Art Blakey: A Night in Tunisia (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio mastered this 180g Classic Vinyl Series edition from the original analog tapes. The eleven-minute title track is a drummer's showcase, and DownBeat called Blakey's solo on "Kozo's Waltz" a remarkable demonstration of modern drumming.

This edition

• Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
• 180g vinyl
• Mastered from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray
• Pressed in Germany
• Stereo mix

About the album

Art Blakey treated the Jazz Messengers as a proving ground for young players, and this session shows why so many came out of it as stars. He recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in August 1960, and as Barbara J. Gardner wrote in the original liner notes, everything but the title tune came from the junior members of the band. The lineup is one of the great Messengers editions: Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor, Bobby Timmons on piano and Jymie Merritt on bass.

Morgan brought "Yama" and "Kozo's Waltz," Shorter wrote the lovely "Sincerely Diana" and Timmons added the bluesy "So Tired," and every player gets extended solo room. The centrepiece is Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli's "A Night in Tunisia," stretched out with Blakey's rolling, thunderous percussion driving the whole band forward.

It came out in May 1961 and has been a hard bop touchstone ever since, and Morgan and Shorter went on to lead plenty of their own Blue Note dates. Blakey spends a good part of the title track reminding the room who's in charge; the room, for the record, agrees.

Also at Kops: more Art Blakey on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 6500764), a reissue of the 1961 album.