MUSIC: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, by Wiggia

Whilst being able to appreciate their ability along with the double bass, I have never really warmed to drum solos any more than double bass solos, their job is to hold the rhythm in place for group or band.

In the big band era drum solos would provide an interlude with the likes of Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich showing their mettle in front of their own bands, all very showbiz, but great drummers in their own right though there were many of the elongated solos that matched marathon dancing and had me reaching for off switch or legging it to the bar. As with all there are exceptions, for me Art Blakey stands out as not only a supreme master craftsman but also someone whom one hears in all his groups yet never intrudes, his drum solos being simply an extension of that amazing drive he pushed all his groups along with.

Born in 1919 he started as so many of his contemporaries with big bands, in his case Fletcher Henderson then Billie Eckstine and then went on to work with be bop founders of Monk Parker and Gillespie. In the mid fifties he founded the Jazz Messengers with Horace Silver the pianist but the group over the years became known more for the nurturing of new found talent and the list was impressive. It included Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Wynton Marsalis, Lee Morgan and Bennie Golson.

Blakey had a hard upbringing, losing his single parent mother shortly after he was born and being raised by a woman family friend who took in him and his siblings for some time but it was a period of little hard facts.

His early career is also somewhat muddied although he did start as a pianist, switching to drums in the thirties but who he played with and when is a bit fragmented to say the least during the period up to his big band appointment, and even after that he went and lived in Africa for a couple of years and converted to Islam whilst there. It was suggested that he as with many other black musicians at the time used Islamic names to circumvent the race laws that prevailed in many states at the time, though it seems he forgot all that shortly after return, a sort of George Harrison moment. Horace Silver left the Jazz Messengers after the first year and Blakey added his name to the group where it remained until his last appearance in 1990; he died soon afterwards of lung cancer.

His was a hard bop group when it started out and despite all the reincarnations with his steady stream of new talent this driving style with a blues undertone remained.

This classic is from ‘58 with Lee Morgan on trumpet Benny Golson on sax and Bobby Timmons on piano.



The above quintet was the quintessential Jazz Messengers and the most remembered, it stayed as a quintet for most of its life though an earlier 17 piece big band had the Messengers name and luminaries such as Hank Mobley, Clifford Brown and Jackie McLean played with them.

Below from the “Big Beat” album on Blue Note is The Chess Players; not only on this album is Blakey's unrelenting driving style showcased but it also contains one of the finest trumpet solos in modern jazz by Lee Morgan.



And from the same album It’s Only a Paper Moon, again showing the drumming style of Blakey in all its glory and another tour de force by Morgan.



In ‘61 Blakey added the trombone to his group and it became a sextet, here at Nurnberg in Germany in ‘88 his young band once again show why the Messengers were so popular around the world.



An even bigger group in an “All Stars” tour in Japan in ‘82, giving Curtis Fuller on trombone a chance to shine, an instrument Blakey included for much of the Messengers' life yet rarely seen in modern jazz combos. The number is Blues March written by by Benny Golson who is on tenor sax with Wynton Marsalis on trumpet.

Blues March - Art Blakey and All Star Jazz Messengers (1982) from Wynton Marsalis on Vimeo.


Mosaic was a big success as an album for Blakey and the Messengers recorded in ‘61 live at the Village Gate. It had a slightly different personnel in Freddie Hubbard , trumpet and Cedar Walton piano. Here we have Children of the Night.



Still bringing on young talent: Reflections in Blue, a ‘78 recording and Stretching the number recorded in the Netherlands in ‘78 with……Valerie Ponomarev (trumpet) Robert Watson (alto sax) David Schnitter (tenor sax) James Williams (piano) Dennis Irwin (bass) Art Blakey (drums)



Blakey's discography is enormous, there seems to be almost no one he has not played with or backed. He played with Thelonious Monk at the beginning the middle and end of his career and Monk despite having the hugely talented Dannie Richmond on drums for a very large part of his career always placed Blakey in the No.1 slot.

Art was certainly someone who enjoyed life, even if the drugs of the period played their part, he smoked heavily drank and loved food, plus with four marriages and several long time relationships it could be said he stretched the phrase bon viveur to the limit.

I finish with something that is short, it is only part of the number being played and as for the rest who knows where it is, but it shows Blakey in Africa at a Jazz Fesival in ‘87 near the end of his career, still more than capable and with a big band that are really having a blow, featuring Woody Shaw on trumpet and Herbie Hancock on piano, a Night in Tunisia.

Woody Shaw deserves a mention in his own right. Considered by many to be the last great innovator on the trumpet, he was born with perfect pitch and a photographic mind considered to be way ahead of his time; it was a loss to jazz when he died young, his ending is from his biography:

By the late 1980s Shaw was suffering from an incurable degenerative eye disease and was losing his eyesight. Details of the accident are unclear, but on February 27, 1989, Shaw was struck by a subway car in Brooklyn, NY, which severed his left arm. Shaw suffered complications in the hospital and died of kidney failure on May 10, 1989. He was 44 years old.

