Moanin'

[Connemara]

I've had two people in the past few months tell me that Blakey's "Moanin'" is the best jazz song ever recorded. One was a casual jazz fan, the other was your typical music-nut-record-store-owner.

What is it about this song?

N.B. I hope it doesn't sound like I'm knocking the tune. It's one of THE testaments to hard bop. Lee Morgan's trumpet work on Moanin' is (maybe) my fav.

 

[Connemara]

BTW, this live cut of Moanin' with Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter is great:

 

[greekonomist]

I like it. I don't know how anybody figures out what the best jazz song recorded was. Maybe their favorite.

 

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by greekonomist

I like it. I don't know how anybody figures out what the best jazz song recorded was. Maybe their favorite.
Me neither. There isn't really a best. But, these two folks were quite adamant in their belief that it's the best.

 

[Modernist]

I don't know, but I'm kind of obsessed with that tune lately myself. I don't think that it's the best. I don't think that there is such a thing. But definitely one of the great ones.

Perhaps it has something to do that there are so many great covers, besides the original one. Ronda Scott, Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery, etc. And I love the riff. It's so simple, yet so great.

And of course, sometimes people proclaim their favourites things to be the best....

 

[MetroStyles]

OH I THoUGHT THIS THRAD WAS ABOUT ME BANGING YOUR MOM

 

[edinatlanta]

I downloaded a version that got cut from the album, and the arpeggios at the end blow my mind every time I hear them.

Still not the greatest jazz song of all time. I'm guessing they've never heard So What, and I'm not even a Miles fan.

 

[Connemara]

BTW, there can be no discussion of best without Oscar Peterson Trio's "Chicago" off of Live from Chicago, 1961.

 

[bbaquiran]

Originally Posted by Connemara

BTW, this live cut of Moanin' with Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter is great:

Thanks for the link. I was only familiar with the Wes Montgomery version.

 

[Modernist]

Rhoda Scott:
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[poppies]

I don't know if it's the best jazz song ever, but the album is certainly great, and my personal art blakey fave is the drum thunder suite

 

[Artisan Fan]

Great album. Also listen to A Night in Tunisia.