Album review: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers First Flight To Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings

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

Another  recently discovered, previously unreleased, gem from a record company's vaults which, in this case, is Blue Note. 

Say no more! Blue Note and  Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers is an unbeatable combination that, sixty years on, still sounds good.

This is one of the classic Messenger line-ups (weren't they all classic line-ups?) and it's pure magic hearing Morgan and Shorter stretching out at length even if the material is over-familiar - these guys could make Pop Goes the Weasel sound like the most exciting thing you've ever heard (fortunately they don't face that challenge here!).

Two versions of Now's the Time, both bookended with extensive drums solos, Blakey's no shrinking violet and he could drive a band like few others - pushing the soloists to and beyond their limits. The first lasted for over 22 minutes, the second a miserly 17 minutes

It wouldn't be a Jazz Messengers' gig without Bobby Timmons' Moanin' and there's 13 minutes of it whilst Benny Golson's Blues March is on parade for 11 minutes and 45 seconds.

Morgan is featured on 'Round Midnight, the sole ballad of the set, and he squeezes just the right amount of emotion out of it without any over-sentimentality.

A Night in Tunisia is the showstopper. Buhaina pounding out multi-cultural rhythms before stopping abruptly and leaving Morgan to play unaccompanied. The trumpet player threw in a few crowd-pleasing licks that didn't detract from a peerless display of dexterity. We thought that it was all over until Wayne Shorter stepped up to the plate and  did likewise - it was now!

This must have been quite a concert and I haven't given Timmons and Merritt the credit they deserved. Both were impressive and, as for the leader - simply the greatest ... 103 minutes of magic - Lance 

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers First Flight To Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings. Available Dec. 10 on Blue Note double CD or double vinyl LP.

Now's the Time (1); Moanin'; Blues March; The Theme (1); Dat Dere; 'Round Midnight; Now's the Time (2); A Night in Tunisia; The Theme (2)