ART BLAKEY  1919 - 1990

He was born Arthur Blakey, 11 October 1919, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Blakey as a pianist first; the move to drums has been variously attributed to Erroll Garner appearing on the scene, the regular drummer being off sick and (Blakey's favourite) a gangster's unarguable directive. Whatever, Art Blakey drummed for Mary Lou Williams on her New York debut in 1942, Fletcher Henderson's mighty swing orchestra (1943-4) and the legendary Billy Eckstine band that included Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davisand Thelonious Monk (1944-7).

  The classic bebop sessions tended to have Max Roach or Kenny Clarke behind the drums, but Blakey had the last laugh, becoming the pre-eminent leader of the hard bop movement. In contrast to the baroque orchestrations of the West Coast Jazz‘cool’ school, hard bop combined bebop's instrumental freedoms with a surging backbeat out of gospel. Ideally suited to the new long-playing record, tunes lengthened into rhythmic epics that featured contrasting solos.

  The pressure of Blakey's hi-hat and snare became legendary, as did the musicians who passed through the ranks of the Jazz Messengers. Blakey never tired of telling his sidemen (and side women—pianist Joanne Brackeen was one of his discoveries) to go off and form their own bands: his band became an on-the-road college. An understanding that without risk jazz is dead complemented his insistence on complete musicianship. Impatient with timidity and safeness, his drumming encouraged daring and brilliance. He would lean with his elbow on the surface of the drum to change its intonation: such ‘press rolls’ became a musical trademark. That his power was not from want of subtlety was illustrated by his uncanny sympathy for Thelonious Monk's sense of rhythm: his contribution to Monk's historic 1957 group that included both Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane was devastating, and the London trio recordings he made with Monk in 1971 (Something in Blue and ThE Man I Love) are perhaps his most impressive achievements as a player.

  "You all get into the studio and you try to make everything so God damn clinical. Two months from now when you hear this tune you won't recognize it yourself. You ain’t going to play it the same way every night, use your imagination, that's what JAZZ is all about. If you ain't got no imagination you might as well quit. All he did was put up a skeleton of the tune we are going to play, so go on and play and if you make a mistake make it loud so you won't make it next time." – ART BLAKEY

Blakey was a beacon for the creativity and drive of acoustic jazz through the electric '70s. Miles Davis once remarked ‘If Art Blakey's old-fashioned, I'm white’: this was borne out in the '80s when hard bop became all the rage. Ex-Jazz Messengers Wynton Marsalis and Terence Blanchard became the apostles of a return to jazz values. In England, a televised encounter in 1986 with the young turks of black British jazz—including Courtney Pine and Steve Williamson—showed how Blakey's hipness transcended generations, as he taught the IDJ Dancers (ex-break dancers who decided I Dance Jazz) the complexities of A Night In Tunisia.

  Until his death in 1990, Art Blakey continually found new musicians and put them through his special discipline of heat and precision. When he played, Blakey invariably had his mouth open in a grimace of pleasure and concentration: his drumming still makes the jaw drop today. For a period following his conversion to Islam, Blakey changed his name to Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, which led to his nickname Bu. His creativity, love of jazz, and philosophy still lives on in his own Art Blakey University.

  DISCOGRAPHY

ALBUMS

A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 (1954) A Night at Birdland Vol. 2 (1954) A Night at Birdland Vol. 3 (1954) At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1 (1955) At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 2 (1955) 1956: Art Blakey with the Original Jazz Messengers 1956: Originally 1956: Drum Suite 1956: Hard Bop 1957: Art Blakey & His Rhythm Once Upon a Groove (1957) Ritual: The Modern Jazz Messengers (1957) Orgy in Rhythm, Vol. 1 (1957) Orgy in Rhythm, Vol. 2 (1957) Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers (1958) Moanin' (1958) Drums Around the Corner (1958) Holiday for Skins, Vol. 1 (1958) Holiday for Skins, Vol. 2 (1958) Africaine (1959) At the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 1 (1959) At the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 2 (1959) The Big Beat (1960) Like Someone in Love (1960) A Night in Tunisia (1960) Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 1 (1960) Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 2 (1960) Pisces (1961) Roots & Herbs (1961) The Witch Doctor (1961) The Freedom Rider (1961) Mosaic (1961) Buhaina's Delight (1961) The African Beat (1962) Three Blind Mice (1962) Free For All (1964) Indestructible (1964) Live Messengers (1978) - recorded 1954, 1961, 1962

  RELATED T O

MILES DAVIS

RONNIE SCOTT

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