Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Drum Suite
ARTIST.....: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
TITLE......: Drum Suite
LABEL......: Sony
URL........: n/a
RIP DATE...: Aug-12-2006
STORE DATE.: Aug-15-2005
GENRE......: Jazz
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 61,1 MB
Track Listing:
01 - The Sacrifice 07:45
02 - Cubano Chant 03:59
03 - Oscalypso 08:42
04 - Nica's Tempo 08:18
05 - D's Dilemma 08:28
06 - Just For Marty 05:48
07 - Lil' T 08:12
08 - The New Message (Aka Little T) Take 1 08:40
09 - The New Message (Aka Little T) Take 3 05:32
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65:24 min
Release Notes:
Recorded in 1956, Art Blakey's Drum Suite was a wonderful hybrid
of African, Latin, and hard bop rhythms that prefigured the
concept of Afro-beat by at least a decade, and the sheer energy
and sonic expanse of the original suite, not to mention its very
special and fresh-sounding intimacy, make it still astounding 50
years on. Even more amazing is that the three parts of the suite
-- Blakey's "The Sacrifice," Ray Bryant's "Cubano Chant," and
Oscar Pettiford's "Oscalypso" -- were recorded straight through
live, and were only intended to be a pre-take run-through, but as
is obvious here, Blakey and company nailed the whole thing right
out of the box. The original LP was issued by Columbia with the
drum suite on one side, and three tracks recorded by a 1956
version of the Jazz Messengers (Bill Hardman, Jackie McLean, Sam
Dockery, and Spanky DeBrest) for Blakey's first Columbia album,
Hard Bop, on the other side. This CD reissue adds three more
tracks written by trumpeter Donald Byrd ("L'il T" and two takes of
"The New Message") from yet another edition of the Jazz Messengers
from 1956, this time sporting a lineup of Byrd, Ira Sullivan,
Kenny Drew, Wilbur Ware, and, of course, Art Blakey. The original
LP featured a shortened version of the opening cut, "The
Sacrifice," which is here expanded to its full-length, bringing
this reissue to a little over 65 minutes in length. Groundbreaking
for its time, and still sounding vital, powerful, and visionary,
the Drum Suite album is somewhat of a lost masterpiece that
deserves a fresh audience.