''The Jazz Messengers'' is the first studio album by
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 ...
, released in 1956 by
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
. It was their fourth overall album (after the two ''At the Cafe Bohemia'' live albums and the 1956 compilation), and also their last recording to feature the group's co-founder,
Horace Silver
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s.
After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sch ...
, on piano.
In 1968, Columbia reissued the LP in their Jazz Odyssey Series with a new cover under the title ''Art Blakey with the Original Jazz Messengers''. In 1997 the album was
digitally remastered
Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used.
Mastering
A ...
and released on CD, again with its original title and cover, featuring all the tracks from the original LP along with five additional tracks from the same recording sessions that were previously released only on foreign imports.
Track listing
This is the track listing for the current Columbia CD release. Tracks 1−7 are from the original LP and in the same order (Columbia CL 897, 1956). The adjacent tracks 8−10 and 12 were first released on ''
Originally
''Originally'' is an album by drummer Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers recorded in 1956, but not released on the Columbia label until 1982.Mobley) - 6:57
# "
Nica's Dream "Nica's Dream" is a jazz standard composed by Horace Silver
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer ...
" (Horace
Silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
) - 11:51
# "It's You or No One" (
Sammy Cahn
Samuel Cohen (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993), known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premier ...
,
Jule Styne
Jule Styne (; born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was an English-American songwriter and composer best known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became s ...
) - 5:36
# "Ecaroh" (
Silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
) - 6:02
# "Carol's Interlude" ( Mobley) - 5:36
# "The End of a Love Affair" (E.C. Redding) - 6:43
# "Hank's Symphony" ( Mobley) - 4:37
# "Weird-O" ( Mobley) - 7:06
# " Ill Wind" (
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ...
,
Ted Koehler
Ted L. Koehler (July 14, 1894 – January 17, 1973) was an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.
Life and career
Koehler was born in 1894 in Washington, D.C.
He started out as a photo-engraver, but w ...
Art Blakey
Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s.
Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...
,
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
*
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few hard bop m ...
,
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 ...
*
Hank Mobley
Henry "Hank" Mobley (July 7, 1930 – May 30, 1986) was an American hard bop and soul jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. Mobley was described by Leonard Feather as the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone", a metaphor used to descr ...
,
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 ...
*
Horace Silver
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s.
After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sch ...
,
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 ...
*
Doug Watkins
Douglas Watkins (March 2, 1934 – February 5, 1962) was an American jazz double bassist. He was best known for being an accompanist to various hard bop artists in the Detroit area, including Donald Byrd and Jackie McLean.
Biography
Watkins ...
* ''The Jazz Messengers'' (LP), Columbia, US, 1956
* ''The Jazz Messengers'' (LP),
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
, Europe, 1956
* ''Art Blakey with the Original Jazz Messengers'' (LP reissue) Columbia Jazz Odyssey Series, US, 1968
* ''The Jazz Messengers'' (LP reissue), Columbia, US, 1981
* ''The Jazz Messengers'' (CD, remastered), Columbia /
Legacy
In law, a legacy is something held and transferred to someone as their inheritance, as by will and testament. Personal effects, family property, marriage property or collective property gained by will of real property.
Legacy or legacies may refer ...
, US and Europe, 1997
* ''The Jazz Messengers'' (2x 180 g LP reissue) Columbia / Pure Pleasure, US, 2011
* ''The Jazz Messengers'' ( MC reissue)
PolyGram
PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...