Just came across this, quite an amazing documentary about Art Blakey, where they talk to Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson, Curtis Fuller, many others. I haven’t gotten all the way through it yet. […]
Category: Art Blakey
Listening to Somethin’ Else
Somethin’ Else is a very famous record by Cannonball Adderley, that really belongs in that “the one jazz record I know” list, along with Kind of Blue and Moanin’. When I was in school nobody […]
Listening to Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane
Some notes on the record Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane. I’ve been listening to Monk’s Carnegie Hall record a lot this week, let’s get into this one. I never owned it, and haven’t listened to […]
Listening to Blue Mitchell
Put on your headphones, here’s a little listening this morning: this is Blues On My Mind from Blue Mitchell’s album Out Of The Blue. A lot of blue there, and blues. Playing on it are […]
Art Blakey – The Core
Here’s something great that deserves much better than the cursory treatment I’m about to give it: The Core, from Art Blakey’s record Free For All. Blakey’s doing a little bit of an Elvin Jones thing […]
Max on the bass drum
An exchange on the evolution of the bass drum in jazz, from Max Roach, circa 1981, from his Modern Drummer interview with Scott K. Fish. SF: Back in the ’50s and ’60s jazz drummers were […]
Transcription: Art Blakey – This Is Life
From maybe the first jazz record I ever checked out on my own, Golden Boy by Art Blakey. Kind of an obscure record on the Colpix label, that I dug out of my dad’s record […]
Transcription: Art Blakey fours – Well, You Needn’t
Just a couple of solo 4s from Art Blakey, from the 1953 Miles Davis 10-inch release, Vol. 3. You’ll most likely find it on a later Blue Note compilation. The tune is Well, You Needn’t. […]
Groove o’ the day: Art Blakey tom tom groove
This is a fast Latin groove played by Art Blakey during a solo on a concert video filmed in Japan, posted on Twitter by jazz writer Ted Gioia. I’m sure Blakey plays it on his […]
Grooves o’ the day: Art Blakey Latin
Two very similar Latin grooves recorded by Art Blakey in 1960 and ’61. On both of them the bell pattern has that little syncopated move across the barline that we see a few years later […]
Listening: Art Blakey groove number
Let’s do some more guided listening. Here’s Art Blakey playing a little Quincy Jones groove arrangement with a nine piece ensemble: Plenty, Plenty Soul, from the Milt Jackson album of the same title. The form […]
Transcription: Art Blakey – The Egyptian
Here’s a drum intro… hey, this could go in my Book of Intros, which HAHAHAHA is still languishing a few hours of work away from completion… a drum intro, played by Art Blakey on The […]