What Is Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers Known for

Drummer Art Blakey lived and breathed hard bop. He epitomised the music'southward snapping, pulsating drive with each shell from his kit. Yet his vision extended way beyond the technicalities of playing, equally his band The Jazz Messengers became an institution. Stuart Nicholson speaks to those that knew him and assesses the touch on of Blakey'south enduring legacy

Fine art Blakey was born on 11 October 1919. A major figure in jazz from the 1950s until his death on 16 Oct 1990, he was i of the music's great drummers and bandleaders. But he was also something more. He was a not bad communicator, spreading the jazz gospel wherever he played around the globe. Jazz, he would remind his audience, was the eighth wonder of the earth, considering no ane knew in advance what a jazz musician was going to play, to the lowest degree of all the jazz musician. It'due south music, he said, that comes direct from the Creator to the artist to the audition – in a split up second. Today, Blakey'south legacy lives on in his recordings, peculiarly those on the Blue Note label, that are among the best performed and most adventurously crafted of the hard-bop era. Sought subsequently by fans and young jazz musicians, to many they are every bit proficient a working definition of the central principals of American jazz as whatsoever.

A larger than life effigy who enjoyed a wild lifestyle, Blakey used drugs, married four times and fathered ten children and, in the words of the belatedly Mulgrew Miller, a former Jazz Messengers pianist, he was: "Truly one of the most colourful and dynamic personalities in the music business. He was always energetic with an unbelievable zest for life." On his terminal appearance in London in 1989 he clearly had wellness issues, as drummer Clark Tracey, to whom Blakey had go a mentor, recalls: "When he fell ill in London, he'd just finished a really unstable week at Ronnie's, he was in a lot of trouble, he didn't practise the Friday night, the Sat night he did practise, but really shouldn't have. On Dominicus he went into infirmary and I went to run across him, very briefly, in his private room, and equally I walked in the first thing I spotted was he was sitting upright, he'south got a cigarette on the go, and a Japanese girl on either side of him on his bed!" Just wild lifestyle or not, Jazz Messenger and alto-saxophonist Bobby Watson is quick to point out that: "Whenever he walked into a room, the ions in the air would modify. He commanded respect."

Blakey had come up in jazz at a fascinating time. In the 1940s he had been a member of the bebop big band led by vocalizer Billy Eckstine that included Light-headed Gillespie, Miles Davis and Fats Navarro on trumpets, Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt and Dexter Gordon on saxes and Sarah Vaughan, who shared song duties with Eckstine. He had also recorded for Blueish Notation with Thelonious Monk in the 1940s and, though he had his ain big band in 1949, recording a scaled down version of the band for Blue Note, its short lived existence came to nothing.

In the early 1950s Blakey was freelancing, leading pick-up bands in New York clubs. This was a tricky time for jazz; blackness audiences had, in the main, migrated to R&B and business in the jazz clubs – equally the respected historian and commentator Bob Blumenthal put it – was depressed in the early 1950s. The reason was elementary: bebop was intended for a seated, listening audience. But the predominantly blue neckband, black audiences in the northern industrial cities similar Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago wanted music they could snap their fingers to, handclapping their hands and get up and trip the light fantastic in a "Hell, it's Fri nighttime and I don't give a damn" way.

Equally the 1940s gave mode to the 1950s the 'jumping jive' of bands similar Louis Jordan was giving way to something called R&B. In 1951 the big R&B hit was 'Rocket 88' past Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats on the Chess characterization, and the interesting affair was that the instrumentation of R&B bands like Brenston's was pretty similar to the bebop ensembles, often with a trumpet, a tenor sax, piano, bass and drums in the line-upwardly. What really differentiated them, apart from the vocals and electric guitar, was the blues and the backbeat. This new, evolving R&B scene was communicable the ear of young jazz musicians – they listened and enjoyed the sounds of this vigorous and creative new music since the clubs and social spaces where the R&B bands played were also where the bebop bands found piece of work. Information technology'southward hither that difficult bop's roots can be found.

