Art Blakey, who visited Africa several times, has been cited as saying jazz couldn’t have happened there, that it could only have happened in America when and where it did, but Blakey was also fully aware of where those polyphonic rhythms and call-and-response patterns that underscore all of jazz…
Drums Around the Corner is a jazz album by Art Blakey, mostly recorded in 1958 but only released in 1999. The album is composed of two separate sessions. The main session, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder at the Manhattan Towers, NYC on November 2, 1958, is a showcase for an all-star drumming lineup of Blakey, Philly…
Orgy in Rhythm is an album by drummer Art Blakey. It is one of the first percussion-oriented jazz records. It was originally recorded in 1957 for Blue Note Records, and released as two LPs, Volume One and Volume Two, the same year as BLP 1554/1555. In the 1997 limited edition CD reissue by Blue Note,…
Perhaps the best known and most loved of Art Blakey’s works, The Big Beat is a testament to the creative progress of one of the best jazz drummers of all time. Now over 40 years old, The Big Beat is as thunderous as ever. Here, Blakey combines his rhythm…
Pianist and composer Aaron Parks is best known as a member of trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s excellent sextet that recorded Bounce (2003) and Flow (2005). In addition, he worked with Blanchard on the soundtrack to Spike Lee’s Inside Man and score for Lee’s Katrina: A Tale of God’s Will. Invisible…
In 2000 when Blue Note upgraded 1958’s House Party as part of the label’s superior Rudy Van Gelder series, they augmented the title with a ten-plus minute driving blow of Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation” as a well-chosen bonus track. Now the effort is bookended by some primal Bird, which was…
Groovin’ at Smalls’ Paradise is a live album by American jazz organist Jimmy Smith featuring performances recorded at Small’s Paradise in New York City in 1957 and originally released in two volumes on the Blue Note label. The album was rereleased as a double CD with four bonus tracks recorded at the same performance. The organ heard…
Standards is a 12-track collection that is culled from the sessions that resulted in the House Party and Home Cookin’ albums, both of which featured Jimmy Smith in a trio with guitarist Kenny Burrell and drummer Donald Bailey. All of the songs are familiar standards along the lines of “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “I’m Just a Lucky So and…
On March 22, 1960, Jimmy Smith, his trio (with guitarist Quentin Warren and drummer Donald Bailey), and three notable guests (tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec, altoist Jackie McLean, and trumpeter Blue Mitchell) recorded enough material for two LPs which were released as Open House and Plain Talk. This single CD…
This LP, which has been included as part of a Mosaic Jimmy Smith three-CD box set, features the organist taking a pair of rare unaccompanied solos on “All the Things You Are” and a fairly free “The Fight” and jamming several songs (“Zing Went the Strings of My Heart,”…