Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Kyoto

Styles: Jazz, Hard Bop
Year: 1991
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 32:24
Size: 74,7 MB
Art: Front

(5:57) 1. The High Priest
(5:49) 2. Never Never Land
(5:04) 3. Wellington's Blues
(8:30) 4. Nihon Bash
(7:04) 5. Kyoto

Reissued on Fantasy's OJC series, this album finds Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers paying tribute to Japan (where they had toured to great acclaim) on two selections, featuring Art Blakey's cousin as a vocalist on "Wellington's Blues" (a real rarity in The Jazz Messengers' discography) and debuting Curtis Fuller's "The High Priest." With trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, tenorman Wayne Shorter and trombonist Fuller in fine form, this is one of literally dozens of recommended Jazz Messengers recordings.~Scott Yanowhttps://www.allmusic.com/album/kyoto-mw0000315032

Personnel: Art Blakey - drums; Freddie Hubbard – trumpet; Curtis Fuller – trombone; Wayne Shorter - tenor saxophone; Cedar Walton - piano; Reggie Workman - bass; Wellington Blakey - vocals (track 3)

Kyoto

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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messenger - In Concert

Styles: Jazz, Hard Bop
Year: 2022
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 76:38
Size: 176,0 MB
Art: Front

( 9:05) 1. Moon River
( 6:23) 2. Contemplation
(13:08) 3. Lester Left Town
( 8:30) 4. Round Midnight
(15:06) 5. It's Only A Papermoon
(16:21) 6. Arabia
( 8:03) 7. Blues March

Recorded in Copenhagen, this set captures one of the most fabled editions of the Messengers trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist Cedar Walton, and the now-too-often-forgotten bassist Jymie Merritt, along with their indefatigable leader in full flight. It’s the usual mix of standards and originals, this time contributed by Shorter (“Contemplation,” “Lester Left Town”) and Fuller (“Arabia”), in the classic hard-swinging Messengers style.

Shorter’s solo on “Moon River” sets the pace: This “river” is closer to a tsunami than the gently rippling dreamscape of Mercer and Arlen’s original vision. Throughout, Hubbard summons both the technical brio of old-school bebop and the gospel fervor of the burgeoning hard-bop style. Fuller likewise melds acuity, imagination, and a timbral sureness that rivals such bop-era progenitors as J.J. Johnson. Walton exploits the percussive, as well as melodic and harmonic, capacities of his instrument, creating shifting textural landscapes that he then negotiates effortlessly. And Blakey, of course, is an unstoppable force of nature.

Hubbard’s muted tenderness as he caresses Monk’s “’Round Midnight” is toughened by his wry humor and the unwavering focus of his extended lines; Shorter’s “Contemplation” lives up to its title, albeit infused with forward-driving impetus devoid of bathos; “It’s Only a Paper Moon” is a flat-out romp, spiced by Walton’s sly insertion of a quote from Monk’s “Rhythm-a-Ning”; Shorter’s solo on Fuller’s “Arabia” is a six-minute-plus marathon that explodes into uncharted realms of power and imaginative intensity.

Such is the heat and virtuosity these artists summon that it can be almost exhausting listening to take them on their own terms and rise to meet the bar they set, but it’s well worth the effort: a bracing flight of inspiration, challenges, and, most importantly (as William Blake would remind us), “wing’d exulting swift delight.”
https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/art-blakey-the-jazz-messengers-in-concert-1962-steeplechase/

In Concert

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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - The Big Beat

Styles: Jazz, Hard Bop
Year: 1960
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:13
Size: 115,2 MB
Art: Front

(9:39) 1. The Chess Players
(6:09) 2. Sakeena's Vision
(6:07) 3. Politely
(8:50) 4. Dat Dere
(6:29) 5. Lester Left Town
(6:41) 6. It's Only A Paper Moon
(6:15) 7. It's Only A Paper Moon (Alternate Take)

