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ART BLAKEY AND THE JAZZ MESSENGERS The Complete 3 Blind Mice American Jazz Classics 99093

CD1

1. Three Blind Mice

2. Blue Moon

3. That Old Feeling

4. Plexis

5. Up Jumped Spring

6. When Lights Are Low

7. Children of the Night

8. Up Jumped Spring [alternate take]

9. It’s Only a Paper Moon

10. Children of the Night [studio version]

CD2

1. Mosaic

2. Ping Pong

3. The Promised Land

4. Arabia

5. Mosaic [studio version]

6. Arabia [studio version]

Art Blakey - Drums

Freddie Hubbard - Trumpet

Wayne Shorter – Tenor sax

Curtis Fuller - Trombone

Cedar Walton - Piano

Jymie Merritt – Bass

Most of the tracks on this double album were recorded at Hollywood’s Renaissance Club in March 1962. This version of the Jazz Messengers had made its recording debut in 1961 with the album Mosaic, and it was unusual in that the band had expanded to a sextet by the addition of a trombonist (Curtis Fuller).

The Jazz Messengers have always been a hard-hitting ensemble and this album shows them at their most powerful. Indeed, I have never heard Art Blakey’s aggressive style captured so well on recorv d. His famous press rolls are much in evidence throughout and he contributes some thundering drum solos, although some of them are full of sound and fury without signifying much. And Blakey is rather too fond of playing drum breaks which go up and down the scale. Yet when he is not soloing, he keeps up a constant barrage of drum accents to ignite the music.

This fiery approach is also evident in the playing of the front-line musicians, who often seem to be trying to cram as many notes as they can into their solos. A prime example of this is the first version of Cedar Walton’s Mosaic. This can be impressive without the satisfaction that a more melodic approach would bring. And the desire to play masses of notes can lead to fluffs and wrong notes. Cedar Walton’s piano solos tend to be more melodic – and therefore more persuasive. Slower tempos allow more cohesion, as in When Lights Are Low, a feature for Curtis Fuller’s educated trombone. And the arrangements which book-end each tune are skillfully assembled by members of the band, who wrote all but four of the pieces on the album.

This is hard bop, with emphasis on the word “hard”. If that is what you want, this double CD supplies it.

Tony Augarde
www.augardebooks.co.uk

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