Art Blakey

But as Art himself told it so many times, his career on the piano ended at the wrong end of a pistol when the owner of the Democratic Club—the Pittsburgh nightclub where he was gigging—ordered him off the piano and onto the drums.

Art, then in his early teens and a budding pianist, was usurped by an equally young, Erroll Garner who, as it turned out, was as skilled at the piano as Blakey later was at the drums. The upset turned into

a blessing for Art, launching a career that spanned six decades and nurtured the careers of countless other jazz musicians.

As a young drummer, Art came under the tutelage of legendary drummer and bandleader Chick Webb, serving as his valet. In 1937, Art returned to Pittsburgh, forming his own band, teaming up with Pianist Mary Lou Williams, under whose name the band performed.

From his Pittsburgh gig, Art made his way through the Jazz world. In 1939, he began a three-year gig touring with Fletcher Henderson. After a year in Boston with a steady gig at the Tic Toc club, he joined the great Billy Eckstine, gigging with the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sarah Vaughn.

In 1948, Art told reporters he had visited Africa, where he learned polyrhythmic drumming and was introduced to Islam, taking the name Abdullah Ibn Buhaina. It was in the late ’40s that Art formed his first Jazz Messengers band, a 17-piece big band.

After a brief gig with Buddy DeFranco, in 1954 Art met up with pianist Horace Silver, altoist Lou Donaldson, trumpeter Clifford Brown, and bassist Curly Russell and recorded "live" at Birdland for Blue Note Records. The following year, Art and Horace Silver co-founded the quintet that became the Jazz Messengers. In 1956, Horace Silver left the band to form his own group leaving the name, the Jazz Messengers, to Art Blakey.

Art’s driving rhythms and his incessant two and four beat on the high hat cymbals were readily identifiable from the outset and remained a constant throughout 35 years of Jazz Messengers bands. What changed constantly was a seeming unending supply of talented sidemen, many of whom went on to become band leaders in their own right.

In the early years luminaries like Clifford Brown, Hank Mobley and Jackie McLean rounded out the band. In 1959, tenor saxophonist Benny Golson joined the quintet and—at Art’s behest—began working on the songbook and recruiting what became one of the timeless Messenger bands—tenor saxman Wayne Shorter, trumpeter Lee Morgan, pianist Bobby Timmons and bassist Jymmie Merritt.

The songs produced from ’59 through the early ’60s became trademarks for the Messengers ?" including Timmon’s Moanin’, Golson’s Along Came Betty and Blues March and Shorter’s Ping Pong.

By this time, the Messengers had become a mainstay on the jazz club circuit and began recording on Blue Note Records. They began touring Europe, with forays into North Africa. In 1960, the Messengers became the first American Jazz band to play in Japan for Japanese audiences. That first Japanese tour was a high point for the band. At the Tokyo airport, the band was greeted by hundreds of fans as Blues March played over their airport intercom and their visit was televised nationally.

In 1961, trombonist Curtis Fuller transformed the Messengers into a proper sextet, giving the band the opportunity to incorporate a big band sound into their hard bop repertoire. Throughout the ’60s, the Messengers remained a mainstay on the jazz scene with jazz greats including Cedar Walton, Chuck Mangione, Keith Jarrett, Reggie Workman, Lucky Thompson and John Hicks. In the jazz drought of the ’70s, the Messengers remained a strong force, with fewer recordings, but no less energy. At a time when many jazz musicians were experimenting with electronics and fusing their music with pop, the Messengers were a mainstay of straight-ahead jazz.

Art’s steadfast belief in jazz music left him well positioned to take advantage of the music’s resurgence in the early ’80s. Art had been working with musicians including trumpeter Valery Ponomarev, tenor Billy Pierce, alto saxman Bobby Watson and pianist James Williams. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ 1980 entrance into the band coincided—and played no small part in—the resurgence of the music in the ’80s.

