Here is the song (from 7:26 onwards).

You’ve heard it said that Greed is Good, but I say unto you a new thing, Grief is Good.

The human soul is relentless when it has something to say. When you hear the deep guttural woes of human despair, try as you may, you can’t shake it off your spirit. In fact, try to shake it off and it just clings on tighter, like a cat. Which brings me to my point – Jazzmeia Horn’s voice is like a cat screeching, and I mean that as the best of compliments. I literally have to stop what I’m doing when I hear her sing “every evening” at 9:35. It drains my energy, and that’s what it feels like to be in the state of Moanin’ every day. Sublime.

And then uh-oh what’s this? Another language? Diddys Bebaps, Sodedes and Sodidis? It doesn’t matter, I know what she means. Call it poetic license. Call it the madness of grief. Call it speaking in tongues. I get it, and that’s what matters. Do you get it?

Perhaps the most incredible thing about Moanin’ is that it turns a desperately negative emotion and situation into an empowering one. Compared to Horn’s relentless vocals, the other instruments seem stand-offish at the beginning, like they’re just saying “yeah man” or “uh huh”. Not so by the end of Horn’s scatting section. During the keyboard solo, the instrument loses all self-composure, it can no longer contain itself and it starts breaking down in tears all over the time signature. Grief, it turns out, is contagious.

Then as we wind up to the crescendo, we tip our hats off to the Art Blakely signature drum sound at 11:22 (duh-duh-duh-duh-dum!). Then Jazzmeia Horn caps it all off, leaving us mystified in awe of the very grief that has caused this melancholic outpouring.

So I say unto you again, Grief is Good, when shared.