Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

It’s Moody blowing tenor, blowing blues, blowing bluesy ballads, blowing bluesy jumpers and a bluesy mambo. It’s Moody blowing sad, angry, happy and bluesy. It’s Moody blowing moody.

You’ve read of King Midas; everything he touched turned to gold. Well, this is King Moodas; everything he touches turns to blue. There are all different hues of blue ranging from the deep color of the “blues” to the strongly tinted ballads.

There is Blues In The Closet (written by Oscar Pettiford) featuring John Lathan on bass and Moody on tenor; I’m Gone with its two themes (King Pleasure sings the words on Prestige LP 210); Moody’s Mood For Blues, a long funker with Moody on tenor and alto (no, not simultaneously); Workshop with Eddie Jefferson, as blue as he can be with his paint and his brush; Moody (on tenor) and the band romping and stomping on Jack Raggs; and the old spiritual Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen.

Quincy Jones knows how to use the color blue too. In addition to handling the arranging chores he contributed the originals I’m Gone, Keepin’ Up With Jonesy (a riffer which is bluesy even if it isn’t 12 bar) and Mambo With Moody which features Pee Wee Moore on the baritone sax and Moody on alto.

Moody’s true blue on the ballads too. His tenor tints It Might As Well Be Spring and his alto applies the azure coating to A Hundred Years From Today and Over The Rainbow. The other colors are there in the rainbow but the blue stripe is the widest by far.