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Art Blakey's favorite/best messenger group


mrjazzman

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My favorite was Hubbbard/Fuller/Shorter/Walton/Workman/Blakey, second was W.Marsalis/Watson/Pierce/Williams/Fambrough/Blakey (especially enjoyed Watson's writing for the Messengers, especially "Time Will Tell"). I wish all of the groups between "Indestructible" and "Gypsy Folk Tales" had been recorded more/better. Would have loved to hear more than one semi-bootleg of Billy Harper in the group, would have liked to have heard better what Gary Bartz brought to the group.

Edited by felser
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he said when they get too old, I'm gonna get me some younger ones.

And he kept getting him some younger ones. I saw him live at Penn's Landing a few months before he passed, and Brian Lynch was with him on trumpet and his playing smoked! I was less impressed with some of the other players (a very young Geoff Keezer, the ever-puzzling Javon Jackson). Steve Davis was very good on trombone, and he had a second tenor player, Dale somebody, who played well. I forget who the bass player was, I'm thinking maybe Essiett O. Essiett.

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Good as that group was, I heard that Blakey didn't care for the sometimes complicated drum charts that Golson wrote.

Golson told me one night last week that blakey didn't want to do blues march("I don't want to do no march")until golson convinced him that it was a blues and that everything would be alright. It turned out to be one of their biggest hits. Golson had just joined the band and had convinced blakey to let him be it's director.........

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I liked the Wayne Shorter/Morgan period with or without Curtis Fuller

In fact I liked all of them up until the mid to late 70s really

I really liked the prestige sides like Childs Dance but the Blue Notes cap it for me...excellent all round

Edited by andybleaden
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[Golson told me one night last week that blakey didn't want to do blues march("I don't want to do no march")until golson convinced him that it was a blues and that everything would be alright. It turned out to be one of their biggest hits. Golson had just joined the band and had convinced blakey to let him be it's director.........

Golson was already a well-respected composer and arranger when he joined the band, Morgan was 19 years old, and Timmons hadn't written any of his signature tunes yet, so it shouldn't have been too much of a stretch for him to become the director. If memory serves, Golson recruited the other guys (Morgan, Timmons, Merritt), who were all from Philly. Timmons had been out on the west coast with Chet Baker and hadn't written (or at least recorded) his signature stuff yet and Morgan had been in Dizzy's big band, blowing away listeners with his break in Tunisia. I heard Blakey twice in the '85-'90 period, and he did "Blues March" (and "Moanin'") both times. I've never particularly cared for "Blues March", but "Moanin'" is the hard bop national anthem, as far as I'm concerned. Timmons wrote some great stuff in that era ("Moanin'", "This Here", "Dat Dere", etc.).

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