Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
Just Coolin’
Blue Note
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Desperate times call for desperate measures. As the coronavirus holds the world in its vice-like grip, the performing arts have been struck by what could be a fatal blow. Left by some governments to atrophy, artists have found creative ways to find space for expression. For some (the lucky ones), it has been about providing relief in these strange times. For others, it has been a way to raise money for good causes. And for some, it has been about making a meager living when all other revenue streams have dried up.
An unexpected side effect of “Verzuz” battles, Questlove’s relentless DJ sets or other delights we’ve sampled has been getting to know the great and the good’s living rooms. Traditional recording and performance spaces may be unavailable, but why should that stop the party, right? But it’s always been like that—artists find a way to make their art. Take the newly retrieved Art Blakey album—one, like many, that was recorded in Rudy Van Gelder’s living room studio in Hackensack, New Jersey.
March 8, 1959 was the day that this new combination of Messengers laid down these rediscovered tracks in that room, although this iteration of the Messengers would prove to be a short-lived one. It featured Blakey, Lee Morgan on trumpet, Hank Mobley on tenor sax, Bobby Timmons on piano and Jymie Merritt on bass. The recording immediately previous to this one (in 1958) had been the all-conquering Moanin’ with Benny Golson on sax, but just a few months later, by July of 1959, Mobley would been replaced by Wayne Shorter.
Mobley may have been in the midst of a brief membership in the Messengers, but he made his presence felt on this recording, writing three of the six tracks here. Why then would the album not see the light of day back in 1959? Well, just five weeks later on April 15th, Blue Note Records co-founder Alfred Lion decided to record the band at the legendary Birdland—a date that became the two-volume live album Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers At The Jazz Corner Of The World (1959). Thus was Just Coolin’ lost to the world until now.
With four of the tracks here appearing on the aforementioned live album, the first quandary is to imagine why the album was shelved in favor of the live renditions. In truth, they lack a degree or two of the incendiary quality that marks the live versions and some tracks seem to finish before they’ve had the chance to breath and find their natural state.
Those couple of misgivings aside, the main takeaway from the album is that you can never have too much top quality hard bop in your life—any extra time spent in the company of Lee Morgan’s tremendous trumpet playing, is time well spent. While stopping short of the era-defining Moanin’, it's a further example of what may be hard bop’s finest group doing what they do best.
“Hipsippy Blues” ploughs a familiar Blakey groove with the highlight being Morgan’s trumpet and the way it builds from understated to something more brazen. “M&M” is one of those that is slightly slower than the version on the live album that stole this set’s thunder, but it still features some interesting solos from the horn players despite that loss of pace and a nimble piano solo from Timmons.
“Quick Trick” lives up to its name but in the process, exits before it should. A couple of delicious solos from Mobley and Morgan blaze a trail before an unwelcome ending brings things to too sharp a conclusion—this is the only known recording of this track and it deserves better treatment.
While the album fails to match the high that preceded it (it was Moanin’ and precious little eclipses its magic), it does offer a chance to hear more of the too early departed Lee Morgan and a Messengers lineup that goes as hard as any before or after. If classic hard bop is your bag, this is for you.
Notable Tracks: “Hipsippy Blues” | “Just Coolin’” | “Quick Trick”
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