Art Blakey: Strasbourg ‘82

[Peter]

A fine performance impeccably recorded. Some nice solos from the under recorded Billy Pierce. 
 

[mikeweil]

https://gearboxrecords.bandcamp.com/album/strasbourg-82

p.s. I corrected the spelling of the thread title.

[Ken Dryden]

The advance files that I received to review labeled “Old Folks” as “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was.” I informed the label, which hadn’t printed the sleeve yet. Unfortunately, the liner notes mention the incorrect title, so I am unsure if a song was substituted late or the writer didn’t recognize the mislabeled song.

[hbbfam]

A must have?

[mhatta]

By the 80s, I think Blakey couldn't hide his decline as a drummer, but the repertoire had grown to include more modern tunes that I found enjoyable. On this album, for example, tracks like “Little Man” or “Fuller Love” (aka “In Case You Missed It”).

[Gheorghe]

On 12/12/2025 at 3:11 AM, mhatta said:

By the 80s, I think Blakey couldn't hide his decline as a drummer, but the repertoire had grown to include more modern tunes that I found enjoyable. On this album, for example, tracks like “Little Man” or “Fuller Love” (aka “In Case You Missed It”).

I don´t know nothing about a decline. Saw him the last time in 1989 and it was fantastic, and I really could HEAR him. I don´t know that album. I saw Blakey very often from the late 70´s to 1990 with different bands, the first was with Valery Ponomarev, Dave Schnitter and Bobby Watson, I think James Williams and aaah .....a bass player.

Later with maybe Donald Harrison and Terenche Blanchard maybe Mulgrew Miller and Lonnie Plaxico, and later maybe with that young white cat on piano Benny Green and other very good young musicians. Maybe that was the last occasion I saw him. 

[kh1958]

51 minutes ago, Gheorghe said:

I don´t know nothing about a decline. Saw him the last time in 1989 and it was fantastic, and I really could HEAR him. I don´t know that album. I saw Blakey very often from the late 70´s to 1990 with different bands, the first was with Valery Ponomarev, Dave Schnitter and Bobby Watson, I think James Williams and aaah .....a bass player.

Later with maybe Donald Harrison and Terenche Blanchard maybe Mulgrew Miller and Lonnie Plaxico, and later maybe with that young white cat on piano Benny Green and other very good young musicians. Maybe that was the last occasion I saw him. 

I only saw him for two consecutive nights in 1985 (Blanchard/Toussaint/Harrison/Miller/Plaxico). I didn't note any decline. In point of fact, I recall that at one point each evening Blakey's drumming became so intense it was almost physically overwhelming. The only other time I experienced something similar was with Max Roach.

[felser]

I saw him twice in the later years.  Once with Philip Harper/Toussaint/Benny Green and a bass player, and that was great.  And near the end of his life with Brian Lynch/Steve Davis/two tenors - Dale Barlow and Javon Jackson/Geoff Keezer/Essiett Essiett, and you could tell some decline at that point.  And Jackson and Keezer were weak, though Lynch was fantastic.

[JSngry]

Hearing aids. Hearing deteriorated, not skills.

[Gheorghe]

18 hours ago, JSngry said:

Hearing aids. Hearing deteriorated, not skills.

Yeah, but he didn´t wear the hearing aids much. 

I remember a Down Beat interview he did in 1988 and the interviewer wrote "his hearing is not well and he apologies on open conversation and since he perspires a lot, the hearing aids get wet and damaged and need replacement. 

Well, that´s common among musicians. 

I have the same thing, 48 years of active playing live music and my hearing is slowly disappearing. I play very loud and listen to music very loud and have to concentrate and listen closely if people want to tell me something: Look at the picture of me at an Art Gallery where they want me to present my upcoming album and the famous writer Leo K. who wants to organize it talks to me about the project and tall as I am I bend down and listen with deepest concentration just to HEAR the stuff he tells me 🤣

[JSngry]

He came to get the time visually, by looking at the bassist, mostly.

[mhatta]

Unfortunately, I've never heard Blakey play live, but from recordings, I think Blakey's playing from the 80s onward occasionally featured off-rhythm or unstable moments. If it's a decline in hearing, that makes sense.