" The sense of a new era of jazz being defined came at the stop of 1955 when the ring were captured alive on Fine art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Live at the Cafe Bohemia Vols 1 & 2

The leap from 'Rocket 88' to Blakey'southward archetype A Night in Birdland Vols 1 & 2 (Blue Annotation) from February 1954, was not a huge one. Bank check out Brenston's long syncopated sax solo. It'south a 12-bar boogie blues with a back-to-basics feel. Information technology'southward not a million miles from the funky feel of Blakey'due south Messengers on the Birdland albums with its upfront function for the rhythm section – the dominant role Blakey assumes, pushing the band along with, at times, a resounding backbeat – and the blues-drenched pianoforte of Horace Silver. These were the 'raw' ingredients that audiences identified with. As Blumenthal points out: "The churning, relentless force of the rhythm department behind [the culling take] of 'Wee Dot' must accept sounded startling at the fourth dimension, simply would quickly become central to the difficult-bop approach". In tardily 1954, Blakey formed a band with Argent called The Jazz Messengers that had Kenny Dorham on trumpet and Hank Mobley on tenor sax. Together they delved more deeply into this bluesy, rhythmic mode of jazz. On Horace Argent and the Jazz Messengers (Blue Note) from late 1954 to early 1955, Silvery'southward funky themes included 'The Preacher', 'Creepin' In' and 'Doodlin''. Only the sense of a new era of jazz being defined came at the terminate of 1955 when the band were captured alive on Fine art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Alive at the Cafe Bohemia Vols i & two.

It didn't take long for this style to catch on – a Downbeat feature called 'How Funky Tin You Become?' said, "Everybody'southward doing it now. The most unlikely of jazz musicians have discovered 'roots'". Blueish Note were on the New York scene documenting these changes, and information technology was during this period that Blakey became indelibly associated with the label, which this yr celebrates its 80th anniversary. Probably his virtually loved album from this period, Moanin' (Blue Notation), epitomises that rhythmic, bluesy back-to-basics hard-bop feel. Recorded in Oct 1958, the standout tracks include the championship-track by Bobby Timmons and 'Are You Existent', 'Along Came Betty' and 'Dejection March' by Benny Golson that have been widely covered by jazz musicians always since.

By March 1959 Hank Mobley had joined the band, replacing Golson in the line-up, who in turn was replaced by tenor-saxophonist Wayne Shorter at the end of the year. He brought with him 'Lester Left Town' that's subsequently become a jazz standard and was ane of three originals he contributed to Blakey's The Big Beat, recorded on 6 March, 1960. Shorter would play an integral role in the Jazz Messengers, helping move the band away from the funky, dejection-based feel of hard-bop to a more than contemporary sounding mail service-bop experience. In 1961, he was a cardinal effigy in the band that brought Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller and Cedar Walton to prominence. The Messengers were a great favourite of Blue Notation founders Alfred Lion and Francis Wolfe and betwixt the mid-1960s and Indestructible from May 1964, Blakey albums came thick and fast. Shorter remained as the personnel shifted around him until summer 1964 when he joined Miles Davis. By at present there were calls from Europe and Japan to see the Messengers live, and Ronnie Scott's jazz lodge, this year celebrating its 60th year as the Britain'due south summit jazz venue, was Blakey's first port of call when touring Europe.

While Blakey had e'er made a signal of hiring immature talent, the late 1960s and 1970s were lean times for acoustic jazz, and it'due south no secret that Blakey struggled to keep a band together during this period. But by the belatedly-1970s jazz education in America was coming into its own. The conveyor belt of talented young graduates from places such every bit Berklee College of Music, the Manhattan New School and the New England Conservatory was just starting time to be felt. Most of these young musicians had lilliputian or no professional experience, and the very all-time were welcomed into Blakey's finishing schoolhouse.

Art Blakey at Ronnie Scott'southward in 1973

"The Jazz Messenger resurgence started when me, David Schnitter and Valery Ponomarev came together," said Bobby Watson. "That's when the band started getting skillful gigs over again. The group started to develop a reputation and people who had stopped coming to hear the Messengers started coming back". Ii weeks later on Watson had joined the Messengers in 1977, he produced two compositions for the anthology In My Prime, written while he was in college. 'Hawkman' and 'Time Will Tell' seemed ready made for the band, with whom Watson played for the next four years.

Aged 17, Wynton Marsalis became the youngest musician always to be admitted to Tanglewood's Berkshire Music Heart. Despite his youth, he was awarded the school's prestigious Harvey Shapiro Honour for outstanding brass pupil. When he moved to New York City to attend Juilliard in 1979, he started sitting-in around the city and the musician's grapevine began to buzz. He came to the attention of Columbia Records executives who signed him in 1980, the same year he joined Blakey's Jazz Messengers. "Wynton hitting the scene with the same kind of energy as Freddie Hubbard, when he hit the scene," said Terence Blanchard, who would succeed Marsalis in the band and like him was also from New Orleans. "Only like that, Wynton breathed new life into the jazz arena, he was this young guy who could really play the trumpet. When he entered the band, Wynton had the technical prowess that really lifted the bar." Blakey's career, which had steadily been picking up since the end of the 1970s, was now rejuvenated. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to see this new gunslinger in town and Fine art Blakey'southward Jazz Messengers provided the perfect context to hear him.

