

Art Blakey had been away from Blue Note for a few years when he came into Rudy Van Gelder's studio on October 30, 1958, and he came back with a band to match his drumming. The LP was originally just self-titled, but Bobby Timmons' opening track, "Moanin'," with its call-and-response gospel riff, caught on so quickly that everyone started calling the album by its name.

Benny Golson wrote most of the rest: the propulsive "Are You Real," the lyrical "Along Came Betty" and "Blues March," which brings a New Orleans parade into the hard bop era, while "The Drum Thunder Suite" gives Blakey his moment. A young Lee Morgan plays like he already knows he's a star. It closes on the standard "Come Rain Or Come Shine." If you own one hard bop record, it should probably be this one; if you own several, it is probably already the one with the creases.

Tracklist

Listen

Out July 17, 2026 on Blue Note (cat# 5759308), a reissue of the 1958 album.