For a time in the late 1940s, Art Blakey went to live in West Africa. When he returned to the United States, he told reporters that his time there had given him a fresh appreciation for the music called jazz. This, he declared, was a Black American music — quite distinct from the folk forms he’d heard in Africa.
Yet at the same time, Blakey’s experiences in the motherland — where he’d converted to Islam and taken the name Abdullah ibn Buhaina — filled him with a knowledge of jazz’s roots, allowing him to hone a style that was deeply polyrhythmic, powerful and directly related to the drum’s original role: communication. With that knowledge, he would change jazz history.
“When he plays, his drums go beyond a beat,” Herb Nolan once wrote in a DownBeat profile. “They provide a whole tapestry of dynamics and color.”
Blakey had started out playing piano on the Pittsburgh scene during the Great Depression, but after switching to the drums he stood out, joining the famous big bands of Fletcher Henderson and Billy Eckstine. Following his sojourn in Africa, he and other young Muslim musicians in New York formed their own large ensemble, the Seventeen Messengers. After that band broke up, he and the pianist Horace Silver started a smaller group, the Jazz Messengers; before long, Blakey was its sole leader, and with his drumming as the linchpin, the Messengers came to define the straight-ahead, “hard bop” sound of jazz in the 1950s and ’60s.
Blakey kept the band together for decades, frequently replenishing its lineup with young talent, so that the Messengers became known as jazz’s premier finishing school. “Once he saw that you’d learned the lesson, it was time for you to go,” the saxophonist Bobby Watson recalled of his time as a Messenger in the 1970s and ’80s. He added, “He was one of the most positive people I ever met, and he loved young people. He used to say, ‘There’s nothing wrong with being young — you just need some experience.’ And that’s what he provided.”
Read on for a primer on Blakey’s music from former Messengers, drummers he influenced, and other musicians and writers. You can also listen to these picks as a playlist, and don’t forget to leave your own Art Blakey favorites in the comments.
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‘Moanin’,’ Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
George Cables, pianist and former Messenger
“Moanin’” is one of the most classic Jazz Messengers tunes, and Lee Morgan’s solo on here is really iconic. But the master behind it all is Art Blakey. The songs that Bobby Timmons wrote, especially this one, just fit right into Blakey’s wheelhouse. The two of them fit together just like a glove — because it’s a great song, but what makes it really happening is that groove that he puts underneath it. It’s a simple thing, but nobody can play that feeling, that groove, like Blakey. Art is really a force of nature. And the way he has of pulling a band together, it doesn’t take playing a lot of notes or playing a lot of stuff on the drums. He can make you play, and he can let you play. I think this is a great example of that.
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‘One by One,’ Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
Bobby Watson, saxophonist and former Messenger
One of the biggest things I learned playing with Art is the power of dynamics — whether in a smaller group or a big band. Because Art was one of the most dynamic drummers I ever played with, from a whisper to a roar. “One by One,” by Wayne Shorter, was still in the band’s book when I joined, and it’s a great example of this. The tune starts off simmering, and then: Pow! And the melody is just so catchy, and it has dynamics all throughout it. Another thing I learned from Blakey, not unrelatedly, was how to read a crowd and how to pace a set. Sometimes we’d start off soft and build, sometimes we’d start off loud and go down before coming back up at the end. It was a lot like building dynamics into a tune.
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‘Free for All,’ Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
Jazzmeia Horn, vocalist
I’d never heard a drummer acting as a bandleader until my high school teacher played me Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers’ “Free for All.” I was confused at first, because the horns are so strong out front, but Blakey is doing all these fills and clearly leading them from the back. I was left wondering: How can you have that much energy and be that loud and still be so present as a leader? Blakey helped me to understand the drums as language. The fills that fit here or fit there; the little subtleties and hits that say, “Hey, we’re going back to the head now.” It reminds me of Africa or Congo Square in New Orleans, and how the drums were always used for communication. There were certain patterns that were played on the drums to say, “Hey, we’re going this way,” or, “We’re going that way,” or, “Get out, there’s danger,” or, “I’m telling a joke.” I think Art Blakey really was on another level in terms of using the drums to communicate.
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‘Wee Dot,’ Art Blakey Quintet
Lewis Nash, drummer
This was my introduction to Art Blakey. “A Night at Birdland Vol. 2” was one of the very first jazz recordings that I bought with my own money. At the time I was still familiarizing myself with who the great drummers were, and I had been told to buy their recordings. When I got to Art Blakey’s Birdland records, it was almost like the music was jumping out of the speakers. Blakey starts out this tune with those rolls and cymbal crashes, building it up, and the power and the intensity of his playing are evident right away. You could hear it, you could feel it. And I noticed that I had a big smile on my face listening to Art Blakey. It just made me feel really good.