Friday Night Is Music Night: A Celtic Miscellany, by JD

A selection of traditional music this evening:

JD's curtain-raiser is a traditional Irish song, "Siúil a Rún" (Go, My Love) sung by Nolwenn Leroy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvkSrG69yeo - but unfortunately not embeddable; to give an idea of it, a different version by Clannad is given below:



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Thelonious Monk, a survey by Wiggia

Yes, that was his real name and his middle name was Sphere. largely self-taught, he toured with evangelists in his teens playing the organ, and by his late teens was finding work playing jazz. he then landed a job as the house pianist at Milton's Playhouse in Manhattan where his playing style developed.

Here he met in after-hours sessions Dizzy Gillespie Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke and later Miles Davis; it was an instrumental period during which much of what was to become be-bop was formed.

For a variety of reasons his recording during this early period was spasmodic as was his earning power and although with Blue Note at the time most of what was recorded then did not sell well, it was also during this Blue Note period on the album Criss Cross that the characteristic of Monk's unique jazz style, which embraced percussive playing, unusual repetitions and dissonant sounds was first employed on record, and as he famously said "The piano ain't got no wrong notes!" and in ‘61 followed up with this: “You know anybody can play a composition and use far-out chords and make it sound wrong. It’s making it right that’s not so easy.”

Before the music this short film featuring band members including Sonny Rollins is worth watching as the Muso’s describe their life in music with Monk at that definitive time:

Coltrane, Monk and Rollins Are Definitive from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.


There is an element in his playing, I think, to be found in Brubeck's work a little later which was expanded by block chording.

After ‘52 he signed with the Prestige label and his first significant albums available to the public were issued but despite working with Miles Davis (who found Monk's style “difficult to work with), Max Roach, Art Blakey and Rollins, the sales were still not great.

In one of life's little vignettes he went to Paris and here from Wiki met……..

In 1954, Monk paid his first visit to Paris. As well as performing at concerts, he recorded a solo piano session for French radio (later issued as an album by Disques Vogue). Backstage, Mary Lou Williams introduced him to Baroness Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter, a member of the Rothschild family and a patroness of several New York City jazz musicians. She was a close friend for the rest of Monk's life, including taking responsibility for him when she and Monk were charged with marijuana possession.

It was at Riverside Records ‘55 - ‘61 that Monk found his wider audience and recognition amongst the jazz buying public. “Brilliant Corners” with Sonny Rollins playing mainly Monk's own compositions was his first big seller. Here below is the title track from that album……it is worth noting it was so difficult to play that the recording was stitched together from several takes.

From this period Bags Groove, Blue Monk, and Round Midnight were all destined to become jazz standards. From 62 – 68 he was with Colombia records which gave him greater exposure and several classic albums came from that source, Misterioso, Criss Cross, and Straight, No Chaser among them.

That was really the end of his recording life. Apart from the aforementioned bits and pieces, Black Lion Records in ‘71 did a very good 3 CD compilation that’s worth seeking out.



During the Riverside period other to-become-classic Monk albums were released, including Monk's Music, Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane, At the Blackhawk etc etc. Many were live club recordings and the one at the Five Spot Cafe with Johhny Griffin is a good one.

There was also Thelonious Monk Orchestra at the Town Hall, an album that had Monk's music and Hall Overton's arrangements; it failed to some degree for lack of time and inadequate sound yet had the makings of something special. Sadly it was never followed up, this and a ‘63 concert at the Philharmonic Hall were the only large ensemble works of Monk, yet the good bits on this album justified more in this vein. Here to give a flavour of the Town Hall album is Little Rootie Tootie, it has a wonderful bass quality to sound provided by the brass section that had been supplemented in this tentet.



And here is a rare piece of good judgment by the Beeb to record Monk playing his classic composition Straight No Chaser with Charlie Rouse on tenor. Mind you, the Beeb were guilty of a lot of good taste back then in many areas; not now.



This recorded in Denmark in ‘66 is Don’t Blame Me, a piano solo showing all the art and craft that he had in his own inimitable style; lovely piece.



As with so many jazz musicians of that era drugs were never far from the scene and Monk's strange behaviour later in life that went undiagnosed by the medical profession meant he had withdrawn from public life by the mid seventies and his patroness cared for him in NY as she had earlier when he was struggling for work, until his death in ‘82. She also, it should be noted, cared for Charlie Parker in his last days; strange but true.

