Album review: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Just Coolin'

Lee Morgan (trumpet); Hank Mobley (tenor sax); Bobby Timmons (piano); Jymie Merritt (bass); Art Blakey (drums).

Even 61 years on, The Jazz Messengers never fail to excite. These 6 tracks have lain in the Blue Note vaults since March 8, 1959. The reason for what some might consider a hanging offence is that Alfred Lion recorded the band live at Birdland a month later and, as these numbers were also duplicated on the live session, he opted to release the live recording (Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers: Meet You at the Jazz Corner of  The World vols 1 & 2) instead.

Fortunately, like so many forgotten masterpieces from that era - Miles, Monk, Trane - they have eventually emerged.

This, of course, presents a dilemma for a reviewer. What is there left to be said about The Messengers that hasn't been said before?

Blakey had an uncanny knack of finding young players who were on the cusp of greatness. Spurred on by the great man's drumming and hungry to climb up to the next level their musical immortality was assured although their actual mortality was often quite a bit less.

Lee Morgan was the natural successor to Navarro and Brownie in the bebop hierarchy (Dizzy was, like Bird, one of the untouchables) and I could hear his influence in James Copus' playing (see previous album review). Mobley, who'd been a founder member of The Messengers, was, you might say, a stop gap in between the departure of Benny Golson and the arrival of Wayne Shorter. Well, for my money, Mobley was the group's best ever tenor man - he also provided three of the compositions on the album.

Timmons is renowned for being the funkiest pianist of his generation whilst Merritt, who died relatively recently, was ideally suited to the group and, as for Blakey, he wrote the book on powerhouse drumming!

An album well worth the wait although I do think Alfred Lion made the correct decision at the time. The club atmosphere of the Birdland discs give them that little bit extra.

Myself, I wouldn't be without any of them!

Lance.

Available August 7 on Blue Note.

Listen to Bobby Timmons' Quick Trick.

Hipsippy Blues; Close Your Eyes; Jimerick; Quick Trick; M + M; Just Coolin'.