Archive for the ‘Art Blakey’ Category
Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins (1955-1986 – Label: Prestige)
Since a 50th Anniversary edition of this recording was released only several years ago, it’s possible that this recent RVG edition was seen by the parent company, Concord, as an opportunity to capitalize on the success—critical and popular—of the Monk/Coltrane Carnegie Hall concert (Blue Note, 2005). Regardless, this early meeting of masters, while yielding music of undeniable historical significance and timeless interest, is no match for the later one.
To begin with, the title is deceptive. Rollins and Monk play together on three of the five tracks on the album, which comprises three separate sessions recorded between November 1953 and September 1954. On the opening “Way You Look Tonight Monk’s solo is a mere half chorus—played in a fairly conventional bebop style. This leaves but two tunes, “I Want to Be Happy and “Friday the 13th, on which the two strong musical personalities seek to negotiate a happy result.
The proceedings are enjoyable, frequently original and illuminating, but not as miraculous as some reviews of earlier editions have suggested. It’s instructive to hear the “real” Monk emerge on “Happy,” allowing the beat to establish itself before he plays off of and around it, making the piano another polyrhythmic, percussive voice—as opposed to a solo voice accompanied by rhythm section or simply another member of the accompanying team itself.
The individualist/pianist solos for three choruses, each discretely original in conception and execution. After a chorus of connected, seamless lines played in the middle register, he leaps to the upper register for the second chorus, jabbing dissonant chord clusters at irregular intervals in the unfilled space. The third chorus finds him relinquishing his left hand to its independent devices while maintaining an elliptical melody in the right. Always an authoritative solo voice, Rollins seems emboldened by Monk’s example, playing with unmistakable conviction, especially compared to his work on an earlier session like Miles Davis’ Diggin’ (Prestige, 1951), where the tenorist clearly was aiming to make an impression.
Still, after hearing the Monk/Coltrane concert this encounter is inescapably anticlimactic. Rollins, whose playing anticipates some of the melodic/rhythmic characteristics of his successor Charlie Rouse, lacks the light articulations and responsive quickness of the less-renowned player. Compared to Rouse’s sportive playfulness, the tenor colossus sounds somewhat heavy and ponderous in Monk country. On the other hand, Coltrane’s intensity meshes with Monk’s whimsy because the piano “grounds the rapturous, altissimo flights of the tenor saxophone, as though Monk’s insistent harmonies and unyielding time are the falconer around which the falcon’s gyres are free to expend themselves without spiraling out of control.
Julius Watkins adds his solo voice for Monk’s extended and challenging (certainly for the listener) four-bar composition, “Friday the 13th, and the album is rounded out by the two trio numbers which, though they include Blakey, aren’t the equal of the later dialog between the pianist and the percussionist on Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk (Atlantic, 1957)—a fascinating and lively, yet ultimately one-sided conversation that might just as well have been titled “The Thelonious Monk Quintet.”
Samuel Chell – All About Jazz
1.Way You Look Tonight, The
2.I Want to Be Happy
3.Work
4.Nutty
5.Friday the 13th
Thelonious Monk (piano);
Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone);
Julius Watkins (French horn);
Percy Heath, Tommy Potter (bass);
Willie Jones, Art Blakey,
Arthur Taylor (drums).
Recorded in the 1955 and reissued in 2006 – Label: Prestige
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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Moanin’ (1958 – Blue Note)
This was Blakey’s first album for Blue Note in several years, after a period of recording for a miscellany of labels, and marked both a homecoming and a fresh start. Originally the LP was self-titled, but the instant popularity of the bluesy opening track “Moanin'” (by pianist Bobby Timmons) led to its becoming known by that title. The rest of the originals are by saxophonist Benny Golson (who wasn’t with the Jazz Messengers for very long, this being the only American album on which he is featured). “Are You Real?” is a propulsive thirty-two-bar piece with a four-bar tag, featuring strong two-part writing for Golson and trumpeter Lee Morgan; “Along Came Betty” is a more lyrical, long-lined piece, almost serving as the album’s ballad. “The Drum Thunder Suite” is a feature for Blakey, in three movements, or themes: “Drum Thunder”; “Cry a Blue Tear” (with a Latin feel); and “Harlem’s Disciples”. “Blues March” calls on the feeling of the New Orleans marching bands, and the album finishes on its only standard, an unusually brisk reading of “Come Rain or Come Shine”. Of the originals on the album, all but the “Drum Thunder Suite” became staples of the Messengers book, even after Timmons and Golson were gone.
The album stands as one of the archetypal hard bop albums of the era, for the intensity of Blakey’s drumming and the work of Morgan, Golson and Timmons, and for its combination of old-fashioned gospel and blues influences with a sophisticated modern jazz sensibility. The album was identified by Scott Yanow in his Allmusic essay “Hard Bop” as one of the 17 Essential Hard Bop Recordings.
Wikipedia
1. Warm-Up And Dialogue Between Lee And Rudy
2. Moanin’
3. Are You Real?
4. Along Came Betty
5. The Drum Thunder Suite
6. Blues March
7. Come Rain Or Come Shine
8. Moanin’ [Alternate Take]
Personnel:
Benny Golson (tenor sax)
Bobby Timmons (piano)
Jymie Merritt (bass)
Recorded on October 30, 1958 at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey – Blue Note Records
Hank Mobley – Soul Station (1960 – Blue Note)
Often overlooked, perhaps because he wasn’t a great innovator in jazz but merely a stellar performer, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley was at the peak of his powers on Soul Station. Recorded with a superstar quartet including Art Blakey on drums, Paul Chambers on bass, and Wynton Kelly on piano, it was the first album since Mobley’s 1955 debut to feature him as a leader without any other accompanying horns. The clean, uncomplicated sound that resulted from that grouping helps make it the best among his albums and a peak moment during a particularly strong period in his career. Mobley has no problem running the show here, and he does it without being flashy or burying the strong work of his sidemen. The solidness of his technique means that he can handle material that is occasionally rhythmically intricate, while still maintaining the kind of easy roundness and warmth displayed by the best players of the swing era. Two carefully chosen standards, “Remember” and “If I Should Lose You,” help to reinforce that impression by casting an eye back to the classic jazz era. They bookend four Mobley originals that, in contrast, reflect the best of small-group composition with their lightness and tight dynamics. Overall, this is a stellar set from one of the more underrated musicians of the bop era. ~ Stacia Proefrock, All Music Guide
Original Release Date: February 7, 1960 – Label: Blue Note Records