The best jazz of the 1950s and '60s is played side-by-side with the best jazz from the new millennium every Saturday morning at 8 a.m. CST on "Straight Ahead." Host Chris Karcher plays a wide range of artists and styles with recent shows featuring music from Lee Morgan, Walter Bishop Jr, Jutta Hipp, Joshua Redman, Darcy James Argue's "Secret Society," and Pat Martino.
In addition to hosting "Straight Ahead" on KRTU, Chris also publishes observations about jazz on his blog "Jazz-Notes" at http://www.invest-notes.com/jazz-notes/. From a recent post, some thoughts about the great Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers.
After reading Alan Goldsher’s really terrific book, Hard Bop Academy: The Sidemen of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (Hal Leonard, 2002), I was left trying to figure out which seminal jazz figures didn’t play with the Messengers. Rather than list the 39 artists profiled in the book, I’m going to talk about a couple of the albums that inspired me to add to a collection already much too big. (Much to my surprise, Chuck Mangione and Keith Jarrett are alumni of "Bu U").
I purchased copies of "A Night in Tunisia" (Blue Note, 1960) and "Free For All" (Blue Note, 1964). This is not an arbitrary pairing. "Tunisia" features Lee Morgan on trumpet while "Free" features Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, and both have Wayne Shorter on the saxophone. Here we have two fine jazz trumpeters, each with vastly different playing styles and paired with one of the most thoughtful players/composers in jazz history. Both albums sound great, both sound like Messenger albums and yet this shouldn’t be possible.
First, it should be pointed out that Morgan toured with Dizzy Gillespie (composer of "A Night in Tunisia") where his playing on this particular song has long been considered nothing short of masterful by critics as perceptive as Nat Hentoff.
The cut "Free For All" is an 11-minute Shorter composition that allows both Hubbard and Blakey to strut their stuff. A hard driving number where Hubbard hits those high notes he’s famous for, the tune has him playing in a groove that would make any trumpeter shine. And you just gotta love the Blakey shout-outs. “Blow your horn,” almost makes "Free for All" sound like a live album, “alright.”
And maybe the best quote ever comes from a recent interview with Branford Marsalis. Blakey explains why innovation in anything, and not just jazz, is so difficult. Practicing the music of John Coltrane, over and over, Blakey asked a very young Marsalis what he thought he was accomplishing. Marsalis replied, “I’m trying to play like Coltrane,” to which Blakey replied, “No you’re not.” Then Blakey continued, “Well let me ask you this: When Coltrane was your age, what the f--- do you think he was listening to, tapes of himself from the future?”
Your best bet? Listen to a Blakey album while reading the book
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