Art Blakey!!!!! Jazz Messengers!!!&#33

[Rooster_Ties]

Thanks Roo!

It's my go-to for documentation of Tyrone Washington's brief stay in the Messengers, of which I still have some vague hope a tape will turn up some day.

[Head Man]

Yep. On Bethlehem.

That's right....thanks!

I must dig that out and give it a spin.

[Dave James]

For $4.99? Even if you don't wind up liking it that much (and if you're a Blakey fan, what are the odds) it's not like you had to take out a second mortgage. IMO, if there's such a thing as a slam dunk, this is a slam dunk.

[Quincy]

Strange, 3 different browsers and I see nothing regarding Marcello, BFrank, or Brad's album pictures. Not even if I hit reply. Oh…sheeesh, now I get it, "this album" is the one the post is about. Ah, it's hard to beat Monday for brain fogginess. Or maybe the lack of thread drift threw me off.

Not the Messengers but I also like Blakey's Impulse! album with Stitt. Foolishly after about a dozen Blakey albums I thought I'd probably had enough. Now I'm up to around 2 dozen and still have more I'm interested in. There's a dangerous thread on here with all sorts of great suggestions.

Edited May 16, 2011 by Quincy

[JSngry]

this session lacks a certain spark I've come to expect with Messenger dates.

Lots of standards on this one, maybe too many for it to hit the zone that this band usually hit.

[Tom 1960]

Geez, I guess the verdict is pretty much unanimous. I'll get my butt out after work tomorrow and get it. Thanks much!

[Tom 1960]

Got it!!!

[BillF]

Got it!!!

[BFrank]

Got it!!!

And............?

[Tom 1960]

Got it!!!

And............?

I've had the opportunity to hear the album twice in the past few days and really enjoy it. As stated by others "Alamode" is probably the standout track although I also really enjoyed "I Hear A Rhapsody". Good stuff as you would expect with the front line of Morgan, Shorter and Fuller. Is it essential? Depends where you're coming from. For the casual fan perhaps other releases are more noteworthy. But if you're a Blakey diehard like myself, you wont want to be without it. What makes this especially sweet for me is the fact I paid only $4.98.

[umum_cypher]

Some of the arrangements for this session (which are a bit different than the usual Messenger arrangements) were apparently done by Leon Mitchell, who was briefly Blue Note's A & R man in the early sixties (he contributed some great compositions to Horace Parlan's dates). I thought I saw this on his website, but I guess not. He still has the arrangements.

Bertrand.

From my book on Lee:

Leon Mitchell spent a sleepless weekend in Blakey’s apartment writing arrangements for the Jazz Messengers’ self-titled album on Impulse. ‘He tried to get me to use some Benzedrine or something’, remembered Mitchell. ‘I said man, I’m a disciplinarian, I don’t need no Benzedrine to stay awake. That’s when he told me, Leon Mitchell, you ain’t got enough sense to use no dope. I said Yeah, be like you’. Blakey refused to pay Mitchell his fee until months later, and only then after Mitchell tried to throw the drummer out of a window. ‘Well’, Mitchell said forty years later, somewhat philosophically: ‘he was hustling. That’s why he was successful’.

The window, I believe, was at Pep's in Philadelphia. I think there was an unused arrangement, too.

That third Olympia volume is fantastic, BTW. Wayne is really at his best (within the constraints of the bish-bash routine).

[Head Man]

That third Olympia volume is fantastic, BTW. Wayne is really at his best (within the constraints of the bish-bash routine).

Could someone give the track listing for the three volumes, please.

[Bill B]

That third Olympia volume is fantastic, BTW. Wayne is really at his best (within the constraints of the bish-bash routine).

Could someone give the track listing for the three volumes, please.

