For a lot of followers of recent jazz, the quintet line-up of The Jazz Messengers that featured on Meet You At The Jazz Nook Of The World represents one of many best bands ever put collectively by drummer extraordinaire Artwork Blakey.
On trumpet, he had the younger Philadelphia-born prodigy Lee Morgan, who had signed to Blue Be aware as an adolescent in 1956 and joined the Messengers two years later. The opposite horn participant within the band was New Jersey tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who was recruited by Blakey in 1959 and made his recording debut with the group in November of that yr. The piano chair was occupied by one other native of The Metropolis Of Brotherly Love, Bobby Timmons, who made his debut on the Moanin’ album and likewise wrote its vastly well-liked title tune. He introduced a soul-jazz sensibility to the group and joined the Messengers in 1958 similtaneously fellow Philadelphian, bassist Jymie Merritt.
In contrast with Blakey, a seasoned veteran who was nearing his forty first birthday, they have been all younger males of their late 20s and on the daybreak of their careers. However, underneath the mentorship of the avuncular drummer, they have been getting a first-class schooling on the bandstand that will maintain them in good stead for the remainder of their lives.
Virtuosity as soloists
Birdland had been in existence for 11 years when Artwork Blakey took the newest inductees to his “Hard Bop Academy” there on the evening of Wednesday, September 14, 1960. He had recorded on the legendary venue earlier than, after all – main the Artwork Blakey Quintet on the well-known 1954 album A Night time At Birdland, and with the Messengers on At The Jazz Nook Of The World, 5 years later – however Meet You At The Jazz Nook Of The World was his first stay recording to characteristic rising saxophone star Wayne Shorter.
The evening’s efficiency was first launched on vinyl in two separate volumes by Blue Be aware. Quantity 1 options 5 tracks and opens with the band taking part in an upbeat Lee Morgan tune, “What You Know.” It’s pushed by Blakey’s well-known shuffle groove, the place the drummer leads with a trip cymbal whereas hitting the snare on the second and fourth beats of the bar. The tune can also be memorable for a snaking solo from Wayne Shorter, who would quickly eclipse Morgan by establishing himself because the Messengers’ main composer.
“The Opener,” one other slice of basic laborious bop, follows and was written by Shorter’s predecessor within the Messengers, Hank Mobley. After the primary theme is acknowledged by the dual horns, every band member shows their virtuosity as soloists. Shorter begins in a strong vogue, adopted by Morgan, whose trumpet tone is luminous, after which Timmons, whose fleet-fingered piano runs are mesmerizing. Then Blakey will get an opportunity within the highlight, impressing along with his crescendoing press rolls, earlier than the primary theme is reprised.
A formidable engine room
Thelonious Monk’s basic bebop ballad, “Round About Midnight,” begins with a spoken introduction by Blakey (who calls Monk the “High Priest Of Modern Jazz”). The music opens with dramatic drum rolls accompanying mysterious piano chords earlier than Lee Morgan performs the tune’s sinuous melody. The music ebbs and flows for some time however then Wayne Shorter’s saxophone solo, with its biting tone, brings a passionate depth to the temper earlier than it subsides for Bobby Timmons’ piano solo.
“The Breeze And I” is a tune written by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona and American lyricist Al Stillman and is rendered by the Messengers at a free-swinging medium tempo. Whereas it options commendable solos, it’s additionally notable for the impeccable manner that Blakey and Jymie Merritt, who walks his bass, perform because the formidable engine room of the rhythm part.
Quantity 1 of Meet You At The Jazz Nook Of The World closes with a short rendition of Miles Davis’ “The Theme,” over which Birdland’s diminutive MC, the legendary Pee Wee Marquette, introduces the band and urges the viewers to applaud, exclaiming excitedly, “The soul brothers are talkin’ tonight!”
Stunning twists and turns
There was no dip in high quality on the second quantity of Meet You At The Jazz Nook Of The World, which options two Hank Mobley tunes: the marginally subdued “High Modes” (with Morgan taking part in muted trumpet) and the Latin-inflected “Night Watch,” which blooms right into a pacy swinger. There’s additionally a jazz retooling of the tune “The Things I Love,” a Tin Pan Alley ballad by Harold Barlow and Lew Harris that was recorded by pop acts The Constancy’s and Caterina Valente within the 50s.
Proving that changing Hank Mobley had introduced a brand new youthful vigor to the Messengers, Shorter then impresses with “The Summit,” one in all his early compositions. It’s propelled by a turbo-charged rhythm on which Merritt’s fast-walking bass notes are completely in sync with Blakey’s propulsive polyrhythms. Shorter takes an extended serpentine-like solo, and the observe’s idiomatic melodic contours, with its stunning twists and turns, would grow to be extra acquainted to jazz followers within the ensuing years.
“The Jazz Messengers is the star”
Although, within the eyes of many, Artwork Blakey – described by Marquette as “that talented master showman” – was seen because the Messengers’ head honcho, he was adamant that no particular person obtained high billing. “I’ve got no room for no stars,” he as soon as advised an interviewer. “The Jazz Messengers is the star – all of us together. The leader of the band is Art Blakey and the star is the group. We do it together.”
That co-operative ethos was an underlying precept of Blakey’s idea for The Jazz Messengers, and the symbiosis the grasp drummer achieved along with his trainees is what nonetheless makes Meet You At The Jazz Nook Of The World an thrilling report in the present day. That inherent stress between the knowledge of expertise and the passion and vitality of youth creates a compelling musical synergy.
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