Classic Jazz

It's been awhile since I posted a good jazz clip here. So let's remedy that with a 1959 video of Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers featuring Wayne Shorter on sax, Walter Davis Jr. on Piano, Jymie Merritt on bass and Lee Morgan on trumpet. The tune is a Dizzy Gillespie composition:



If you are unfamiliar with Blakey's group, do yourself a favor and hunt up some more of their work. Blakey was the only constant in the group for over thirty plus years, and he gave a lot of young players a boost into the limelight-- starting with guys like Morgan and Shorter, Bobby Timmons, Freddie Hubbard, etc. etc. and right on down through the Marsalis brothers and Terrence Blanchard in the 1980s. Outside of jazz circles, I don't think Blakey's name is as well-recognized as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie or Charlie Parker, but it should be.