May 13, 1961: Olympia, Paris

(First concert)

The Summit

Yama

Close Your Eyes

Dat Dere

Lost & Found

Round Midnight

Kozo's Waltz

Those Who Sit and Wait (issued as 'unidentified')

A Night in Tunisia

The Theme

(Second concert)

Round Midnight

So Tired

My Funny Valentine

It's Only a Paper Moon

Noise in the Attic

Moanin'

I Didn't Know What Time It Was

Blues March

A Night in Tunisia

Track Order

Disk 1- Tracks 1-4 RTE-1502-2 Vol 1

Disk 1- Tracks 5-10 Trema-710571

Disk 2- Tracks 1-3 RTE-1502-2 Vol 1

Disk 2 - Tracks 4-9 RTE- 1502-2 Vol 2

[Head Man]

That third Olympia volume is fantastic, BTW. Wayne is really at his best (within the constraints of the bish-bash routine).

Could someone give the track listing for the three volumes, please.

May 13, 1961: Olympia, Paris

(First concert)

The Summit

Yama

Close Your Eyes

Dat Dere

Lost & Found

Round Midnight

Kozo's Waltz

Those Who Sit and Wait (issued as 'unidentified')

A Night in Tunisia

The Theme

(Second concert)

Round Midnight

So Tired

My Funny Valentine

It's Only a Paper Moon

Noise in the Attic

Moanin'

I Didn't Know What Time It Was

Blues March

A Night in Tunisia

Track Order

Disk 1- Tracks 1-4 RTE-1502-2 Vol 1

Disk 1- Tracks 5-10 Trema-710571

Disk 2- Tracks 1-3 RTE-1502-2 Vol 1

Disk 2 - Tracks 4-9 RTE- 1502-2 Vol 2

Thanks Bill.

So, I guess if they wanted to release the whole concert in it's proper running order, then it would have to be FOUR CDs not THREE.

[Big Al]

This one is good. . . not a favorite Blakey of mine though. I confess, Curtis Fuller does less and less for me as time goes by. And this session lacks a certain spark I've come to expect with Messenger dates. But, that could just be me, and in time I might really like it.

Must respectfully disagree!!! The edition of the Messengers with Fuller is my all-time favorite line-up! YMMV, of course.

[jlhoots]

This one is good. . . not a favorite Blakey of mine though. I confess, Curtis Fuller does less and less for me as time goes by. And this session lacks a certain spark I've come to expect with Messenger dates. But, that could just be me, and in time I might really like it.

Must respectfully disagree!!! The edition of the Messengers with Fuller is my all-time favorite line-up! YMMV, of course.

Lon's usually right, but I don't think he's hot for Grachan Moncur III either.

Is it a trombone thing?

[BruceH]

You saw that for $4.99 and passed on it initially??? Perhaps not one of my all-time favorites, but pretty good all the same. Glad it was still there when you went back. Sweet deal.

Edited May 23, 2011 by BruceH

[jazzbo]

I love trombone. Fuller and Moncur are not among my favorites.

[BFrank]

If you have an eMusic account, you can get it for $2.94

[king ubu]

Got the two Olympia concerts today - thanks for the recommendation, guys!

(The two LaserLight cardboard packed sets, each with two regular jewel cased discs, in case anyone wonders.)

As for the Impulse album... we just discussed this elsewhere today - along with "Percussion Bitter Sweet" and "Into the Hot" it was one of three projects Creed Taylor had intiated before he left to Verve/MGM, but there seems to be no actual production credit given anywhere (I only have the CD and searched the net a bit, don't have an original vinyl to check if Creed's signature is there or not). Did Blakey and/or Shorter handle this themselves? (Roach did so with his album, while Gil Evans supervised the Johnny Carisi and Cecil Taylor sessions that formed "his" album... he then followed Creed to Verve, but only in 1963 was his next album to follow, "The Individualism of Gil Evans").

Ashley Kahn gives no production details for the Blakey album btw, neither does he mention that Fuller was an extra at that time (did he join immmediately after or only after a while? When he joined for good, Morgan and Timmons were gone, replaced by Hubbard and Walton).

I'd love to own a real copy of "Into the Hot" one day... got to check some stores for it!

Edited May 31, 2011 by king ubu