Greetings Jazz fans. This week I wanted to spend time with Art Blakey. Blakey is one of the most important Jazz musicians to come out of the Be-Bop period. Through both Blakey and Miles Davis, one can tell much of the story of Jazz post WWII. Their stories intertwine at times as well and I cant go forward with the Miles narrative without catching up on Blakey first.
Blakey, along with Kenny Clarke, Max Roach and Jo Jones, helped to define what modern jazz drumming was. He played with many great musicians as a sideman for years. He led the Jazz Messengers for decades which was a kind of “finishing school” for many artists and the group introduced many of Jazz’s greatest players and composers and compositions.
I do want to add that I wrote last week that I would do Gay Men in Jazz this week. I need to do some deeper research to write that properly and this week was finals week at Rutgers University where I work as an adjunct. I read about 120 papers on Thursday and Friday and I just didn’t have the energy to do the research that’s needed. Plus, Billy Strayhorn is acknowledged as having been an out gay man and I spent some time with him just a few weeks ago when did a diary on Duke Ellington (though I failed to mention that when I wrote the diary). There is also the amazing vibraphonist Gary Burton, vice president of Berkeley College of Music in Boston, who is an out gay man. There are some others, but I’m not sure who is publically out or not. It would be irresponsible to talk about some men if they are not publically out yet. Yes, I do know enough people where I might be aware of something that the public is not. And that is what I need to check, as well as digging some recordings that I may not be as familiar with as I am with others. This diary will come soon, maybe I’ll time it to coincide with Gay Pride Week in NYC next month.
Please take a step through the orange portal for a view of Jazz history from 1945-1957
When I wrote my Bill Evans diary two weeks ago, in the comments we discussed how some white performers in the entertainment industry get anointed by critics as “the best.” Eminem came up as an example. I commented that Jazz had more mechanisms in place to secure a meritocracy—and how the entertainment industry did not follow these rules. That meritocracy for a long time was personified by Art Blakey. The excellent contemporary trumpeter Nicholas Payton recently wrote on his blog that “jazz” used to have men like Blakey to anoint who was to be the “next thing,” but now its more and more the record labels.
With The Jazz Messengers, Blakey created the careers for some of the biggest names in jazz up through the 1980s. This includes such names as Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Kevin and Robin Eubanks and even Chuck Mangione. And I’m not writing about any of those guys today. Today, I’m not going past 1957. This is a diary about a sideman who played with everyone who also started a group with a friend of his. And now that I’ve finished writing and I’m preparing to post this, I realize this is a trip through 1950s Hard Bop Jazz.
Art Blakey, October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990, was born in Pittsburg, PA. In his early teen years, he was a pianist. Apparently there was a gig where he was told by the club owner…um, at gunpoint, to switch to the drums to let some other guy play piano. The other guy just happened to be a young Erroll Garner. There are a few things that seem a little vague. First, while I know very little of this, it appears as if Art worked as Chick Webb’s valet around 1936 or 1937. While a number of sources confirm he started playing with Mary Lou Williams in 1942, I’ve also seen it suggested he played with her in 1937. It is fact that he played in Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra spanning 1943 to 1944, but his official website says he toured with Henderson from 1939-1942. I don’t have an actually biography handy to check, so if anyone knows for sure, please say so in the comments.
Before I get to the music, I’ld like to point out that Blakey’s official website, maintained by his estate, has not been updated since 2004 at best…and possibly not since 2002. Many of the pages say things like “coming in 2005.” I don’t know why this is. His son, Takashi Buhaina Blakey, manages his estate. Sadly, I know that his sister died in 2011. Their contact information gives a Weehawken NJ address and I just happen to live rather near that town in Jersey City. I’m going to see if I can find out what the situation is.
Blakey makes his first recordings in 1945 while a member of Billy Eckstine’s band, with whom he played with from 1944-1947
Im not 100% positive, but that sure looks like a young Art Blakey on drums to me. And the date is right….
Recognize anyone else? I certainly recognize Dexter Gordon in that band. Its pretty likely that Gene Ammons is there too. All three of those guys are definitely on this one….
And so is Fats Navarro, Sonny Stitt, and Tommy Potter. Several be-bop era musicians played in Ekstine’s band, including two guys named Bird and Diz.
He records with Ekstine in 1946 and then in 1947 he begins to branch out and play with others. He records on sessions led by Dexter and by Fats Navarro
and he makes his first recordings with the great Thelonious Monk
He also first organizes a 17 piece rehersal band called the Seventeen Messengers and records with an octet called Art Blakey’s Messengers (I’ve also seen this groups referred to as just The Jazz Messengers). The personel was: Kenny Dorham (trumpet) Howard Bowe (trombone) Sahib Shihab (alto saxophone) Orland Wright (tenor saxophone) Ernest Thompson (baritone saxophone) Walter Bishop Jr. (piano) LaVerne Barker (bass) Art Blakey (drums)
From Artblakey.com--
In 1948, Art told reporters he had visited Africa, where he learned polyrhythmic drumming and was introduced to Islam, taking the name Abdullah Ibn Buhaina
.
