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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: The Sesjun Radio Shows
by Dan McClenaghan
The old and irksome “but is it jazz" argument has probably never been brought into play when it comes to drummer/bandleader Art Blakey (1919-1990) and his ever-changing line-up of Jazz Messengers. The music Blakey and his usually young players made was most certainly jazz, of the hard bop, hard-charging variety--brash and brightly hued, and joyously swinging. The Jazz Messengers, active from the early 1950s until the mid-'80s, was an on-the-job Jazz university, graduating such luminaries as Clifford Brown, ...
Continue ReadingArt Blakey and the Giants of Jazz: Live at the 1972 Monterey Jazz Festival
by Stuart Broomer
The Giants of Jazz was an all-star band assembled by promoter George Wein in 1971. While Dizzy and Monk were the most celebrated members, the band also included Art Blakey (drums), Sonny Stitt (sax), Kai Winding (trombone) and Al McKibbon (bass). By the time it arrived at the Monterey Jazz Festival in September of 1972, Gillespie had to absent himself to return to his own band and the group had inspired substitutions in the trumpet chair--here both ...
Continue ReadingArt Blakey: Holiday for Skins
by Francis Lo Kee
Holiday for Skins is not totally unique in drummer Art Blakey's output, as the drummer was most famous for some of the greatest hard bop era records ever made with his Jazz Messengers. Though not a Jazz Messengers recording, this original double volume definitely has Blakey's strong personal, percussive stamp. The cover states this is “a message from Blakey and that message is mostly about rhythm and the vast expressive possibilities of the drum sets, congas, bongos, timbales and other ...
Continue ReadingArt Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Caravan
by Samuel Chell
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers Caravan Riverside Keepnews Collection 2007
Given the limited activity of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for the Riverside label, Caravan is a somewhat curious early entry in the string of remasters making up the Keepnews Collection. Even avid collectors of the band's recordings tend to lose interest when the “invisible member"--recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder--isn't on hand to place his unmistakable stamp on their overall sound. All the same, ...
Continue ReadingArt Blakey: Mission Eternal, Vol. 2
by Ronald S. Russ
While some people have insinuated that nothing was really happening in jazz during the 1970s, this reissue should provide evidence to the contrary. Art Blakey, always working with younger talent, found a way to stay current in an era dominated by fusion, without compromising his integrity. While there are electric keyboards as well as electric guitars on this album, they are used in a style that's consistent with Blakey's credo. Mission Eternal demonstrates a fluidity and openness that helped to ...
Continue ReadingArt Blakey: Holiday For Skins
by Chris May
An unpleasant odour of Eurocentric condescension has hung over Art Blakey's drum choir projects ever since they were recorded in the late 1950s. Orgy In Rhythm (1957) and Holiday For Skins (1958)--both originally released as two LPs and both now packaged on single CDs, the latter newly available in this Connoisseur edition--have been viewed by some in the critical fraternity as no more than a bit of inconsequential and unchallenging fun in which Blakey crashes around, more at less at ...
Continue ReadingArt Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Live! at Slug's, NYC
by Samuel Chell
The drums and bass are miked too “hot," and the horns occasionally distort, but there are at least two compelling reasons to listen to this 2006 release of a 1968 on-location Messengers date featuring an unusual Blakey lineup. (No doubt some jazz fans will recognize Slug's as the unpretentious Bowery jazz saloon where Lee Morgan was shot and killed by a jealous lover.)
Billy Harper was an emerging tenor star and a dominant, “first-call" musician on the New ...
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