From his live gig at the Five Spot Cafe with Johnny Griffin on tenor, “Blue Monk”, another unmistakable Monk composition:



Those lost early years, recording wise, and his sparse later output meant that releases during those last years and after his death were often bad recordings, parts of sessions and forgotten items cobbled together. Amongst all of that were some very good works that deserved to be heard and much that should have stayed in the box. It was very much a lottery as to what you purchased of his works as everyone cashed in on the grounds that all had a historic musical reason to be heard. Of course Monk was gone and almost certainly wasn’t capable of directing what should or should not be released in his last years anyway; most has since disappeared.

Having said that, the old Esquire label with its lovely thick vinyl platters had a couple of good ones I seem to remember; that now seem also to have disappeared .

This next is not all Monk, he plays two piano solos and then at this ‘69 Berlin concert you get Joe Williams thrown in and the “divine” Sarah Vaughan as well, your full pound's worth and good sound quality to boot:



Finally, the Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane playing Ruby My Dear from 1957:



I only saw Monk live once at the Festival hall in London. It was not the greatest of experiences as the performance was late starting and Monk himself did not appear on stage for three numbers, leaving his “trio” to carry on without him. When he did deign to appear there was no apology, nothing. This was I think in the early seventies; whether he was being a diva or on something and getting his head together before appearing on stage is as mysterious now as then, though we do know through biographies on the man that odd behaviour had become almost the norm later in life and he had been hospitalised after being picked up by the police on one occasion, so we never will know how much of that manifested itself in public. But it did little for the concert as many people were slightly pissed-off by the time he appeared,. Doesn’t stop me appreciating his music of course; it’s just a small anecdote from years ago.

Friday Night Is Music Night: Musical Balm, by JD

Photograph taken in Barter Books, which is in the old railway station in Alnwick

"All thing shall be well;..... Thou shalt see thyself that all MANNER [of] thing shall be well;" ― Julian of Norwich; Revelations of Divine Love xxxii

Java Jazz Man: The Genius Of Charles Mingus, by Wiggia

Almost all of the current jazz musicians have been influenced by the past, some more than others. Indeed some despite their own fame could almost be called tribute acts; that would be grossly unfair, yet for those there is a very close relationship with the music that influenced them.

For others that early influence only drove them on down a path of their own, Charlie Mingus was one such artist. Notoriously difficult to work with, he was uncompromising and would berate anyone who did not toe his line and sackings were not unusual or fights - he was sacked by Ellington for fighting .

His Wiki page is worth a read and is comprehensive….. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mingus

Very few bassists, even famous ones, break through to become band leaders, composers, writers; in fact it is difficult to think of anyone other than Mingus who achieved that status. Much of his music coming from a hard bop and soul influenced background was ground-breaking, his bigger groups and bands especially so.

And he also, if they could stand the pace, produced some outstanding musicians that played alongside and went on to form their own groups, people like Pepper Adams and Horace Parlan, just two of many.

Mingus must be one of a very small group of musicians who have played with Louis Armstrong , Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker; he could never be accused of being stuck in a groove.

His first major work in his own name came in ‘56 with Pithecanthropus Erectus [aka Java Man - Ed.] that also showcased Jackie Mclean on alto, one of my favorite saxophonists but clearly a Parker disciple, and the talented pianist Mal Waldron. There were elements of free jazz in this album but with Mingus there were elements of almost everything in all his albums and there were a lot of them in the sixties.

For me it was his Mingus Ah Um album that really got me hooked on his music and that was followed by Blues and Roots and many more.

This is a ‘75 Montreux Jazz Festival recording of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat from the Ah Um album and featuring a wonderful solo from Gerry Mulligan and the opener from pianist Don Pullen. The drummer here is Danny Richmond who was with Mingus to the very end, one of the greatest jazz drummers of his era.



And for a complete change of mood, from the same period ‘57 Ysabel’s Table Dance from the Tijuana Moods album.



This from a live ‘64 concert has an amazing piano solo from Jaki Byard and features Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet and if nothing else shows that modern jazz can swing with the best when you have musicians of this calibre.



Hardly needs any introduction, Moanin’ from the ‘59 Blues and Roots album at the time a number that was as Eric Dolphy would say “Far Ahead” made an enormous impression at the time and still does as a jazz standard of the highest quality.



Finally a tribute to the man, a Mingus album: Me Myself and Eye 1978, Mingus composed and wrote the album but was by this time, a year before his death, unable to play, suffering as he was from ALS; but this big band did him proud with this rendition of “Devil Woman” featuring Laryll Coryell on guitar Michael Brecker on tenor sax and Randy Brecker on trumpet; also, there are Pepper Adams on Baritone and Lee Konitz alto.

DEVIL WOMAN CHARLES MINGUS from rascaldani on Vimeo.


Of all the albums of modern jazz I have, Mingus remains along with Roland Kirk at or near the top of most played. His work is lauded as comparable with classical compositions and is used as teaching material in many forms of music, a giant of music whatever the form.

For those interested this film Triumph of the Underdog is worth watching, a Mingus biography.


