Jazz Artist of the Week
Art Blakey - "The Jazz Messengers"
Art Blakey was one of the most influential drummers and nurturer of young talent in the jazz world. Blakey's career began on piano and moved to drums. He came under the tutelage of Chick Webb and eventually started his own Big Band with the pianist Mary Lou Williams in 1937. In 1955, Blakey formed "The Jazz Messengers" with pianist Horace Silver. After Silver left the group a year later, the name became "Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers." He kept a version of this group going until his death in 1990.
Art’s driving rhythms and his incessant two and four beat on the high hat cymbals were readily identifiable from the outset and remained a constant throughout 35 years of Jazz Messengers bands. What changed constantly was a seeming unending supply of talented sidemen, many of whom went on to become band leaders in their own right. In the early years luminaries like Clifford Brown, Hank Mobley and Jackie McLean rounded out the band. In 1959, tenor saxophonist Benny Golson joined the quintet and — at Art’s behest — began working on the songbook and recruiting what became one of the timeless Messenger bands — tenor saxman Wayne Shorter, trumpeter Lee Morgan, pianist Bobby Timmons and bassist Jymmie Merritt. The songs produced from ’59 through the early ’60s became trademarks for the Messengers — including Timmon’s Moanin’, Golson’s Along Came Betty and Blues March and Shorter’s Ping Pong.
Other prominent alumni are: Curtis Fuller (trombone), Cedar Walton (piano), Chuck Mangione (trumpet/flugelhorn), Keith Jarrett (piano), Reggie Workman (bass), Lucky Thompson (saxophone), John Hicks (piano), Wallace Rooney (trumpet), Terence Blanchard (trumpet), Wynton Marsalis (trumpet).
Art’s driving rhythms and his incessant two and four beat on the high hat cymbals were readily identifiable from the outset and remained a constant throughout 35 years of Jazz Messengers bands. What changed constantly was a seeming unending supply of talented sidemen, many of whom went on to become band leaders in their own right. In the early years luminaries like Clifford Brown, Hank Mobley and Jackie McLean rounded out the band. In 1959, tenor saxophonist Benny Golson joined the quintet and — at Art’s behest — began working on the songbook and recruiting what became one of the timeless Messenger bands — tenor saxman Wayne Shorter, trumpeter Lee Morgan, pianist Bobby Timmons and bassist Jymmie Merritt. The songs produced from ’59 through the early ’60s became trademarks for the Messengers — including Timmon’s Moanin’, Golson’s Along Came Betty and Blues March and Shorter’s Ping Pong.
Other prominent alumni are: Curtis Fuller (trombone), Cedar Walton (piano), Chuck Mangione (trumpet/flugelhorn), Keith Jarrett (piano), Reggie Workman (bass), Lucky Thompson (saxophone), John Hicks (piano), Wallace Rooney (trumpet), Terence Blanchard (trumpet), Wynton Marsalis (trumpet).
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