Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers: Free For All [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This remastered stereo reissue brings back one of the hardest-swinging sessions in the Blue Note catalogue. Blakey's sextet of Shorter, Hubbard, Fuller, Cedar Walton and Reggie Workman was arguably the strongest Messengers line-up of all.

This edition

• Remastered
• Stereo mix

About the album

Art Blakey liked to say he'd stay with the youngsters to keep the mind active, and on February 10, 1964, the youngsters kept him very active indeed. Free For All captures the Messengers' great sextet at full tilt, with Wayne Shorter on tenor, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Cedar Walton on piano and Reggie Workman on bass, with Blakey driving the lot from behind the kit.

Shorter's title track is the main event, eleven minutes of churning modal fire with Blakey's thunderous rolls pushing every soloist harder. Shorter's "Hammer Head" is a punchy, bluesy strut, Hubbard's "The Core" is a tough, fast hard bop workout, and Clare Fischer's "Pensativa" cools things off with a gentle bossa lilt and some lovely Walton piano. Walton and Workman keep the rhythm section supple, while Fuller's trombone thickens every ensemble passage.

Blue Note put it out in 1965, and it has stood ever since as the band's high-water mark for sheer intensity. Every man on the date went on to lead his own records, so this is less a band photo than a staff photo from a very good school.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# B0020042-01), a reissue of the 1965 album.