Charles Mingus Triumph of the Underdog by filmow
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Sackerson adds:

A favourite with both Wiggia and JD is "Money Jungle" (1962), where Mingus plays with Max Roach and Duke Ellington:

What is the matter with Hugo Rifkind? Three competitions.

Is Hugo Rifkind seeing things?

Another précis challenge, this time of Hugo Rifkind's latest in the Spectator magazine:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/02/i-went-to-see-disney-world-and-saw-a-dying-country/

The original is 905 words long. Condense into 200 words or fewer (I think it can be done in half that). You may or may not wish to retain this excerpt, on Rifkind's seeing Trump's beach resort and apartment complex:

"If I said it was like seeing a swastika banner on the Arc de Triomphe, I would of course be exaggerating ridiculously; but I find on reflection that I am totally going to say it anyway."

[Experienced précis-ers will know that "of course" and "totally" are expendable, but once one starts down that road it is hard to know where to stop, with this writer. The function of such phrases is, of course, emotional, an attempt to gain complicity with the befuddled but self-consciously right-thinking reader. "Totally" is a usage a little too old for current cool, though. Should he have tried for a winsomely humorous "totes"?]

Alternatively, you may wish to write an essay on the state of America, as it exists in Hugo's mind, and how you think it is in reality. The Spectator article is dated 18 February, 28 days after Trump's Presidential inauguration, but the magazine is available in shops 2 days earlier and Rifkind's experience dates back to the previous week. Here is his conclusion, after 3 weeks of Trump's occupation of the Oval Office:

"This is the stench of death. This is broken. This is America running out of road."

Extra marks will be rewarded for some consideration of events years or decades earlier than February 20, 2017 that may have influenced the society and economy of the USA.

Finally, you may instead prefer to consider Rifkind's performance against generally accepted standards of journalism - see here for Wiki's briefing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism_ethics_and_standards

In your discussion, you may wish to make reference to a rumour that Rifkind failed to fact-check before sending it "viral" on Twitter, that implied incestuous impulses in Trump. The original is now unavailable, but a version of it can be found listed on a Google search:

"Guido" guys it here - https://order-order.com/2016/11/29/week-hugo-rifkind/ - ending:

You may also like to consider an earlier Rifkind article in the Spectator, also with salacious undertones:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/11/trump-the-pick-up-artist-who-seduced-america/

- the concluding paragraph of which reads:

"Plenty of people seem to believe that Trump does this, too. That whenever he says his latest arresting, infuriating, insane thing, he’s also playing a trick, trying to wind people up. Personally, I don’t buy it. More to the point, though, I’m not sure it makes any difference. Likewise those sieg heils in those Washington restaurants. For show? For real? In the end, the question is meaningless. This is what they give us, so this is who they are. The trick is all there is. The carapace is sealed. Everything beneath has rotted away."

The "sieg heil" (you will detect here a long-running theme in the mind of the writer) is a glance at a function which had nothing to do with Trump personally but serves this journalist's purpose in the form of guilt by association (however tenuous). The incident in question is covered here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2016/11/21/d-c-restaurant-apologizes-after-hosting-alt-right-dinner-with-sieg-heil-salute/?utm_term=.aa72a2d9fb19

You may be tempted to draw an ironic analogy with the dangerously inflammatory, lying, misleading and calumniating propaganda of Julius Streicher; you must resist doing so.

Flynn's firing: part of Trump's deception plan against Democrat-supporting spooks?

The dismissal of President Trump's National Security Adviser, Lt-Gen. Michael Flynn, is a smokescreen hiding a successful operation to identify subversive elements in the intelligence community, claims writer Thomas Wictor.(1)

According to Wictor, different versions of a false story about discussions between Flynn and the Russian Ambassador to the US were fed into the community as a "barium meal" to disclose how classified information is illegally passed on in order to undermine the President, and who is prepared to use it. Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates is, he says, the first to be unmasked by the deception.

Wictor draws an analogy with the disinformation that revealed where the Japanese were going to attack in the Pacific in June 1942, and led to the Americans' destruction of four enemy aircraft carriers in the Battle of Midway.(2)

If so, hit and sunk, Mrs Yates. She was fired on January 30 for defying Trump's selective immigration moratorium; that's the mainstream media story, anyhow.(3)

The battle in the shadows goes on. But if Wictor is right, the intelligence community is on notice that long terms of imprisonment could await those who dare to plot the downfall of the nation's Chief Executive.

Image: http://freshlybakedcollectibles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Spy_vs_Spy_3.jpg

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(1) http://www.thomaswictor.com/leakers-beware/
(2) http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/11/20/u_s_in_world_war_ii_how_the_navy_broke_japanese_codes_before_midway.html
(3) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/30/justice-department-trump-immigration-acting-attorney-general-sally-yates