Customer Reviews
One of the hottest of the Blakey bands - By: Ricard Giner (cootie@cootiesjazz.com), 02 Sep 2001 
From the very opening moments of these remarkable recordings, one is at once struck by the sense that a moment of historical importance is being witnessed all over again. Blue Note's Alfred Lion,in his unerring vision, decided to record Art Blakey's new band at Birdlandin February 1954. He had rightly sensed that something new, something thrillingly new, was afoot. Though Charlie Parker was still a year from death, bop was demanding an invigorating lease of life to take it into a new dimension of expressiveness & vitality. The resulting transformation of the now hackneyed music into something raw, urgent & fizzing with energy was to be popularly called "hard bop", & was thrust into public consciousness on this record, & its sister volume (Birdland, Vol. 2 - which should be purchased with Vol. 1).
The set opens with a presentation by Birdland's MC, the quirky, shrill-voiced Pee Wee Marquette. The sheer confidence of the ensemble emerges instantly: Art Blakey had assembled the hottest combo of the moment. Even Miles Davis, who had attended a rehearsal shortly before the recording, had sarcastically expressed a desire for Clifford Brown to "break his chops". He was clearly awestruck by Brownie's now legendary round, fat tone, & a seemingly limitless capacity to conjure up melodies & counter-melodies, weavingin perfectly-executed arpeggios to accentuate the harmonic changes. His solo on "Quicksilver" is brimming with all of these qualities - no wonder Miles was intimidated.
Lou Donaldson's first solo on "Split-Kick" is right out of the Charlie Parker-inspired tradition. But it emerges throughout the records that Donaldson's attack, tone & phraseology is confidently his own. Art Blakey, who was older than his sidemen by a decade, had with his avuncular authority nurtured the chemistry that would make his fledgling Jazz Messengers the most fecund school of music for the next 30 years of jazz history.
Bebop classics such as "Now's the Time", "Confirmation" & "A Nightin Tunisia" reveal the influence of the tradition (then barely a decade old) & its central placein the repertoire of even a cutting-edge band. But more revealing still is the presence of new numbers composed by Horace Silver ("Split Kick", "Quicksilver", "Mayreh") & Lou Donaldson ("Lou's Blues"). The band was giving well-known material an electrifying, vigorous treatment, illustrated clearly by Donaldson's blistering break before his solo on "A Nightin Tunisia", & at the same time developing a body of original work to cement the compositional & performing talent of its young members.
From an historical perspective, this recording & Vol. 2 are the decisive springboard from which Clifford Brown was to become the most talented & popular trumpeter of his generation. A mere month later Max Roach called him to form what was to become the most sought-after small jazz group of the 1950s, & one of the most admiredin history. From this band also, Horace Silver grew to become a leading voice of the hard bop movement & a Blue Note icon. Blakey himself went on to give opportunities to young musicians such as Kenny Dorham, Donald Byrd, Doug Watkins, Hank Mobley, Bill Hardman, Johnny Griffin, Jackie McLean, Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Bobby Timmons, Wayne Shorter... Perhaps no other jazz musician's generosity & insight has given wings to so many great players. Listen to these records & wonder what might have happened to American music if Art Blakey hadn't been born.