Perhaps the best known and most loved of Art Blakey's works, The Big Beat is a testament to the creative progress of one of the best jazz drummers of all time. Now over 40 years old, The Big Beat is as thunderous as ever. Here, Blakey combines his rhythm with tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter's brilliant composing to make what could only be termed a "structurally raw" album. Each track rips through bebop as quickly as Blakey ripped through drum heads. "Dat Dere" and "Lester Left Town" stand out as part of the true canons for hot jazz. Two alternate versions of "It's Only a Paper Moon" round out the album, both brimming with the fluid integrity of the song and the drive only Blakey could provide. As one of the few drummers to step out and lead, not just play backup, Blakey created a true jazz treasure in The Big Beat.~ Christopher Fielderhttps://www.allmusic.com/album/the-big-beat-mw0000191549

Personnel: Art Blakey — drums; Lee Morgan — trumpet, flugelhorn; Wayne Shorter — tenor saxophone; Bobby Timmons — piano; Jymie Merritt — bass

The Big Beat

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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - First Flight To Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings

Styles: Jazz, Hard Bop
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 103:05
Size: 240,7 MB
Art: Front

(22:34) 1. Now's The Time
(13:32) 2. Moanin'
(11:44) 3. Blues March
( 0:32) 4. The Theme
(12:13) 5. Dat Dere
(13:28) 6. 'Round About Midnight
(17:15) 7. Now's The Time
(11:12) 8. A Night In Tunisia
( 0:30) 9. The Theme

There is a saying in the opera world which, though innocuous on the face of it, damns a work before the overture has begun let alone after the fat lady sings. The saying, beloved of breathless publicists deaf to its implication, is that such and such an opera is "rarely performed." The reason it is rarely performed, of course, is because nine times out of ten it is a dud. When it comes to jazz albums the parallel saying is "previously unreleased." Unless the recording has only recently been discovered to exist, five gets you ten that it, too, is a dud and the longer it has lain unreleased the greater that probability. First Flight To Tokyo is, Blue Note tells us, a "thrilling previously unreleased" live recording. Its subtitle, The Lost 1961 Recordings, suggests the tapes have not until recently been known to exist and that, as with the Dead Sea Scrolls, only decades of dedicated archaeological excavation have unearthed them. In fact, the tapes and their whereabouts have been known about for sixty years. One is minded, therefore, to arrange the following words into a well known phrase or saying: barrel, bottom, scrape.

Actually, First Flight To Tokyo is not that bad. It is certainly not a dud. But nor is it the masterpiece it will doubtless be dubbed by gullible reviewers who are perhaps unfamiliar with the genuinely great live albums in the Jazz Messengers' discography. It is, in fact, a solid album from one of the hardest working bands of its era and not without interest. But A Night At Birdland (Blue Note, 1954) or At The Café Bohemia (Blue Note, 1956) it is not. The alternate takes of Charlie Parker's "Now's The Time," one lasting 22:34, the other 17:15, suggest the band played two sets at Tokyo's Hibiya Public Hall on January 14, 1961. The tune had been in the band book since 1954 and is part of the aforementioned A Night At Birdland, along with Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night In Tunisia," which is also heard here. The Messengers' front line was then trumpeter Clifford Brown and alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson, not First Flight To Tokyo's trumpeter Lee Morgan and tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter. The other Tokyo tunes pianist Bobby Timmons' "Moanin'" and "Dat Dere" and ex-Messenger tenor saxophonist Benny Golson's "Blues March" were more recent additions to the book. Nothing from Shorter, who is one of the two most interesting composers in the history of the Jazz Messengers (the other being Golson).

All these tunes get expansive going on raucous performances. The opening track is the longer of the two versions of "Now's The Time," and it is the most compelling performance on the 2xCD set, opening and closing with five minute solos from Blakey, sandwiching others by Shorter, Morgan and Timmons. Just shy of three years away from his defining hit, "The Sidewinder," Morgan is already post bop and across gospel infused hard bop. Shorter is still some distance from his nuanced mature style and attempts, on this track and the others, to follow Blakey's wish that every chorus should sound like the grand finale of the set. Throughout the album, Timmons is his own deeply funky self. The only track which does not quite convince is Thelonious Monk's "'Round About Midnight." Morgan is superb, but Blakey and the Messengers were better at belters than ballads, notwithstanding their gorgeous reading of Golson's "Whisper Not" on 1958 Paris Olympia (Blue Note).

