Moanin', presented here in both its Stereo and Mono versions, is widely regarded as one of the finest albums in the history of Blakey's Jazz Messengers. It was the first LP by the third formation of the group, featuring Lee Morgan, Benny Golson (composer of most of the songs), Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt. The Mono version appears here on CD for the first time ever. As a bonus, we have added the only two known alternate takes from the session, as well as four extended tunes recorded immediately afterwards in Paris, two of which ("Are You Real?" and "Moanin'") are versions of songs from the studio album. In the late 1950s, it was common for big labels to record performances simultaneously in Mono and Stereo, and then releases both versions at the same time, with different reference numbers. This was explained at the time by the fact that Stereo was still a very recent innovation, and not everyone had sound systems capable of reproducing the new technology. The Stereo albums (CD 1), thus, were slightly more expensive than their Mono counterparts. Over time, the Mono versions (CD 2) were condemned to oblivion, and only recently some music fans have begun to value these long forgotten masters, which capture classic performances from a different aural point of view. On the present release, both versions of this masterpiece can be compared.
