ART BLAKEY – Four Classic Albums (Moanin’ / Mosaic / The Big Beat / A Night In Tunisia) (2 CDS) AVID

AVID Jazz continues with its Four Classic Album series with a re-mastered 2CD release from Art Blakey complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details (where available)
“Moanin’”; “Mosaic”; “The Big Beat” and “A Night In Tunisia”
To blues and rock fans Art Blakey was the John Mayall of the jazz world! His 35 year association with his Jazz Messengers being the same kind of training ground for jazz musicians that Eric Clapton and Mick Taylor found with Mayall in the ‘60s. The list is incredible, from Hank Mobley, Horace Silver and Freddie Hubbard to Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan and Wynton Marsalis and way beyond. Blakey started his long career back in the 1930s playing with Mary Lou Williams and touring with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. His early life is mired in mystery, myth and conjecture but what is for certain is that he was playing drums for the Billy Eckstine big band from 1944-47 where he met many of the musicians who would go on to be involved in the be-bop movement of the late 1940s and ‘50s. And here we are talking about Dizzy, Miles, Bird, Dexter Gordon and Fats Navarro amongst others. Our selection takes us from the end of the hard bop era with the likes of Benny Golson and into a more modern period featuring a new breed of players like Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, Freddie Hubbard and Curtis Fuller.

CD1
1-6: ‘Moanin’’
1. Moanin’
2. Are You Real
3. Along Came Betty
4. The Drum Thunder Suite
5. Blues March
6. Come Rain Or Come Shine
7-11: ‘Mosaic’
7. Mosaic
8. Down Under
9. Children Of The Night
10. Arabia
11. Crisis

CD2
1-6: ‘The Big Beat’
1. The Chess Players
2. Sakeena’s Vision
3. Politely
4. Dat Dere
5. Lester Left Town
6. It’s Only A Paper Moon
7-11: ‘A Night In Tunisia’
7. A Night In Tunisia
8. Sincerley Diana
9. So Tired
10. Yama
11. Kozo’s Waltz