Moanin' and moanin'

Ah, the miracles of the iPod shuffle function...

The other day, I was walking down a London street listening to my iPod. I don't know how the shuffle function works (and sometimes I think it's a little strange, with the same artist recurring several times over the course of 10 tracks played) but on that day it produced a little miracle for me. It played Moanin', by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, followed a few tracks later by Moanin', by Charles Mingus.

Now you would be forgiven for thinkin that these are two versions of the same tune. After all, reinterpretation has always been a staple of jazz exploration. But youd be wrong. They are just two tunes from the same era, and both are masterpieces.

The Jazz Messengers have precedence of age. Moanin' was composed by Bobby Timmons (the Messenger's pianist) and recorded in 1958, it was released on the album Moanin' and became the Messengers' first ever hit. Unsurprisingly for a track written by a pianist, the backbone of the harmony of this tune is laid by the piano, as evident from the very beginning of the theme. The theme is very characteristic of the two elements that make this tune memorable. It starts with a soulful vibe, low key saxophone, but the phrase evolves into something harder, more driven, in the second part. As the theme fades, Lee Morgan's trumpet soars into a wonderful solo, with Blakey's drumming hard and steady, very much at the front. Tenor sax Benny Golson then picks up the last phrase from Morgan's chorus and builds on it. This is typical hard bop sax, not focused on fast, but rather on deep and hard. There are some fast passages, but they are there more to build the tension that gradually increases towards the end of the chorus and then suddently drops when Timmons produces his rather subdued, soulful solo. Bassist Jymie Merrit picks it up from there with minimal accompaniment by Blakey, and his deep solo segues back into the theme, subdued, then hard, and into a rousing finale.

Mingus' Moanin' is a whole 'nother kettle of fish, although it also swings hard, even harder than Blakey's. It's also a more intricate, composed affair, in the manner of Mingus. It was released on Blues & Roots, an album that Mingus designed as a challenge to the jazz critics who dismissed him as being unable to swing. It opens with a strange, wonderful and deep barytone sax hook played by Pepper Adams, and gradually a somber trombone backline adds a layer of harmony (and sometimes disharmony) as the rhythm section swings harder and harder. The saxes add a second voice to the barytone theme, then suddenly, the harmony shifts and for a short moment you think it's going to get mellower, but no, the swing builds up again until Pepper's catchy barytone brings the theme back to its completion. There follows a fairly classic alto sax solo followed by a more out there tenor sax solo that ends sans backing for a good while. At the end of that solo section, the rhythm section goes mad with double time until the chord sequence resumes, the solo ends and Pepper Adams' hook comes back again to reenter the theme. The buildup this time is even harder than the first time, and the ending is simply wild.

I like these little miracles of life. Moanin' and Moanin', two monuments of jazz, same title, in sequence, all by the randomness of the shuffle function...

Comments

[Suzana]

Thank you for this post! I so needed a confirmation that I am not deaf :).

I first heard Mingus' Moanin' as an opening theme to a show on the local Jazz radio. The tune had me completely hooked up. Then, a year later, a friend goes about to tell me that he knows another, for him better even, version of Moanin' - namely Timmons' theme. I went exited that I will hear some new take of the great Mingus tune, but no, it was a different, for me not as exiting piece, honestly...

Three years later, some weeks ago, I get into the same debate with another friend... He also convinces me it's the same tune, and that I should not look for chords and let people freely improvise :). So, it is a general misconception I assure you that these two are one and the same.
For a moment there, they had me seriously doubting my hearing senses. :)