Throughout the ’80 and until his death in 1990, Art maintained the integrity of the message, incubating the careers of musicians including trumpeters Wallace Rooney and Terence Blanchard, pianists Mulgrew Miller and Donald Brown, bassists Peter Washington and Lonnie Plaxico and many others.

Art died at the age of 71 after a career that spanned six of the best decades of jazz music. The messenger has moved on, but his message lives on in the music of the scores of sidemen whose careers he nurtured, the many other drummers he mentored and countless fans who have been blessed to hear the Messengers’ music. Source: Yawu Miller

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Charlie Parker: At Birdland 1950 Revisited

Read "At Birdland 1950 Revisited" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
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Il 1950 per Charlie Parker è un anno di cambiamenti. Dopo lo scioglimento del quintetto aureo con Miles Davis e Max Roach, le formazioni diventano più effimere, occasionali, almeno fino al sodalizio con Red Rodney. Norman Granz sta per trascinare Parker nella fortunata formula con gli archi, nel frattempo c'è l'impegno di una lunga e tormentata tournèe nel sud del paese. In questo contesto, le registrazioni preservate al Birdland di New York del giugno di quell'anno, possiedono un'aura ...

Reassessing

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by C. Michael Bailey
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Pianist and composer Elmo Hope has more in common with Tadd Dameron than most of his other jazz peers. Both men were primarily composers and arrangers who concentrated on their own music rather than standards. Both men spent their professional lives in New York City during the twilight of bebop and the flourishing of hard bop. Neither man boasted large discographies as leaders, but appeared on a significant number of recordings as sidemen. Their careers were both shortened dramatically by ...

Club Profile

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by Sanford Josephson
August 2, 2025

I owe my love of jazz to the time I spent in Japan in the mid-1960s when I was working as a writer in the public information office of the American Red Cross' Far Eastern Area headquarters, located on a U.S. Army base about 45 minutes from Tokyo. While there, I saw Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Herbie Mann, Oscar Peterson, and many other well-known jazz artists at concerts or in clubs. But, I also hung out at the ...

Album Review

Lee Morgan: Here's Lee Morgan

Read "Here's Lee Morgan" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan

by C. Andrew Hovan
July 5, 2025

While Craft Recordings' new OJC reissue series has largely drawn from its treasure trove of Prestige and Riverside titles, the label recently expanded its scope to include two standout jazz albums from Chicago's historic Vee-Jay Records. Founded in 1953 by husband-and-wife team James Bracken and Vivian Carter, Vee-Jay was not only one of the earliest Black-owned and woman-owned labels but also a remarkably eclectic imprint. Known for its blues releases--and even some early Beatles records--Vee-Jay also documented top-tier ...

Album Review

Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane: Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane 1957. Revisited.

Read "Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane 1957. Revisited." reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
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Ci sono sodalizi artistici che segnano in maniera indelebile la ricchezza creativa dei protagonisti. Tra questi, di sicuro quello tra Thelonious Monk e John Coltrane, anno di grazia 1957. L'estroso pianista e compositore, ancora lontano dal ricevere i riconoscimenti meritati, trova finalmente qualcuno che interpreta le sue partiture con rara dialettica esecutiva: leggerezza e profondità, acume sottile e abbandono istintivo. L'apollineo sassofonista, all'epoca ancora turbato dalla tossicodipendenza, passa dalla frustrazione di un licenziamento da parte di ...

Jazz in Long Form

From Flock to Shepherd: The Evolution of the Drummer-Led Ensemble in Jazz

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On November 15th, 2017 at 8:30pm, the Jazz Standard in New York City had a line around the block. Starting from the dual entrance of the Jazz Standard jazz club and Blue Smoke restaurant in the direct middle of East 27th Street, the line of people stretched almost to Lexington Avenue, nearly 300 feet. Just after 9:00pm, audience members from the earlier set began to be released. The faces included some of the most prominent members of the New York ...

