Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers

[Connemara]

Art Blakey is, arguably, the greatest hard bop musician of all time. he pretty much invented the genre.

What's your favorite Blakey/Messengers album?

 

[freelance robotics]

i don't know if he was the greatest but he was most definitely the defining force of the genre, and i think it goes without saying that Night in Tunisia is probably one of if not his most notable recordings. i also like the album The Jazz Messengers but to me it lacks a lot of the hooks and showboating that make NiT so enthralling.

 

[underwearer]

The Big Beat w/ Wayne Shorter.

 

[mizanation]

not a fan of hard bop. i think i overdosed on it in high school. can't really listen to it now... but yeah, art blakey and the jazz messengers are great.

 

[il vecchio]

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers recorded live at the Club St Germain Paris 1958
Bobby Timmons solo on Moanin' is his best in my view of the many many recordings of a great number.

 

[water]

A Night at Birdland, Vol.1. No real explanation other than I love it from start to end.

 

[jpeirpont]

Originally Posted by Connemara

Art Blakey is, arguably, the greatest hard bop musician of all time. he pretty much invented the genre.

What's your favorite Blakey/Messengers album?

I love him, do not have any of his albums, but hear them a lot on Monk's pandora station. I think Monk is the best Hard bop and by extension the best Jazz musician but Blakey is dam good.

 

[mizanation]

hmm. hard bop is not the best jazz. it's just jazz's most easily digestable form...

 

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by mizanation

hmm. hard bop is not the best jazz. it's just jazz's most easily digestable form...
That might be true.

 

[andyw]

Wow........get me thinking.......favorite albums are the ones Wayne Shorter plays on and what comes to mind is the album Africaine - Lester Left Town by Wayne is a stunner and the album Mosaic.

Art Blakey will forever be known for incubating great jazz talent..including Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Cedar Walton, Keith Jarrett, Benny Golson, Jackie McLean, Johnny Griffin, Branford Marsalis and Chuck Mangione.

Gotta go to my collection to remind myself of the great music. Thanks Connie

 

[jpeirpont]

Originally Posted by mizanation

hmm. hard bop is not the best jazz. it's just jazz's most easily digestable form...

Yeah right, so whats best Smooth Jazz?

 

[mizanation]

it's impossible to say one jazz style is the best.

you have the lush beauty of swing.

you have the technical brilliance of bebop.

the coolness of cool jazz.

the soulfulness of hard bop.

the intellectual sophistication of post bop/modern era.

the freedom of free jazz.

not to mention latin jazz, fusion and soul jazz.

hard bop was an important era in jazz but a lot happened before and since.

 

[jpeirpont]

Originally Posted by mizanation

it's impossible to say one jazz style is the best.

you have the lush beauty of swing.

you have the technical brilliance of bebop.

the coolness of cool jazz.

the soulfulness of hard bop.

the intellectual sophistication of post bop/modern era.

the freedom of free jazz.

not to mention latin jazz, fusion and soul jazz.

hard bop was an important era in jazz but a lot happened before and since.

I was messing with you. I agree that it might be the easiest to appreciate, I think it also the most influential. It's the Jazz I connect to most culturally so I enjoy it most.

 

[mizanation]

you're right, it's by far the most influential.

when most people think "jazz" they think hard bop (actually, they probably think kenny g).

when i suggest jazz to people, i usually start them off with hard bop and then lead them elsewhere.

 

[Connemara]

IMO, bebop is the most beautiful form of jazz, but I can see why hard bop is considered the most influential.