Marsalis' first encounter with the Messengers was sitting-in on two tunes from the Moanin' album that were yet part of the ring'south repertoire, 'Forth Came Betty' and 'Blues March'. Marsalis didn't know the chords of the former, merely played well on the latter. "When I first sat in with Blakey I knew I wasn't playing nothing," said Marsalis later. "He said, 'Man, y'all sad! But that's alright'. And when you were around him, you were effectually the essence of jazz music. So he put that in us. He said: 'If you ever want to play this music, yous have to play it with soul, with intensity, and every time you touch your horn, you lot play your horn. You know, this is non a game.'"

Ii highlights of Marsalis' time with the Messengers include Album of the Year (Timeless) from 1981, featuring Bobby Watson on alto, Neb Pierce on tenor and James Williams on pianoforte and Keystone 3 (Concord), from Jan 1982, that has Branford Marsalis in Watson'due south stead – the but anthology he made with Blakey – and Donald Brown on pianoforte that shows Wynton's talent to best event, especially on 'In Walked Bud' and his own composition, 'Waterfalls'.

Wynton Marsalis was replaced in early on 1982 past Terence Blanchard, then 19 years-old. "Blakey would ever talk to me, he'd say, 'Look man, Rome wasn't congenital in a day. You gotta piece of work on this, y'all gotta work on that'", said Blanchard, who was a quick study. During his 4 year stay with Blakey he played beside saxophonist Donald Harrison, and along with Jean Toussaint on tenor sax and Mulgrew Miller on pianoforte, appeared at Ronnie Scott'due south together five times, in April 1982, April 1983, March 1984, July 1984 and February 1985. Blanchard and Harrison would sign with CBS records afterward leaving Blakey, both pursuing distinguished careers in jazz.

In 1985, Wallace Roney took over the trumpet chair. "Blakey helped Wallace Roney realise his potential," said former Messenger Valery Ponomarev. Aslope Roney, the Messengers frontline comprised of Kenny Garrett on alto and Toussaint on tenor sax, with the talented Mulgrew Miller remaining on piano. Garrett and Roney would later on feature alongside Miles Davis. This version of the Messengers also played Ronnie's, from 27 October to eight November 1985. Roney was replaced past Philip Harper, who would proceed to course the Harper Brothers Band with his brother Winard, which was signed by Verve. Harper was replaced by Brian Lynch, who was something of a veteran when he joined Blakey in 1988 as the final Jazz Messengers trumpet, having played with the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, George Russell's New York Big Band, the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, Charlie Haden, Phil Woods and a host of others. "That was what the band needed and then," said Terence Blanchard. "Philip Harper had moved on, Wallace Roney was playing with Tony Williams, I don't know of likewise many younger guys who were strong plenty to come up in at that time".

Looking back at the evolution of the Jazz Messengers during the 1980s, it is astonishing how many talented young musicians passed through the ring, each leaving their ain personal marking on what, by then, was one of the most indelible institutions in jazz. And then what was the best line-up? According to Branford Marsalis, not known to sprinkle praise on his fellow musicians gratuitously: "That ring, with Jean Toussaint, Donald Harrison and Terence Blanchard was not bad and under-recognised," adding that Jean Toussaint was a big part of what made that band tick. Just, ultimately, information technology was down to Blakey himself, bandleader and drummer extraordinaire. "Y'all listen to the recordings and then spotter the guy," said Clark Tracey, "He was meaty, merely he was like an inferno, magical to watch, an absolute energetic monster behind the drums." A great drummer, aye, but also a unique personality besides, as Terence Blanchard recalls: "I of the things people need to know about Art Blakey is what a humble, caring person he was. He would let us phone call the tunes, he wanted united states of america to write the music for the band and he featured u.s.a.. That's a very humble affair to do. He'd say, 'I don't want to play drum solos all night. This ring is for yous guys.'"

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This commodity originally appeared in the Oct 2019 issue of Jazzwise magazine. Never miss an event – subscribe today

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Source: https://www.jazzwise.com/features/article/art-blakey-messenger-with-a-mission

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