Blakey is only ever a nominal Muslim at best, though he does retain the Buhaina name until his death. A far worse drug than heroin kills Blakey eventually, cigarettes. Blakey smoked A LOT.
It is also around this time that Blakey acquires the nickname “boo”
In 48 and 49 BLakey makes a few recordings with some big bands, but nothing too notable. But that changes in 1950, at which point his recording career really takes off. He makes some recordings with Miles, Gene Ammons, Dick Hyman, Sonny Stitt
And there are recordings released from radio broadcasts (hosted by the legendary DJ Symphony Sid) with Art playing with Charlie Parker
1951 sees more of the same, recordings with Dinah Washington, Illinois Jaquet, zoot sims, bennie green, more sonny stitt, more gene ammons.
He performs and records with Dizzy gillespie’s sextet, including some of the very first recordings of John Coltrane
And more Monk
Early Sonny Rollins
And of course, more miles
1952 is similar, but something new is introduced….
There’s more Zoot Sims. There are recordings with Lou Donaldson. He makes his first recordings with Buddy DeFranco.
He plays with Annie Ross
He records some of my favorite early Monk
And we also see the first of his recordings with the great Horace Silver, born September 2, 1928
And 1953 is also more of the same. Really, what we are seeing is the resume of a consummate sideman with the eventual Jazz Messengers just beginning to sprout. Blakey is touring and recording.
He does more sessions with Miles and with Pianist Kenny Drew. He records more with Clarinetist Buddy Defranco
The great Clifford Brown
Paul bley’s first record as a leader
He appeared with Bud Powell on “Tonight Show with Steve Allen” (this apparently was a CBS broadcast not NBC and The Tonight Show as hosted by Steve Allen/Jack Parr/Johnny Carson/Jay Leno/Jimmy Fallon does not officially begin until 1954)
But in 53 we also get the first recording under the iconic name…only it’s a little different.
Horace silver and the Jazz Messengers
Then Horace and Blakey trio with Sabu (Sabu Martinez, Puerto Rican congero)
Cant find individual clips, but I can find the whole damn thing…
In 1954, we see the band only without the name. They start the year with the amazing “Live at Birdland” recordings with Horace, Clifford Brown, Curly Russell and Lou Donaldson. To me and many others, these recordings are some of the best of this time period.
But ever the sideman with the resume of a giant, he records with Clark Terry, Elmo Hope, Sonny, more Lou Donaldson. And more Miles (with Horace this time)
And he records more with Monk
And trumpeter Joe Gordon
(sorta a night in tunsia rip off? Hehe)
And more as Horace Silver and The Jazz Messengers
1955 sees work with Bud Powell, Kenny Dorham, Julious Watkins Duke Jordon, Gigi Gryce..
More recordings as Horace silver and The Jazz Messengers
Sessions with Hank Mobley
And a recording listed as just The Jazz Messengers Live at The Café Bohemia
1956 is a bit slower recording wise, I wish I had easy access to Blakey’s performance schedule as I wonder who he was on the road with and for how long.
He continues his relationship with Thelonious Monk
The Jazz Messengers records for Columbia records
And with vocalist Rita Reyes
Horace Silver leaves Blakey in 1956. He begins to record a series of incredible recordings for Blue Note and emerges into an even bigger star himself.
Art Blakey now is the sole leader of the Jazz Messengers and its constantly evolving line up. First, a couple of tracks with Kenny Drew on piano and then Sam Dockery takes over, along with Jackie McClean on alto and Bill Hardman on trumpet
This band continues to record through 1957
Meanwhile Blakey records with Milt Jackson and more with Hank Mobley. His resume adds the mighty Jimmy Smith
He records with Clifford Jordan and john Gilmore
He makes some recordings with a percussion ensemble
The Jazz Messengers are now quite active and the lineup changes frequently…
Tenor player Jonny Griffen enters
They record again with congero Sabu
Monk records with the Jazz Messengers
And Blakey plays some significant records with Monk and some young guy Blakey first played with back in ‘51
Everything so far is a resume that any musician would kill for. Blakey is not yet 40 and he has recorded with so many of Jazz’s greatest. In jazz, a player’s reputation is often intertwined with the list of those with whom they played and recorded. By those standards, Blakey is a Jazz God by the end of 1957. But what happens next is the creation of the most exclusive and prestigious “Graduate School of Jazz” that perhaps Jazz ever had. Blakey and the Jazz Messengers will add Benny Golson in 1958 and then Wayne Shorter in 59. But that’s a story for another time…
Thanks for listening everyone. Please support your local Jazz musicians and all local live music.