Blue Note Records dug deep into its vault and found a jazz version of Eugene O’Neill’s Our Town in this March 8, 1959 session of an early edition of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s classic studio. Blakey’s band at the time consisted of tenor saxist Hank Mobley, twenty one year old trumpeter Lee Morgan, soulful pianist Bobby Timmons and bassist Jymie Merritt, all featured on Blakey’s first big hit album Moanin’ except for Mobley returning to replace the recently departed Benny Golson.
This studio session is just a week before Blakey took the band to Birdland to record a two album set At the Jazz Corner of The World, with most of the songs here featured on that famous collection. There are two pieces, “Jimerick” and the easy swinging shuffler “Just Cookin’” that weren’t recorded at the gig, and have never been released before in any conglomeration. The studio takes include a handful of Mobley compositions, with the lithe tone tenorist cooking over the double timed “M&M” and the gospel drenched “Hipsippy Bues” a forerunner of the type of songs he’d deliver on his own solo albums. Timmons’ “Quick Trick” has him in full-fisted mode, and Morgan is sweet and pungent on the read of “Close Your Eyes” with Blakey mixing a perfect blend of simmering hi hat gallops, signature press rolls and driving ride cymbals throughout as he coaxes these gents along.
Mobley would soon be replaced by Wayne Shorter, creating one of the “classic” Messenger incarnations, but this team had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. The ease with which they swing, the youthful energy of their solos and the palpable harmony of the front line is a trip back to a time when it all seemed so easy, just like a birthday party of one’s youth that seemed so insignificant but is now relished in it’s simple and eternal charm.