Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

jazz musicians are badass. please follow Blue Note's example. Thank you.

Art

http://www.dustygroove.com/images/products/b/blakey_art~_indestruc_101b.jpg

I hope someone will say a few words about those later JM lineups, as I'm really curious about them.

Almost immediately I wanted to pick up something else with him and I noticed that the Meet the Jazztet record is import only. WTF?

Apologies in advance if the html doesn't work...

Moanin' -- everyone plays the title track, but cats forget about the DRUM THUNDER SUITE

Roots & Herbs

Mosaic -- OMG the title track is RIDICULOUS, it's just a blowout.

Night in Tunisia

Caravan

Funny really, Messengers seems like the ultimate catchy hard bop band, a great first entry into the genre and what have you. In theory. It didn't end up working like that for me at all, but NOW those albums I have really kick my earlobes around.
Not that I've been into jazz for more than a few years, so I'm still pretty much in the beginner stages of my jazz-interests, but hey.

On an extra-musical note: I love all those pictures of Art Blakey where he's got his mouth open and love lip up over his teeth.
http://www.marcmarnie.com/music/mgall03/artblakey.jpg

More Art Blakey discussion!
Been enjoying "At The Jazz Corner of the World," a live record from late 50s with Hank Mobley and Lee Morgan on the front line. Excellent stuff -- goes from cool to hot at the drop of a hat. Mobley seems kind of like an underrated player. On this set, he sounds awesome. And Blakey obviously kills. He's a fun drummer -- you can definitely hear him "leading" the band from behind the kit.

Mobley seems kind of like an underrated player.

Underrated at the time, perhaps, but now his original LPs are big ticket collectors items.

But this is an Art Blakey thread.
It is the thread where I talk about how I have been listening to "Meet You @ Jazz Corner" (there are actually two sets of LPs on Blue Note with similar titles, and similar line-ups. There is "Meet You at Jazz Corner" Vol. 1 & 2 and also "At The Jazz Corner of the World" vols 1 & 2. In my experience they are all good.)

Also, "Moanin"
also, "Freedom Rider."

I got my mom the CD of "Night in Tunisia" and she seems to enjoy it.
That is all I have to say. Heaps of praise for him and his bands, as well as monsieur Rudy Van Gelder.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AZXRNZ6JL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Last Spring I listened to this like three times a day every day for two months. I never got tired of it.

Night in Tunisia and Big Beat are both good.

Not the biggest Blakey fan relative to other drummers but he was still great. Also don't have the hard bop jones much anymore, and when I do I prefer someone headier like Joe Henderson or Herbie Hancock.

But what a great bunch of alumni he had! I've been really digging Bobby Timmons's trio records lately.

listened to this one this morning
http://www.qpratools.com/gallery/art_blakey_&_the_jazz_messengers-the_jazz_messengers_%5Bcolumbia%5D-front_mini.jpg
pretty classic -- guess it's the only jazz messengers record w/ donald byrd? great, long version of "nica's dream"

Bu = classic. For the alumni Hurting mentioned and all the great work they did with him. I think drummers don't always rank him at the very top, but I love him for keeping time on his hi-hat during his own solos and for using a press roll to tell somebody else to end theirs.

his drumming just sounds so buoyant -- seems like if you were playing with him you had to just go with the flow/energy of the drums.

That sounds about right.

Will recommend once again the excellent two volume series Drummin' Men, by Burt Korall.

hmm, thanks for the rec! i'll check that out. is there a full bio of blakey?

Don't know about a full bio, but the twenty pages about him in Drummin' Men are cherce.

Digging into Blakey/Jazz Messengers lately via the Real Gone box. Fascinating and enthralling at nearly every turn. Had such a tremendous sound on the kit, and such a unique sense of orchestration in his playing.

R.I.P. Cedar Walton

R.I.P. Horace Silver

Not a good year for Jazz Messengers pianists.

So the rumors are false, but I hadn't listened to him in a while, and it's reminding me that the thing I always liked the most about him was that heavy left hand.

I don't think I have had a proper listen to Mosaic before, gosh it is a fucking immense album.

I used to really like New World which was a pretty random find and I think comes from a '68 live set with Julian Priester in the Messengers.
Had turned up in my local records hop when I was just discovering various bits of jazz. & I knew the name Art Bl;akey but not much of his material. I think he's still somebody I don't know brilliantly.
But he Kenny Clarke and Max Roach are all good.

the closing track was inspired by the Cuban Missile Crisis and contains the third absolute badass Blakey drum solo of the album.

in fact I think it was Arabia that has the mentioned drum solo, no matter it is all good.

i've kinda barely heard blakey stuff after Shorter left the band -- i should probably dig into it a but more.

Same. I know John Gilmore (!) was in the lineup at one point, but dunno if he recorded with them in addition to touring with them.

Mosaic is a favorite, the title track is insane. Thanks for the reminder, now I'll be listening to '60s Blakey records all week.

Wow, Jymie Merritt is still around at 90. So is Curtis Fuller (and Wayne Shorter, of course).

Jymie's son is bassist Mike Merritt, who's been in Conan O'Brien's house band since '93.

Free for All is my go to Jazz Messengers Blue Note alb - a late intense one w/ Freddie Hubbard and Wayner Shorter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nljvdRWsfG4

the core, the heart music

I'm listening to Afrique off The Witch Doctor at the moment <3

that lee morgan doc is streaming on netflix now -- looking forward to checking it out.

It's also on Amazon Video, for people (like me) who don't have Netflix.

That Blue Note '5 Essential Records' set has been great so far. I have not yet checked out the drum ensemble record but the other four have been really good listens, especially 'Free for All' which is another ace Blue Note album.

That title track "Free for All" is really intense and to me sounds like Wayne Shorter kinda digging into similar ideas that Coltrane had been doing a short time before. It's really aggressive.

Curtis Fuller's trombone sound is so warm. Having that low end with the trumpet and the tenor sax makes such a big sound. It sounds really good on Coltrane's Blue Train too. I love how on many of these tunes during the solos the other two horns do those little chord drop ins.

You really can tell this was not just a pick up for a session band, they sound tight as hell.

Anyway...some of the best music new to me that I have heard in a while.

I bet that drum solo "The Freedom Rider" has been cut up and single shot sampled a boodle over the years.

how did I ever live without this music?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idVU_YhZ7AU

this band smokes

yes

picked up the album Hard Bop, w/Art obv and Jackie McLean (who I adore and feel like could get more love?) and three guys I'm not familiar with - Bill Hardman, Sam Dockery, and the amazingly named bassist Spanky de Brest. great record.

stopped in to say The Jazz Messengers (1956 album) is just nothing short of incredible.