Compiled from both Warner and Universal Music’s extensive catalogues this 3CD collection of Classic Blue Note repertoire features the most iconic performances from the biggest names in the genre. Including the likes of musical legends Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Sidney Bechet, Thelonious Monk and many more…
A record with Horace Silver on the cover, but a set that's really more of a Jazz Messengers date overall – as it features a smoking quintet that not only includes Art Blakey on drums and Doug Watkins on bass – but which also has some great frontline work from Hank Mobley on tenor and Kenny Dorham on trumpet! The group's got the rougher, less-iconic feel of the Messengers at their start – similar to their early live dates – but all the right energy is firmly in place, and maybe given even more direction under Silver's leadership and great ear for a tune! The writing is superb, especially on classics like "Doodlin", "The Preacher", "Hippy", and the amazing "To Whom It May Concern" – one of our all-time favorite tunes in the 50s Blue Note catalog – and the solos are all top-shelf too. A real Blue Note classic!
Features SHM-CD format and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. This session (reissued on CD by Blue Note) is best known for introducing Lee Morgan's beautiful ballad "Ceora," but actually all five selections (which include Morgan's "Cornbread," "Our Man Higgins," "Most Like Lee," and the standard "Ill Wind") are quite memorable. The trumpeter/leader performs with a perfectly complementary group of open-minded and talented hard bop stylists (altoist Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley on tenor, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Larry Ridley, and drummer Billy Higgins) and creates a Blue Note classic that is heartily recommended.
Granted, a single-disc overview of Blue Note's finest recordings can't help but offer listeners more than a myopic view of the label's true scope, but for jazz neophytes, this nine-track collection will undoubtedly serve as a tantalizing taste of the company's riches. The song selection, though lacking few surprises, is consistently wonderful – how could a disc featuring John Coltrane's "Blue Train," Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage," Horace Silver's "Song for My Father" and Lee Morgan's "The Sidewinder" be anything but? – and purists' complaints aside, for new fans it's a solid introduction to the Blue Note magic.
More than any other album in the canon of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, 1958’s Moanin’—featuring the great drummer with trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, pianist Bobby Timmons, and bassist Jymie Merritt—was the perfect crystallization of the band’s bluesy, soulful sound, and it still stands today as perhaps the most quintessential hard bop recording of all-time. Originally self-titled, the album was later renamed Moanin’ due to the popularity of Timmons’ unforgettable opening track. The album also introduced several indelible Golson compositions that would become standards of the jazz songbook including “Along Came Betty” and “Blues March.” This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.