Art Blakey and Horace Silver were the co-creators of the “Jazz Messengers” and constructed a firm foundation where all the young talented jazz musicians could work. Both of them worked together on three albums before officially changing to the Jazz Messengers (Check Art Blakey’s discography here). This album unfortunately was the last with both of them together. They were just too talented to stick together and went their separate ways to create more magic on their own as leaders. Blakey continued the Jazz Messenger legacy on and off until the mid 90’s. This 1956 album is my personal favorite and featured a third generation trumpeter named Donald Byrd (1st: Clifford Brown and 2nd: Kenny Dorham) and a second generation tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley (1st: Lou Donaldson.) The other three albums were outstanding, that’s for sure but this one was special to me. The many albums after which Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons, Curtis Fuller and many other, were also out of this world but somehow, I favor this one. The Jazz Con Class Radio listeners all have their opinion of which album and combination of musicians were best, that’s for sure but they should take this into consideration and dissect it, just a little further, to understand where I’m coming from. I’m definitely not expecting that we will all agree and pick this Jazz Messenger album to be the best one. Jazz fans are very unique and so much independent from other music lovers, they have their own special nuances. Jazz fans are special because they know what great music is but they are lucky also because these great musicians gave them the opportunity. LONG LIVE JAZZ!!!
About the album (very little):
Pianist Horace Silver was the Jazz Messengers’ original leader and, along with Blakey, the group’s co-founding father. His punchy, percussive, hard-swinging, funk- and Latin-fueled compositions and rhythms played a key role in establishing the band’s musical identity……Read More
