THIS WEEKEND AT SMOKE JAZZ CLUB, DRUMMER CARL ALLEN IS GIVING TRIBUTE TO MENTOR ART BLAKEY BY BRINGING IN JAZZ MESSENGER ALUMNI LIKE BOBBY WATSON AND BRIAN LYNCE ALONG WITH GEOFF KEEZER, ROBIN EUBANKS AND PETER WASHINGTON TO PUT A FRESH COAT OF PAINT TO THE ART BLAKEY SONGBOOK
WE HAD A CHANCE TO CHAT WITH MR. ALLEN ABOUT THE INFLUENCE THAT BLAKEY HAS PASSED ON TO ONE OF TODAY’S MOST PROLIFIC DRUMMERS
YOU’RE DOING A TRIBUTE TO ART BLAKEY.
WHEN’S THE FIRST TIME YOU SAW HIM PLAY, AND YOUR IMPRESSION?
The first time I saw Art Blakey was in 1979.
I’m from the Jazz Capitol of the World, which as you know, is Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (laughs)
There was a club there called The Jazz Gallery.
I felt like I was being baptized all over again
WHO WAS IN THE BAND?
Wynton Marsalis, Bobby Watson, Billy Pierce, Charles Fambrough and James Williams
WHEN DID YOU FIRST GET TO KNOW HIM?
I kind of said something to him that night, but it was inconsequential.
When I moved to New York in ’81, I would go and hear him all of the time
That really started to open up the relationship when I started playing with Freddie Hubbard.
I started playing with him in ’82.
By that time Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison and those guys were in the band, and I was friends with them.
I was hanging out with them at Sweet Basil’s all of the time, and Blakey looks at me and says “Come here”.
He says “Terence tells me that you’re playing with Freddie now”
He looks around the room and then looks back at me and says “You know, Freddie’s a former Jazz Messenger.”
I told him I knew that
“Well,” he continues, “since you’re playing with a former Jazz Messenger, you’re now a Jazz Messenger”.
I ran to the pay phone. There were no cell phones then. I call my mother collect at 2:37 in the morning.
She thought something was wrong when the operator said “We have a collect call from Carl Allen”
She asked what was wrong, and I said “Mom! I’m a Jazz Messeger!”
She said “Come on home. I’ll send you a Greyhound ticket”
She thought I had lost my mind.
THAT IS THE EFFECT THAT A DRUMMER LIKE ART BLAKEY CAN HAVE ON A MUSIC FAN. WHETHER OR NOT YOU’VE EVER HEARD THE MUSIC OF THE ORIGINATOR OF THE JAZZ MESSENGERS, IT’S A SAFE BET THAT ALLEN AND COMPANY WILL INSPIRE YOU AS TO THE GOSPEL OF HARD BOP.
SET YOURSELF UP FOR A MUSICAL BAPTISM WITH ALLEN AND COMPANY AT NEW YORK’S SMOKE JAZZ CLUB THIS WEEKEND.