Art Blakey is more than just a giant of jazz drums. He is a hard-bop legend, a unique and innovative bandleader, and the heart of one of the most fertile periods in music history. He is also a generous mentor who, after forming the collective group The Jazz Messengers with Horace Silver in the early 1950s, opened it to the development of such gifted young musicians as trumpeters Clifford Brown and Donald Byrd, pianist Chick Corea, and even saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Of all the albums recorded by this indispensable formation, Moanin’ is without doubt the most emblematic of a sonority that became the matrix of modern jazz. Because of the themes played in unison by Benny Golson and Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons’ “churchy” piano, Jymie Merritt’s feline bass lines, and Art Blakey’s drums, sounding as big as a whole orchestra and showcasing the constant swing of his cymbals, this is, more than the sound of a great group, the true essence of the golden era of jazz.
