It’s hard to argue that Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers was the best ever hard bop quartet; the real question is ‘which version’? The one with Clifford Brown/Lou Donaldson? Mobley/Byrd? Hubbard/Walton? Well, if 1941’s orchestra was Ellington’s greatest ever, you have to also agree that Blakey’s 1961 team with Wayne Shorter/ts (recently replacing Benny Golson), a young Lee Morgan/tp, Bobby Timmons/p and Jymie Merritt/b has to be the apotheosis of hard bop jazz. This recently discovered disc, guaranteed to be on everyone’s “Best Of” historical releases, is a glorious time capsule of the little band that could.
The team is caught in a January 14 concert in Japan, well recorded, and Blakey in inspired form. There are two different takes of the bebop standard “Now’s The Time”, and if the album serves as an intro to the gig, Blakey starts the concert off with a bacchanal 5 minute drum solo, the first of TWO, while Timmons lays down the sermon and the horns preach to the choir. “Moanin’”, their big hit of the time, actually includes Morgan’s famous opening squeal, and it works wonders before Timmons gives a full fisted workout on the ivories. Shorter rides the shuffle of Blakey on “Blues March” and the team is in a gospel groove on “Dat Dere”. Morgan’s muted horn adds mystery to “’Round Midnight” with Merritt given an opportunity to stretch out. The team gives an avalanche of percussion on the intro to an testosterone driven take of “A Night In Tunisa”, with the shortest song being around 11 minutes and the longest a marathon 22. A tsunami of jazz-WHEW! Where did we go wrong in the afterglow?