''Gypsy Folk Tales'' is an album by drummer
Art Blakey and the
Jazz Messengers
The Jazz Messengers were a jazz combo that existed for over thirty-five years beginning in the early 1950s as a collective, and ending when long-time leader and founding drummer Art Blakey died in 1990. Blakey led or co-led the group from the o ...
recorded in 1977 and released on the
Roulette
Roulette is a casino game named after the French word meaning ''little wheel'' which was likely developed from the Italian game Biribi''.'' In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various groupings of numbers, the ...
label.
Art Blakey chronology
accessed June 18, 2013
Reception
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
awarded the album 2½ stars stating "This Roulette LP includes six fairly recent originals in addition to a pair of numbers co-written by drummer Art Blakey with saxophonist Bob Mintzer. Davis's "Gypsy Folk Tales" and "Jodi" are the best-known songs and the hard-bop oriented solos are consistently fresh".[Yanow, S]
Allmusic Review
accessed June 18, 2013
Track listing
''All compositions by Walter Davis, Jr. except as indicated''
# "Jodi" - 10:15
# "Cami" - 6:55
# "Miwako" (Art Blakey, Bob Mintzer) - 4:27
# "Gypsy Folk Tales" - 7:36
# "Time Will Tell" (Bobby Watson) - 6:58
# "Ronnie's a Dynamite Lady" - 7:54
# "Hawkman" (Watson) - 10:30
# "Malibu" (Blakey, Mintzer) - 4:42
Personnel
* Art Blakey - drums
*Valery Ponomarev
Valery Ponomarev, Russian: Вале́рий Миха́йлович Пономарёв, ''Valery Mikhaylovich Ponomaryov'', (born 1943) is a Russian-born jazz trumpeter. He has lived in the United States since 1973.
Ponomarev became interested in j ...
- trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
*Bobby Watson
Robert Michael Watson Jr. (born August 23, 1953), known professionally as Bobby Watson, is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator.
Music career
Watson was born in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. He ...
- alto saxophone
*David Schnitter
David Schnitter (born March 19, 1948, in Newark, New Jersey) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Allmusic/ref>
Schnitter played clarinet as a youth and switched to tenor sax at age 15. After moving to New York City he played with Ted Dunbar an ...
- tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...
*Walter Davis, Jr.
Walter Davis Jr. (September 2, 1932 – June 2, 1990) was an American bebop and hard bop pianist.
Davis once left the music world to be a tailor, but returned. A soloist, bandleader, and accompanist, he amassed a body of work while never be ...
- piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
*Dennis Irwin
__NOTOC__
Dennis Irwin (November 28, 1951 in Birmingham, Alabama - March 10, 2008) was an American jazz double bassist. He toured and recorded with John Scofield and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra among others, and played on over 500 albums.
Bio ...
- bass
References
{{Authority control
Art Blakey albums
The Jazz Messengers albums
1977 albums
Roulette Records albums