Politely art blakey biography

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It was in the late ’40s that Art formed his first Jazz Messengers band, a 17-piece big band.

After a brief gig with Buddy DeFranco, in 1954 Art met up with pianist Horace Silver, altoist Lou Donaldson, trumpeter Clifford Brown, and bassist Curly Russell and recorded “live” at Birdland for Blue Note Records.

He sustained such a continuous interaction with the other soloing instruments that, as Mark Gridley commented in his book Jazz Styles, "for him to solo was almost anticlimactic." Blakey's distinctive use of the high-hat cymbal and the press roll (a brief and tightly controlled roll on the snare drum) were two influential and instantly recognizable elements of a style notable for both its complexity and direct appeal.

During his later years, Blakey was almost completely deaf and played drums by feeling vibrations. Nonetheless, he continued to perform until he was incapacitated by illness during the summer of 1990. They do it themselves. The following year, Art and Horace Silver co-founded the quintet that became the Jazz Messengers. The list of musicians who played in the various Jazz Messengers ensembles reads like a Who's Who of Jazz: trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Terence Blanchard, saxophonists Branford Marsalis, Wayne Shorter, and Jackie McLean, trombonist Curtis Fuller, and pianists Bobby Timmons and Cedar Walton are just a few alumni of the group.

Blakey maintained a "revolving door" policy with the Messengers; whenever he felt a member of his group was ready to make it on his own, he would encourage him to do so.

Jeckyle Evidence, 1991.

  • Hard Champion Evidence, 1992.
  • New Year's Eve at Sweet Basil Evidence, 1992.
  • Jazz Message Impulse.
  • With the Jazz Messengers At the Cafe Bohemia, Vols. They began touring Europe, with forays into North Africa. The vast catalog of recordings he left behind documents the development of his trendsetting drumming style, and perhaps more significantly, the evolving sound of his ensemble, which, though its membership was continually in flux, always maintained Blakey's mandate to create first-rate jazz that would, as he remarked in an interview in The Black Perspective in Music, "wash away the dust of everyday life."

    Blakey was born on October 11, 1919, in Pittsburgh, a city that has produced many other jazz notables, including pianists Earl Hines, Mary Lou Williams, and Errol Garner.

    Throughout the ’60s, the Messengers remained a mainstay on the jazz scene with jazz greats including Cedar Walton, Chuck Mangione, Keith Jarrett, Reggie Workman, Lucky Thompson and John Hicks. He offers strength, delicacy and soul all mixed into a style that is impossible to mistake for any other drummer."

    As a bandleader and discoverer of new talent, Blakey continued a jazz tradition begun by his early employer Fletcher Henderson, who in the 1920s helped launch the careers of musicians such as saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and trumpeter Rex Stewart.

    What changed constantly was a seeming unending supply of talented sidemen, many of whom went on to become band leaders in their own right.

    In the early years luminaries like Clifford Brown, Hank Mobley and Jackie McLean rounded out the band. 1934; member of Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, 1939; joined Mary Lou Williams's band, 1942; member of Henderson Orchestra, 1943-44; led band in Boston; member of Billy Eckstine's Orchestra, 1944-47; recorded with pianist Thelonious Monk, 1947; lived in West Africa, exploring African religion; performed and did radio broadcasts with saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeters Miles Davis and Clifford Brown, and pianist Horace Silver, early 1950s; Blakey and Silver formed Jazz Messengers with trumpeter Kenny Dorham, saxophonist Hank Mobley, and bassist Doug Watkins, 1955; leader of Jazz Messengers, 1956-90; toured world with Giants of Jazz, 1971-72.

    Art Blakey's Awards

    Down Beat New Star Award, 1953; (with Jazz Messengers) Grammy Award for best jazz instrumental performance--group, 1984, for New York Scene; honorary doctorate, Berklee College of Music, 1987; Northsea Festival Charlie Parker Award, 1989.

    Famous Works

    • Selective Works
    • Art Blakey Quartet: A Night in Birdland Blue Note, 1954.
    • Art Blakey: Orgy in Rhythm Blue Note, 1957.
    • Art Blakey and the Afro-Drum Ensemble: The African Beat Blue Note, 1962.
    • Dr.

      Then, in 1955, Blakey and pianist Horace Silver formed the first incarnation of the Jazz Messengers, with Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, and Doug Watkins on bass. As Herb Nolan described it in Down Beat, "Blakey developed a driving, emotional style filled with so many levels of sound [that] there is the illusion of great rhythmic waves washing over and through the music.

      Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ 1980 entrance into the band coincided — and played no small part in — the resurgence of the music in the ’80s.

      Throughout the ’80 and until his death in 1990, Art maintained the integrity of the message, incubating the careers of musicians including trumpeters Wallace Rooney and Terence Blanchard, pianists Mulgrew Miller and Donald Brown, bassists Peter Washington and Lonnie Plaxico and many others.

      Art died at the age of 71 after a career that spanned six of the best decades of jazz music.

      politely art blakey biography

      1 and 2 1960.

    • The Big Beat Blue Note, 1960.
    • Buhaina's Delight Blue Note, 1961, reissued, 1992.
    • Mosaic Blue Note, 1961, reissued, 1987.
    • The Freedom Rider Blue Note, 1961.
    • Witch Doctor Blue Note, 1961.
    • Caravan Riverside, 1962.
    • Free for All Blue Note, 1964.
    • Anthenagin Prestige, 1973.
    • Straight Ahead Concord Jazz, 1981.
    • New York Scene Concord Jazz, 1984.
    • One for All A&M, 1990.
    • Reflections in Blue Gowi (Netherlands), 1992.
    • The History of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers reissued, Blue Note, 1992.
    • The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Art Blakey's 1960 Jazz Messengers Mosaic, 1992.
    • Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers Paris 1958 Bluebird, 1992.
    • In Sweden Evidence, 1993.
    • Contributor to numerous albums, including Together!--The Legendary Big Band Spotlite, 1945; Thelonious Monk: Genius of Modern Music Blue Note, 1947-52; Miles Davis All-Stars, Vols.

      In 1960, the Messengers became the first American Jazz band to play in Japan for Japanese audiences. The messenger has moved on, but his message lives on in the music of the scores of sidemen whose careers he nurtured, the many other drummers he mentored and countless fans who have been blessed to hear the Messengers’ music.

      — By Yawu Miller, Managing Editor, The Baystate Banner (Boston, MA)

    • Born October 11, 1919, in Pittsburgh, PA; died of lung cancer, October 16, 1990, in New York City; married four times; 12 children (five adopted), including Art Blakey, Jr.

    (deceased).

    Art Blakey's death in 1990 brought to a close a remarkable and multifaceted career; not only was he one of the most influential jazz drummers of his day, but he was also something of a father figure to dozens of aspiring jazz musicians. That first Japanese tour was a high point for the band.