Art Blakey: Difference between revisions

Arthur (Art) Blakey, also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, (October 11, 1919 - October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Along with Kenny Clarke and Max Roach he was one of the inventors of the modern, bebop style of drumming. He was known as a powerful musician and a ferocious groover. He is undoubtedly one of the most influential jazz musicians ever, his brand of bluesy, funky hard bop is now the mainstream form of jazz. Over more than thirty years his band, the Jazz Messengers, included many young musicians who went on to become some of the most prominent names in jazz, including Jackie McLean, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Curtis Fuller Cedar Walton, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Benny Golson, Bobby Timmons, Jymie Merritt, Wynton Marsalis, Gary Bartz, Keith Jarrett, and Johnny Griffin. It is now widely regarded as an important training ground for many of the best young hard bop players of the time.

Early career

In the 1940s, Blakey was a member of bands led by Mary Lou Williams, Fletcher Henderson, and Billy Eckstine. He converted to Islam during a long visit to West Africa in the late 1940s and briefly took the name Abdullah Ibn Buhaina (which led to the nickname "Bu"). By the late forties and early fifties, Blakey was backing musicians such as Miles Davis, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk - he is often considered to be Monk's most sympathetic drummer, and played on both his first recording session as a leader (for Blue Note Records in 1947) and his final one (in London in 1971), as well as many in between.

The Jazz Messengers

In 1955 he and pianist Horace Silver were co-leading the Jazz Messengers, an acoustic hard bop ensemble. The name was first used on a 1954 recording nominally led by Silver, also featuring Hank Mobley, Kenny Dorham and Doug Watkins - the same quintet would record The Jazz Messengers at the Cafe Bohemia the following year, still as a collective rather than being led by Blakey. Blakey took over the group name when Silver left after the band's first year, and the band was known as "Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers" from then on.

Two of the group's most famous lineups featured Wayne Shorter on saxophone. The first was a quintet that existed from 1959 to 1961 and included Blakey, Shorter, Jymie Merritt, Lee Morgan, and Bobby Timmons. The second was a sextet that added trombonist Curtis Fuller and replaced Morgan and Timmons with Freddie Hubbard and Cedar Walton, respectively. Shorter was the musical director of the group, and contributed many original compositions.

Later career

Blakey went on to record dozens of albums with a constantly changing group of Jazz Messengers - he had a policy of encouraging young musicians. He also recorded as a sideman for many other musicians - Jimmy Smith, Herbie Nichols, Cannonball Adderley, and Jazz Messengers graduates Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley, amongst others. He continued performing and touring with the group into the late 1980s, and he died in 1990 in New York City, leaving behind a vast legacy and approach to jazz which still survives today, through the recordings of Branford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, and other "Young Lions".

Discography

See Art Blakey Discography for a full list. Blakey's most famous recordings are those made for during the 1950s and 1960s, mainly for Blue Note Records. Among these are:

• A Night at Birdland (1954, live, billed as "The Art Blakey Quintet")
• At the Cafe Bohemia (1955, live, billed as "The Jazz Messengers")
• Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk (Atlantic Records, 1957)
• Moanin' (1958)
• At the Jazz Corner of the World (1959, live)
• The Big Beat (1960)
• A Night in Tunisia (1960)
• The Freedom Rider (1961)
• Buhaina's Delight (1961)
• Indestructible (1964)

External Links

• Official Art Blakey website