Bottom line: First Flight To Tokyo is one for hardcore Jazz Messengers' aficionados, who will already know that this particular Messengers lineup is arguably heard at its best on two Blue Note studio albums also recorded in 1961, A Night In Tunisia and Roots And Herbs.~ Chris Mayhttps://www.allaboutjazz.com/first-flight-to-tokyo-the-lost-1961-recordings-art-blakey-and-the-jazz-messengers-blue-note-records__30509

Personnel: Art Blakey: drums; Wayne Shorter: saxophone; Lee Morgan: trumpet; Bobby Timmons: piano; Jymie Merritt: bass.

First Flight To Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings

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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Jazz Messengers '70

Styles: Jazz, Hard Bop
Year: 1970
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:19
Size: 113,1 MB
Art: Front

( 5:49) 1. Moanin'
( 4:57) 2. Blues March
( 6:34) 3. Whisper Not
(10:14) 4. It's Only A Paper Moon
( 6:51) 5. What The World Needs Now Is Peace And Love
( 5:25) 6. Politely
( 9:26) 7. A Night In Tunisia

One of only two albums recorded by Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers during 1967-71, this LP is quite unusual, for not only does it feature veteran trumpeter Bill Hardman, but the avant-garde tenor of Carlos Garnett and pianist Joanne Brackeen (the first female member of The Jazz Messengers). Mostly performing durable standards such as "Moanin'," "Whisper Not" and "A Night in Tunisia," the quintet casts new light on these tunes, making them sound fresh and flexible. This unusual set is recommended to longtime followers of Art Blakey; it deserves to be reissued on CD.

Personnel: Bass – Jan Arnet; Drums – Art Blakey; Piano – Joanne Brackeen; Tenor Saxophone – Carlos Garnett; Trumpet – Bill Hardman

Jazz Messengers'70

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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Just Coolin'

Styles: Jazz, Hard Bop
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:57
Size: 89,6 MB
Art: Front

(6:40) 1. Hipsippy Blues
(6:26) 2. Close Your Eyes
(6:22) 3. Jimerick
(4:43) 4. Quick Trick
(5:59) 5. M&M
(8:43) 6. Just Coolin'

This previously unreleased March 1959 studio session captures the Jazz Messengers in a period of transition. Benny Golson had departed; Wayne Shorter had not yet arrived. In the interim, the tenor chair was filled by Hank Mobley, who’d been a member of the original Messengers, appearing on their breakout albums At the Café Bohemia, Volumes 1 and 2, recorded in 1955 and released the following year. Jazz itself was also transitioning during this time; bebop had morphed into the funkier, more roots-driven hard bop (due in no small part to Art Blakey and the Messengers’ pioneering work), and the even rootsier Saturday night/Sunday morning amalgam that became known as soul-jazz was on the horizon (several musicians here, including Lee Morgan and Bobby Timmons, would be central in this development).

Appropriately, then, these six tracks half of them penned by Mobley are buoyed by a hip, streetsy swagger, striding along the nexus between hard bop and soul-jazz. Mobley, alternately beguiling and blues-drenched, sounds in places almost like a tenorized Lou Donaldson, his characteristic flashes of humor adding both spice and hipster irony to his lines; Morgan imbues his usual technical virtuosity with fiery emotionalism, as if to give a workshop in the ongoing bop/hard-bop evolution. Timmons’ solo work is slyly understated but punctuated with spiky jabs, scurries, and curlicues. Blakey may be a bit more restrained than usual, yet he remains determinedly in control, relentlessly inspiring (compelling?) the soloists to alter their mood or rhythmic approach or, sometimes, just ratchet things up to a higher level with a well-placed kick, cymbal fusillade, or press roll. Until now, the only extant documentation of this Messengers unit had been At the Jazz Corner of the World, recorded at Birdland by Alfred Lion a few weeks later. Although the “without-a-net” creative tension of a live performance is necessarily missing here, this is an invaluable opportunity to hear a short-lived but significant incarnation of one of jazz’s most fabled groups. ~ David Whiteis https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/art-blakey-the-jazz-messengers-just-coolin-blue-note/

Personnel: Bass – Jymie Merritt; Drums – Art Blakey; Piano – Bobby Timmons; Tenor Saxophone – Hank Mobley; Trumpet – Lee Morgan

Just Coolin'

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