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Read "Celebrating 75 Years Of His First Recordings Revisited" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

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Recording

Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers: Free for All

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 30, 2024

Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers' Free for All was recorded in February 1964 and released in July 1965. Only four tracks were recorded, two per side. And yet the album is one of the hard-bop sextet's finest and most ambitious works. The band is firing on all cylinders. The lineup in 1964 featured Blakey on drums, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Cedar Walton on piano and Reggie Workman on bass. The ...
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Music Industry

Backgrounder: Art Blakey! Jazz Messengers!, 1961

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 16, 2023

One of my favorite albums by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers has a baffling title. For some reason, Impulse Records decided the title should be Art Blakey Jazz Messengers The confusing result is that some refer to the album as Impulse!!! or Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers!!! while those in Japan know the album as Alamode. Whatever title you choose, the album is an explosion of energy and beauty. Recorded in June 1961, the Messengers lineup consisted of ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Art Blakey

Source: Michael Ricci
October 11, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Art Blakey's birthday today!

Born in 1919, Art Blakey began his musical career, as did many jazz musicians, in the church. The foster son of a devout Seventh Day Adventist Family, Art learned the piano as he learned the Bible, mastering both at an early age. But as Art himself told it so many times, his career on the piano ended at the wrong end of a pistol when the owner of the Democratic Club—the ...
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TV / Film

Documentary: Art Blakey

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
September 28, 2022

Dick Fontaine remains one of the world's finest music documentarians. The British filmmaker also has had a knack for identifying major trends early and capturing them in their nascent form. Among his subjects have been the Beatles (filmed four days after Ringo joined the band at Liverpool's Cavern club in 1962), Ornette Coleman (1966), Sonny Rollins (1968) and hip-hop (1984). In all, he has made more than 40 films and his subjects have included James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, Jean Shrimpton, ...
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Recording

Art Blakey: Flight to Tokyo

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 17, 2021

In January 1961, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers were on their first tour of Japan. That year, the Messengers consisted of a tough bunch of signature players—Lee Morgan (tp), Wayne Shorter (ts), Bobby Timmons (p), Jymie Merritt (b) and Blakey (d). This particular line-up of Messengers had been together since early 1960, when they recorded The Big Beat for Blue Note. The fact that Blakey was able to assemble and unify so much jazz firepower was a testament to ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Art Blakey

Source: Michael Ricci
October 11, 2021

All About Jazz is celebrating Art Blakey's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Art Blakey

Source: Michael Ricci
October 11, 2020

All About Jazz is celebrating Art Blakey's birthday today!

Video / DVD

Art Blakey: Just Coolin'

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 20, 2020

Listening back to the tape he recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, N.J., on March 8, 1959, Blue Note producer Alfred Lion liked what he heard. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers were on fire. The music was tight and ferocious, with the horns—trumpeter Lee Morgan and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley—improvising on point. The rhythm section—pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Jymie Merritt and Blakey on drums—were stirring the pot behind them. If there was a flaw, it was Mobley ...
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Video / DVD

Videos: Art Blakey Tour, the '60s

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 18, 2020

In the 1960s, drummer and Jazz Messengers leader Art Blakey shifted with the times and gave hard bop a more political, pan-nationalism feel. The more the group toured, the more Blakey yearned to incorporate the rhythms and vibe of other cultures. Here are five clips that recently went up at YouTube illustrating Blakey's evolution: Here's 49 minutes of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in Tokyo... Here's Blakey in Paris in 1963 with Cedar Walton on piano... Here's Blakey in ...
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Recording

Art Blakey: Africaine

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 14, 2019

Wayne Shorter's first studio album with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers was recorded on November 10, 1959. Two of the six songs on the date were originals by the tenor saxophonist. Then the album sat in the Blue Note vault for 22 years, when it finally was released as Africaine in 1981. We have re-issue producer Michael Cuscuna to thank for dusting off the find. Given that October 11 on Friday was the centenary of Art Blakey's birth, what ...
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