Listening to records in those days was an experience. You know, imagining that you were sitting in Birdland. Then I would play along with it, imagining that it was me at Birdland playing with these guys. That record was my introduction to that whole band, which was like an early version of the Messengers: Clifford Brown on trumpet, Horace Silver on piano, Lou Donaldson on alto saxophone. I later got to play with Lou Donaldson and Horace Silver, so that record and those early experiences would come to mind whenever I encountered Horace or Lou or Art.
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‘Split Kick,’ Art Blakey Quintet
Winard Harper, drummer
On “Split Kick,” he plays so incredibly — even in the spaces — the things he plays, you feel like they were written for him. I would go see Art, and I’d get a chance to sit in. As a drummer who is a bandleader, those skills I got from Art. Watching him, I knew that one day I wanted to get to that. He had a way of giving everybody their moment to shine, and knowing how to comp behind people and listen, and give what they were giving even more validity, to help highlight it. A lot of people don’t realize how well he listened. When he talked about Art Blakey, Max Roach used to talk about how the drums aren’t necessarily a melodic instrument, but there’s a way you can play them where you sort of beat them into sounding like that. The way he plays on this is an example of that. I feel so sorry for those young guys on the scene who didn’t have the chance to see Art Blakey and Max Roach. The guys of that generation, they simply loved the music so much.
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‘The Thin Man,’ Art Blakey’s Messengers
Donald Harrison, saxophonist and former Messenger
Art Blakey was the perfect storm needed to keep modern, swinging jazz alive when mainstream media had forsaken it. He shared his vision of music and knowledge of his engagements with Bird, Miles, Monk and Eckstine. He also shared Charlie Parker’s ideas about playing the saxophone with me. Art was a master of swing and a primary innovator of bebop, post-bop, soul jazz and avant-garde jazz. He added African-derived beats to jazz, which he learned by studying music in Africa. Over five decades, Art taught young people music, the music business, how to move music forward, as well as how to be human beings. His grooving beat willed all those who played with him to internalize where the drive of the music lay. Art Blakey left an indelible, positive mark on humanity and the universe, which will live on in some form for centuries.
Most people don’t know that the template for the sound of the Jazz Messengers was set the decade before the famous “Live at Birdland” record. Blakey recorded a series of tracks for Blue Note in 1947 with a small “big band.” I love how Art still had a lot of swing-era and bebop concepts on the surface of his playing on this recording of “The Thin Man,” from those sessions.
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‘Crisis,’ Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
Russ Musto, writer and former Messengers roadie
The first song I heard on the radio that made me buy every Art Blakey record was “Crisis.” It was the urgency of it; the melodicism of it; Art’s playing, naturally; and the fact that it was a political statement, if somewhat subtle. Everybody knew what the crisis was at that time: racism in America, the Vietnam War and everything else we were dealing with. I came to jazz from social activism. It was music that spoke to the anger of the times, and the revolutionary spirit that was prevalent. And “Crisis” spoke to that. It made me go out and buy every Freddie Hubbard record, every Wayne Shorter record. As they say, Blue Note Records was the house that Buhaina built.
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‘Caravan,’ Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
Terence Blanchard, trumpeter and former Messenger
While playing with Art was a musical dream of mine, it unexpectedly awakened my soul to the universal humanity we all seek. Traveling with Art gave me insight into how we operate in this world, how we can use our belief system to inspire what we create. And I was immediately in. Meeting all of my heroes: Miles, Clark Terry, Woody Shaw, Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dizzy Gillespie. As a matter of fact when Diz played with us as a special guest in Italy, Art told him that I also played piano. So then Dizzy said, “OK, so when we go back out for the second half of the show I’ll play piano for you and you can play piano for me on a ballad.” It was a magical moment being a 19-year-old kid who could produce vibrato on the piano because my hands were shaking so much. I often tell people that even though I was only in the band for four years I felt like I grew by 40. Those experiences have shaped the guiding set of values from which I teach, create and live.
I choose “Caravan” because it is the perfect example of what the band was all about. Art would tell us that he wanted a big-band sound from a small group. Hence the three-horn front line. Art’s music is very accessible because of how many popular tunes they rearranged. This arrangement shows how they could achieve that while advancing the music by putting their own statement on that tune.
