Perhaps the broadest type of music I discuss here on Flea Market Funk is Jazz. I’ve covered many different genres of Jazz. From Soul Jazz to Jazz Fusion to Jazz Funk, as well as some of the traditional stuff. I’m not a Jazz expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I can appreciate good music when I hear it. I’ve always leaned toward the Soul Jazz organists, but can definitely appreciate everything from Free Jazz to Hard Bop and beyond. As I said, it’s a huge category that really has so many players, bands, sidemen and the like in it, one can’t know it all. That being said, here’s a guy I really like. In fact, a friend of mine was mentored by him as a child drum prodigy. Imagine that, being taught and doing clinics with one of the greatest Jazz drummers, not to mention one of the best drummers in the world, Mr. Art Blakey. So today we have some Jazz on 45 that I bought on the cheap. It’s Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers with “Hipsippy Blues Part 1” from 1958 on the Blue Note 45.

Born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1919, Blakey originally started out on the piano but eventually switched to drums at “gunpoint”, so to speak. The club owner he was working for wanted to play piano, and when he’s pointing a pistol at you, well you switch to the drums. What an (un)fortunate turn of events for us. Mentored by Chick Webb, Blakey became quite proficient behind the drum kit and by the late 30’s had joined Fletcher Henderson’s band. It wasn’t long before he started to gig with Billy Eckstine, and here’s where the real fun started. An opportunity if I ever heard of one, was presented to Blakey: play besides the great Dizzie Gillespie and Charlie Parker. This opportunity paid off, Blakey’s style helped shape Bebop drumming (alongside people like Max Roach and Kenny Clarke), and before long Blakey found himself gigging with Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. One of the greatest events to help shape what was next to come for Art Blakey was a trip to West Africa in 1948. It not only shaped what was next to come musically, but had a tremendous impact on his life and the music he made. He converted to Islam (Abdullah Ibn Buhaina), and although he didn’t admit it, would include several African drumming styles into his own, infusing his bebop style with these ancient, rhythmic techniques into the music that would eventually evolve into hard bop. Hard bop would incorporate different rhythms such as Gospel, R & B, and Blues into the music they were already playing, while trying to recapture this particular style of Jazz as African expression.

“ I’m gonna stay with the youngsters. When these get too old I’ll get some younger ones. Keeps the mind active. ”-Art Blakey from A Night at Birdland, 1954

While the West Coast was playing cool Jazz in California, the scene in New York City was driving, hard bop. During the late 40’s Art formed a 17 piece studio band called The Messengers, the first incarnation of what would become the Jazz Messengers we know. In 1954 Blakey linked up with pianist Horace Silver, and after recording Live at Birdland (with a few other soon to be famous Jazz cats: Lou Donaldson, Clifford Brown, and Curly Russell) the two formed the Jazz Messengers. Silver eventually left to go on to his own fame and lead his own band, leaving Blakey with the Jazz Messengers. The revolving door of Jazz players who were in the Jazz Messengers reads like a who’s who of the Jazz world: Clifford Brown, Hank Mobley, Jackie McLean, Benny Golson Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, Jymmie Merritt, Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton, Chuck Mangione, Keith Jarrett, Reggie Workman, Lucky Thompson and John Hicks among others. In fact, up into the late 70’s Art Blakey and his many incarnations of the Jazz Messengers were still playing straight ahead Jazz, as the electronic instrument boom took place around them, they kept their sound the way Blakey wanted. Art often hired younger members, who he encouraged to compose, and often these musicians went on to great things on their own. Art Blakey kept playing with different forms of the Jazz Messengers until he died in 1990 at the age of 71. His legacy left a huge mark on Jazz music, and Blakey still influences a bastion of young Jazz lions today.

“Hipsippy Blues Part 1”, a live cut starts out with the distinctive voice of Pee Wee Marquette who announces the band at the Jazz Corner of the World (Birdland). The line up, which includes trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Jymie Merritt, and of course Blakey on drums is nothing short of spectacular. At this point, the late 50’s, the Jazz Messengers were in high gear, and the energy they exuded showed. Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley, who you can never go wrong with in my book, shines, while Blakey and Merrit stay locked deep in the pocket. The original side, which is over 9 minutes, has been split into two different sides on this 45. The energy is still there on both sides, and I think that this 45 not only captures The Jazz Messengers at one of their best paces musically, but after reading more about what was happening in Jazz at that moment, it really shows how Blakey forged ahead and made the Jazz audiences pay attention to the music once again through hard bop. Another legendary moment in not just Jazz history, but music history as well.

Listen to or Download Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers Hipsippy Blues Part 1 from the Blue Note 45

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