October 11, 2019
Today, October 11, 2019, marks the 100th Anniversary of Art Blakey’s birth. The legendary drummer and Jazz Messengers bandleader was the beating heart of Blue Note Records throughout an important era of the label’s development. He first recorded for Blue Note in 1947 and over the next 2 decades made more than 20 albums for the label as a leader, appearing on nearly 40 more as a sideman. We’ll be celebrating Blakey’s Centennial over the coming year with vinyl reissues, playlists, and previously unreleased treasures to be announced soon.
- Stream our playlist Art Blakey: The Finest on Apple Music or Spotify featuring highlights from Blakey’s 20+ Blue Note albums as a leader
- Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers Indestructible (Blue Note 80 Vinyl Edition) – An all-analog 180g pressing of the 1964 album featuring Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton, and Reggie Workman. Part of the Great Reid Miles Covers theme. (out now)
- Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers The Freedom Rider (Vinyl Me, Please Exclusive) – An all-analog 180g pressing of the 1961 album featuring Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, and Jymie Merritt. (out now)
- Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 1 and Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 2 (Blue Note 80 Vinyl Editions) – All-analog 180g pressings of the 1960 live recordings from Birdland in NYC featuring Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, and Jymie Merritt. Part of the Blue Note Live theme. (out Nov. 15)
- Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers Buhaina’s Delight (Blue Note 80 Vinyl Edition) – An all-analog 180g pressing of the 1961 album featuring Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller, Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton, and Jymie Merritt. Part of the Drummer Leaders theme. (out Jan. 10)
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Art Blakey was born on October 11, 1919 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By his early 20s Blakey was touring with bands led by Fletcher Henderson and Mary Lou Williams which brought him to New York City. After joining Billy Eckstine’s band the drummer became associated with the bebop movement and was soon playing with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk. It was with Monk that Blakey first appeared on a Blue Note session in October 1947, performing on what would be the pianist’s debut as a leader Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1.
Blakey cut his own date as a leader in December 1947 with a group billed as Art Blakey’s Messengers, but it wasn’t until 1954 that Blakey delivered his first essential album with the recording of A Night at Birdland. Featuring an all-star band with Clifford Brown, Lou Donaldson, Horace Silver and Curly Russell that was billed as the Art Blakey Quintet, the album was an early hard bop manifesto, a thrilling live recording of the top young players of the day who were taking bebop in new directions.
It was with Silver that Blakey co-founded The Jazz Messengers, the genesis of a longstanding band that was first recorded by Blue Note live At The Café Bohemia in 1955. Silver eventually left to lead his own quintet, and Blakey took the helm of The Jazz Messengers for rest of his career. In 1958, the band recorded what remains perhaps their defining masterpiece. Original self-titled Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, the success of the album’s opening track “Moanin’” by pianist Bobby Timmons eventually caused the album to be known as Moanin’.
Although Blakey also recorded a series of solo albums that explored the influence of African drumming including Orgy In Rhythm, Holiday For Skins, and The African Beat, it was The Jazz Messengers that form the centerpiece of Blakey’s legacy. Over the remainder of his Blue Note years Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers recorded numerous enduring classics such as The Big Beat, A Night In Tunisia, The Freedom Rider, Mosaic, Buhaina’s Delight, Free For All, and Indestructible (his final Blue Note album recorded in 1964).
Blakey’s legacy with The Jazz Messengers throughout the group’s 35-year history lay in finding the most creative young players and composers to continually inspire him. The drummer recruited up and coming musicians, mentored them in his school of hard bop, encouraged them to compose new music, afforded them creative freedom, and once they were fully groomed watched them fly from the nest to become bandleaders in their own right. A partial list of Jazz Messengers Alumni includes Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Benny Golson, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons, Jymie Merritt, Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton, Reggie Workman, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Wallace Roney, Kenny Garrett, Javon Jackson, and Mulgrew Miller (click here for a longer list).
