Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Moanin’ – Blue Note 4003

Jazz fans will argue forever over the best version of The Jazz Messengers. Was it the group with Wayne Shorter and Lee Morgan that made A Night in Tunisia in 1960? The 1954 edition with Horace Silver, Clifford Brown and Lou Donaldson that made A Night at Birdland? (Which isn’t technically a Jazz Messengers album, but really it is.) Or maybe the 1980s version with Wynton and Branford Marsalis?

Here’s an argument for the lineup that made arguably the best single LP of all: The 1958 combo that included Lee Morgan on trumpet, Benny Golson on tenor and Bobby Timmons on piano. The album, technically, is named simply Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. But you and I know it better as Moanin’.

(Much like the Beatles’ famous 1968 album is technically named The Beatles, but no one calls it that. We know it as The White Album.)

Have the Jazz Messengers ever record a catchier, more soulful song than “Moanin’”? I don’t think so. Here it is, in all its colorful, nine-minute glory – the original plus an alternate take. This is, quite simply, a delicious piece. Lee Morgan never sounded bolder and bluesier. Timmons, who wrote the song, is spot on. And Golson is catching fire.

And that’s just the opening cut.

Moanin’ also includes two more spectacular pieces. “The Drum Thunder Suite,” written by Golson, is a three-part, seven-minute blast that features, naturally, Art Blakey. Unlike the drummer’s album from a year earlier, Orgy in Rhythm, this is more than just a long drum solo. The suite also features two horns and piano – first swinging fast and loud, then slow and thoughtful, and finally back to boppish with a Latin tinge. Blakey is all muscle and tricky rhythms. It’s a real crowd-pleaser.

The third great number, also by Golson, is “Blues March.” As the title implies, this is bop with a martial beat, though not at all like John Philip Sousa. A very original idea – totally unexpected and full of pleasure.

The rest of Moanin’ is standard Jazz Messengers stuff. Plain vanilla bop on “Are You Real?” Slow and sophisticated on “Along Came Betty.” And the Arlen-Mercer ballad “Come Rain or Come Shine,” played more upbeat and happy than you’d expect.

This is a record to savor, and arguably the best ever recorded by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Buy it.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Many copies on Amazon, new and used

Cost: Just $3 used

Curtis Fuller: The Opener – Blue Note 1567

From the very first notes, it’s obvious that Curtis Fuller’s The Opener is something completely different.

Yes, it’s bop. Yes, it features the usual lineup of two horns, piano, bass and drums. And yes, one of those horns is saxman Hank Mobley, who, by law, was required to appear on every single Blue Note album in the 1950s and ‘60s.  (Or maybe it only seems that way.)

But wait – what’s going on with those four opening notes? They’re soft and slow. This isn’t hard bop at all. This must be… yes, it’s a ballad! And wait – that horn doesn’t sound like a trumpet or a saxophone. It sounds like… yes, it’s a trombone! It’s a trombone playing a ballad. And it’s the very first song of the album.

OK, I kid. But truly, this is something foreign to the 1950s Blue Note playbook. The number of 1950s Blue Note bandleaders playing trombone can be counted on one hand – maybe even two fingers. And your typical Blue Note album from this period almost always opened with a wham-bam powerful hard bop tune.

So The Opener – a 1957 date led by trombonist Curtis Fuller – breaks the rules in more ways than one. And it’s a very welcome change of pace.

The album has six songs. Two are sweet ballads, including the opening cut, one is a slow blues, one is a Latin number with a complex, intriguing rhythm, and only the last two are standard hard bop pieces. It’s not exactly your father’s Blue Note.

Granted, the band is familiar. Other than Fuller, leading his first session, the players include Mobley, Bobby Timmons on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums. And even Fuller, a relative newcomer in 1957, is not entirely fresh. He played with John Coltrane on the classic Blue Train that same year, and went on to become a regular with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

By far, the most interesting tune on The Opener is a number called “Oscarlypso,” penned by Oscar Pettiford. It’s a 5-minute piece that features – pardon the Gershwin pun – a fascinating rhythm, with drums and bass setting odd patterns, and the horns laying down cool grooves. It’s far outside the usual Blue Note thing.

