ART BLAKEY-"Blakey/Introducing Joe Gordon"

[trane_fanatic]

Damn!!! Just gave this pre-Messengers CD a spin the other day and it is smoking. Who else digs this Verve album?

[Noj]

I plan on making Art Blakey among the next artists whose music I purchase. I only have Moanin', so I'm definitely hurting big time in this area. Has Verve put it out on cd?

[J Larsen]

Noj, it's on cd. I like recommending Free for All as an early Blakey cd (even though the sound does sort of suck even to my non-audiophile ears).

[BruceH]

Noj, I highly recommend both volumes of The Jazz Messegers At the Cafe Bohemia----used to be 3 volumes, now available on two mid-price RVG's. Roots & Herbs is very good. Buhaina's Delight and Mosaic are also well worth getting. Once you get bitten by the Blakey bug it's hard to know where to stop, he recorded so much. I'm looking forward to the re-release of Indestructible later this year. So many remarkable musicians passed through his band at one time or another----Mobley, Golson, Shorter, Fuller, Hubbard, Morgan....

[saintvitus]

Took out this one (Blakey/Introducing Joe Gordon) for the first time in a couple of years, thanks to this thread.

Blakey drives the music hard and fast, and "Minority" and "Mayreh" on the first session and "The Theme" on the second get strong, authoritative readings. Joe Gordon's strengths show up more prominently in the ballad features, although piano and drums on those were a bit too busy in the background for my tastes.

I'm reminded Michael Fitzgerald wrote the liner notes for the reissue, which is an informative read even without the music. It used to be available from the Verve web site, but I'm not sure if it's still there.

[AfricaBrass]

Originally posted by Noj
Has Verve put it out on cd?

It was reissued in the Verve Elite series. I searched for it and they have it at half.com.

Blakey at half.com (http://half.ebay.com/cat/buy/prod.cgi?cpid=1909489&domain_id=1876&meta_id=2)

[king ubu]

A nice cd. But not one of Blakey's greatest in my opinion. The Gordon part is nice, an opportunity to hear Charlie Rouse before his Monk days (another is one of Fats Navarro's Blue Note sessions).
If you start with Blakey, you should check out his "Three Blind Mice", Vol. 1 is wonderful, 2 not bad either. Some live dates with the Hubbar/Fuller/Shorter/Walton line-up, originally on United Artists (not sure!) and on CD by Blue Note.
By the way: what's the saying on Blakey's Impulse "Messengers"-album? Usually get's quite low ratings, I seem to like it in spite of that. Opinions?

ubu

[Muskrat Ramble]

All praises to Buh! I recently got that CD (it's OOP, but someone linked it above, thankfully), but haven't listened to it yet.

Some other Blakey recommendations (there are many!):

Africaine (in-print BN Connoisseur)

Live at Birdland Vols. 1 & 2 (BN RVG--one of the greatest jazz live sets ever, for sure, with Clifford Brown and Horace Silver--just phenomenal stuff)

A la memoire d'Art Blakey: Art Blakey et les Jazz Messengers au club St Germain 1958 (smoking live date--keep a fire extinguisher near your stereo! Available as three separate Japanese import discs or as a complete two-CD set on BMG Ariola France/RCA, catalogue number ND 74897 (2))

Paris Jam Session (Reissued in the Universal/Verve Jazz in Paris series, among others--features Lee Morgan, Barney Wilen, Wayne Shorter, Bud Powell, Walter Davis, Jr., and Jymie Merritt. That lineup pretty much says it all :) )

Some very useful Blakey discographies:

http://home.ica.net/~blooms/Art3.html

http://www.duke.edu/~aks2/jazz/dis.htm

http://www.tgs.gr.jp/jazz/blakey-dis/

[Noj]

Thanks to all.

[sidewinder]

Second the favourable opinion of 'Three Blind Mice Vol 1'. Cracking live date, reasonably well recorded, with that superlative Shorter/Hubbard/Fuller front line. I had misguivings about the title tune but, suprisingly, it works really well. Two other albums I've been getting into lately which don't get great writeups by and large are 'Kyoto' on Riverside with the same front-line lineup. The version on this one of 'Never Never Land' is just wonderfull. Also thumbs up for 'Ritual' - an earlier album from the 50s with Bill Hardman and Jackie McLean but with Blakey at his most explosive..

[pryan]

For more Joe Gordon w/ Blakey check out the recently released Donald Bryd Connoisseur THE TRANSITION SESSIONS. He teams up w/Byrd and Mobely for four tunes on the first disc. Gordon's playing is quite agressive and fiery.

[sidewinder]

There's also more fine playing from Gordon on the Monk 'Blackhawk' recording put out on Riverside, teamed with Rouse and Harold Land. By the way - didn't Joe Gordon get killed in an appartment or house fire?

[Harmon]

If you like Joe Gordon then you have to have:
West Coast Blues by Harold Land (OJC). Great disc!
Jürgen

[Brad]

I'd have to disagree with King Ubu's assessment of Blakey. I just pulled this out the day after reading the thread of what record started hardbop. In 1954, Blakey made three scintillating records. One was the Live at Birdland records, the second was Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers and the third is Blakey. When you listen to this date, you can hear the hardbop style of Art's coming together. I think Mike Fitzgerald said that this was the style he basically had for the rest of his playing days. The songs by Gigi Gryce are very well written and the playing is first rate. Out of these three records (the first 2 are seminal), I'd dare you say which is better. The Verve date doesn't get as much attention but it should.

When you look at this date, you need to distinguish it from Introducing Joe Gordon, which is a different session but which Verve put on the cd. It's a good session but not nearly as good as Blakey.

[BruceH]

I just happened to buy a used copy of this today, and so far (on one listening) I have to agree with Brad. The "Blakey" part of the CD very good indeed, outstanding in fact. The "Introducing Joe Gordon" session is good but lacks that extra something that "Blakey" has. (And as usual I had to take the disc out of the obnoxious, overtight peek-a-boo sleeve and put it in a slim-line case.)

[BruceH]

Originally posted by sidewinder
There's also more fine playing from Gordon on the Monk 'Blackhawk' recording put out on Riverside, teamed with Rouse and Harold Land. By the way - didn't Joe Gordon get killed in an appartment or house fire?

Yes, the word is that he died of injuries sustained in a fire on November 4, 1963, at the age of 35. A 1961 album for Contemporary, Lookin' Good, is supposed to be promising but now it's all we're gonna get. Sad. (This info from Gioia's West Coast Jazz.)