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‘Roll Call,’ Hank Mobley
Kenny Garrett, saxophonist and former Messenger
Art makes his entry thunderously, with power and conviction for four bars. In the next four bars he plays with a Latin feel. During the ensemble you can hear Art’s training from his days in Billy Eckstine’s band, catching all the hits. Art could hear a song once and knew exactly what to play. Art is tipping on Hank’s solo, occasionally dropping bombs, and adding the essentials. Art is just dancing behind Freddie’s trumpet solo. He’s marking all the important spots for the soloist, using his famous trademark press rolls and his deceleration of time, another one of his trademarks. He also uses a Latin groove to let Freddie know, “It’s time to blow your horn, man.” Art was great at teaching soloists how to build their solos. Art is locking in the pianist, Wynton Kelly, with what I call “the clock.” The accent is on the 2 and 4 of the beat.
Now, about his solo: His beat, comping, ideas and story are incredible. His displacement of time and use of the whole drum set is remarkable. He ends with his famous call to return to the melody. There’s so much information to unpack in this solo. This is why Art Blakey is so special.
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‘Hammer Head,’ Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
Cindy Blackman Santana, drummer
Art Blakey was one of the most incredible bandleaders that I ever saw. The way he drove the musicians, he made them come out of their shell and out of their bag, so that they would play stuff that they didn’t even know they had in them. Any soloist in his band had to learn how to come in swinging, build and push, and then drive to a screaming frenzy while still keeping it in the form, in line with the energy and the groove of what the band was doing.
Wayne Shorter, who wrote “Hammer Head” and so many other tunes that the Messengers played, was such a genius at composing: His tunes just made sense, and they felt great. He would build these exciting melodies that led up to these turnarounds with beautiful, wide-open spaces — and Blakey could either fill those in or keep on grooving through. The way that Art would play the end of a turnaround, leading into the next verse or chorus, was so exciting — whether it was a press roll or a double-stop between the snare and the floor tom, or triplets on the bass drum. You’re not going to find many musical personalities that are better suited for each other than those two.
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‘Shaky Jake,’ Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
Brian Lynch, trumpeter and former Messenger
“Shaky Jake,” from the LP “Buhaina’s Delight,” is a Cedar Walton composition, but it’s a perfect example of Art Blakey’s musical thing: a shuffle, sort of on the fast side, and bluesy. Any Blakey set would include this kind of toe-tapper tune. This iteration of the band — Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Cedar Walton on piano and Jymie Merritt on bass — was my favorite Messengers lineup, and “Buhaina’s Delight” really exemplifies the perfect combination of players that group embodied, in terms of personalities and playing styles. This represented the moment when Blakey went up to three horns, with the addition of trombone, which added that orchestral dimension. For Buhaina, in his heart really to the very end of his life, everything was coming out of his early experience in the Billy Eckstine big band. And you know, Art could sing all the books of the big bands: all the Jimmie Lunceford charts, all the Fletcher Henderson charts and a lot of Basie stuff as well. So with the three horns, having a bit more to feed off of made his artistry stand out even more as an orchestrator. Great drummers are orchestrators of the music, because great drummers are great listeners.
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‘Hymn of the Orient,’ Clifford Brown
Willie Jones III, drummer
When I first heard Art Blakey, it was love at first listen. For me it was all about Art Blakey’s groove — even when he soloed. His solo was the groove! A lot of times, he would just start his solo with the groove, and then he would embellish it from there. On “Hymn of the Orient,” they’re trading fours (starting at 2:55), and on one of the trading passages, Blakey is just playing the groove. That’s his solo. Then Clifford plays again, then Art plays again — and he plays a different groove. And that’s his solo. So if I had to recommend one Blakey track, whether it was to a drum student or just someone who loves jazz music, this would be a good place to start — because first of all, I think with any music, it’s all about the groove. Can I snap my finger, can I pat my foot to it? For me, he checked all the boxes. We know he had a strong shuffle, we know he had a lot of technique, he had rhythms that were strictly his rhythms. He checks off so many boxes as far as how to play as a musician.
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‘Kozo’s Waltz,’ Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
Ivana Ng, critic
Blakey was a larger-than-life presence behind the drums, but he also made space for new stars to shine, and he thrived among them. “Kozo’s Waltz,” from the Jazz Messengers’ 1961 LP “A Night in Tunisia,” exhibits that symbiotic relationship. Written by Lee Morgan, a rising-star trumpeter at the time, the tune is a classic jazz waltz filled with dynamic solos and tight grooves. Right from the jump, Blakey grabs our attention with a dramatic and propulsive drum solo. Morgan’s bold, muscular trumpet goes toe to toe with Wayne Shorter’s cooler, more laid-back sax. Bobby Timmons’s soulful piano underpins it all with delicate yet sprightly lines, and then Blakey comes all the way back around with a fiery yet perfectly controlled solo. It’s a complex track, yet supremely listenable and downright danceable.
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The post 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Art Blakey appeared first on New York Times.
