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Today we bring you the bluesy sounds of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers playing "Moanin'", the title cut off their Blue Note release from 1958 that was composed by pianist Bobby Timmons. This is a live video recording of the tune from that same year, performed by the original line-up as the LP in Belgium, with Art Blakey (drums), Bobby Timmons (composer, piano), Jymie Merritt (bass), Benny Golson (tenor saxophone) and Lee Morgan (trumpet).
Arthur "Art" Blakey
(October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990)
Art Blakey, also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was one of the inventors of the modern style of bebop drumming along with Kenny Clarke and Max Roach. Blakey was influential in mainstream Jazz with his brand of bluesy, funky hard bop style of playing, creating a dark cymbal sound punctuated by frequent loud snare- and bass-drum accents in triplets or cross-rhythms. He adopted several African devices, including rapping on the side of the drum and using his elbow on the tom-tom to alter the pitch. His much-imitated trademark, the forceful closing of the hi-hat on every second and fourth beat, was part of his style from 1950 to '51.
The "Jazz Messengers" name was first used on a 1954 recording led by Horace Silver, with Blakey, Hank Mobley, Kenny Dorham and Doug Watkins. Previous recordings did not have the "Jazz Messengers" name. After Horace Silver left the group in 1956 after their first year, Blakey took over the group name and the band was known as "Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers" from then onwards with Blakey being the sole leader. Many "Jazz Messengers" alumni went on to become prominent figures in Jazz.
Blakey was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame (in 1982), the Grammy Hall of Fame (in 2001), and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. He also received many other awards during his lifetime and posthumously.
Thelonious Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982)
Thelonious Sphere Monk born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina is a jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser" and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed over 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70.
Often regarded as a founder of bebop, Monk's playing later evolved away from that style. His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are consistent with Monk's unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations.
Arthur "Art" Blakey was a Jazz drummer and band leader. Along with Kenny Clarke and Max Roach, he was one of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming. He is known as a powerful musician and a vital groover; his brand of bluesy, funky hard bop was and continues to be profoundly influential on mainstream Jazz. For more than 30 years his band, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers included many young musicians who went on to become prominent names in Jazz. The band's legacy is thus not only known for the often exceptionally fine music it produced, but as a proving ground for several generations of Jazz musicians. Blakey's groups are matched only by those of Miles Davis in this regard.
Giuseppe Verdi October 10, 1813 – January 27, 1901)
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture - such as "La donna รจ mobile" from Rigoletto, "Va, Pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco, "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song) from La Traviata and the "Grand March" from Aida. Although his work was sometimes criticized for using a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom and having a tendency toward melodrama, Verdi’s masterworks dominate the standard repertoire a century and a half after their composition.