The two ballads – the opener, “A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening,” and Johnny Mercer’s “Here’s to My Lady” – are superb. Clearly Blue Note was trying to establish Fuller as a sentimental alternative to J.J. Johnson. It works. The ballads, plus the slow blues of the second track, a Fuller original called “Hugore,” make this a relaxing record indeed – at least half the record, anyway.

Finally, the album closes with two routine bop numbers: Another Fuller original, “Lizzy’s Bounce,” and the Gershwin standard “Soon.” Nice numbers, though not anything special.

The Opener is a good introduction to Curtis Fuller, who went on to a long, productive career. It’s an atypical Blue Note record, but a worthwhile addition to any jazz collection.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Plenty of copies available

Cost: Just $5 used, and not much more new

John Coltrane: Blue Train – Blue Note 1577

John Coltrane was arguably the greatest jazz musician of the 1950s and ‘60s. Blue Note Records was arguably the greatest jazz label of the same period. And yet they had almost nothing to do with each other.

Almost, except for one album – and it’s a classic.

Blue Train is one of a handful of Coltrane’s best-known and best-loved works. It came in 1957, just as Coltrane was making his name with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, and it features a terrific sextet. It’s Coltrane’s only record as a Blue Note leader, and if you love hard bop, you’ll like Blue Train.

This is an album very much of its time and place. 1957 was a pretty spectacular year for jazz. It’s the year of Miles Davis’ Walkin’, Cookin’, Round About Midnight and Miles Ahead, Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West, Ben Webster’s Tenor Giants and Charles Mingus’ Tijuana Moods. It’s also the year of a whole bunch of great hard bop on Blue Note by Jimmy Smith, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Paul Chambers and others. Earlier in 1957, Coltrane even played as a sideman to Johnny Griffin, Mobley and Morgan on A Blowing Session.

Hard bop was king and Blue Train is a top-notch example of the genre by some its best practitioners: Coltrane on tenor sax, Lee Morgan on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Chambers on bass, Kenny Drew on piano and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

It starts with the title track – a 10-minute blues. But what a blues! The opening unison theme sounds like typical Blue Note bop, then Trane starts his sublime, sheets-of-notes solo. This isn’t your granfather’s Blue Note. Morgan follows, doing his best Dizzy Gillespie impression, all fire and speed and wonder. Fuller and Drew take their turns and soon enough the best song on the album is over.

Then the pace quickens with another Coltrane original, “Moment’s Notice.” It’s a lively toe-tapper with long, marvelous solos by Fuller, sounding very much the protégé of J.J. Johnson, and Morgan, again bebopping nicely. “Locomotion” is a showcase once again for Coltrane’s unique sound and Fuller’s bop trombone.

Two more tracks complete the album. “I’m Old Fashioned” is a sweet ballad, showing Trane’s softer side, and the final is another feverish Coltrane original, “Lazy Bird.” Though the CD has only five tracks, each one is between 7 and 10 minutes. There’s plenty of room for the soloists to stretch out.

So, is Blue Train the greatest hard bop record ever? No, not really. 1955 to 1960 produced scores of fantastic bop, on Blue Note and other labels, that could just as easily claim the title. Despite Coltrane’s unique sound – no one sounded remotely like him, even in 1957 – Blue Train is still pretty standard bop. It’s a great, fun record, but not radically innovative.

It is certainly not Coltrane’s greatest record. Three years later in 1960 came Giants Steps, then My Favorite Things in 1961 and A Love Supreme in 1964. Good as it is, Blue Train was just one high point in an amazing career – though it might be the most accessible of Coltrane’s great records.

Impulse Records may be, famously, The House That Trane Built, but early in his career Coltrane did very well by Blue Note, too.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Very easy to find, and in many editions

Cost: Just $2 used, but why not spring for a new copy for $8?