A solid collection
Bert vanC Bailey | Ottawa, Canada | 08/14/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This must be some kind of cash-grab, you'd think: an obscure label's release of unissued Jazz Messengers dates: 4 CDs' worth, and nicely priced! Must be poor recordings of under-worked music in flat, dull mono. That's what you might think.
But in this case you'd be dead wrong.
`Prime Source' is a solid collection of hard bop by Art Blakey, its prime exponent, on a night with his Quintet and seven subsequent dates with The Jazz Messengers. Each CD in this Proper Records (Czech Rep) set has over 70 minutes of live music, with lineups featuring among the strongest jazz players of the 1950s and `60s playing at Birdland, the Cafe Bohemia and the Columbia studios. Including their front-line brass players, the CDs are called: That Night at Birdland (Quintet, 21 Feb 1954: Clifford Brown, Lou Donaldson); A Night at the Café Bohemia (Quintet, 21 Feb '54, CB, LD; The Jazz Messengers, 23 Nov '55: Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley); Deciphering the Message (23 Nov '55: KD, HM; 5 Apr '56: Donald Byrd, HM), and Nica's Dream (5 Apr and 4 May '56: DB, HM; 12, 13 Dec '56: Bill Hardman, Jackie McLean).
Blakey never stopped discovering new talents through this co-operative group he and Horace Silver began: Lee Morgan, Freddy Hubbard, Curtis Fuller, Herbie Hancock, Cedar Walton, Bobby Timmons, Wayne Shorter and the Marsalis brothers all went on to glowing careers. Star status was more elusive for other, no less gifted Messengers: Bill Hardman, Dave Schnitter, Woody Shaw and others fared less well due to the bad luck of appearing when the jazz scene was in eclipse, during the 60's rock craze and since. In all, some 150 players over a 40-year span made up The Messengers, which throughout kept a distinctive sound set by Blakey: father figure, perpetual group re-fresher and definer of 'hard-bop' - although never a composer. His musical legacy and progeny easily place him with such influential contemporaries as Miles and Mingus, although in the history of jazz he may perhaps even come to rank alongside Satchmo, the Duke, Monk and Trane.
Long before scouring through this set for the best disc, it became a search for any CD with weak tracks: the jury is still out on which sparkles brightest, but a dull number can't be found. Several songs appear on later Messenger albums, including some classic Blue Notes, but this collection is easily recommendable: as typical Messengers fare and in good sound, it should not be passed over lightly. There are terrific solos, for instance, from the short-lived trumpet giant Clifford Brown, from Hank Mobley and Horace Silver - who are all full in their prime. For a breathtaking measure of our loss of Clifford Brown, his part on that Messenger's staple, Dizzy Gillespie's A Night in Tunisia, is unsurpassable. Also dazzling is Silver on Deciphering the Message; Kenny Dorham's unadorned lyricism is in fine form on Minor's Holiday; and Mobley is as inventive a tenorist as when leading his later albums, and every bit as elegant.
Blakey as usual prods the soloists closer to the fire, with tumultuous fills that raise the tension without altering the tempo, giving the Messengers its usual feeling of being a far larger group. Attention is always rewarded when he and Silver interact, given their special symbiosis. Blakey's the only constant on these dates, given an ever-changing parade of brass- and bass-players. Even Silver gets replaced by Sam Dockery on the December '56 dates.
Jackie McLean appears in this lineup with Dockery on piano, yet most of the time only hints at the sour dissonance that would make him among the most distinctive altoists - on such tunes as Isle of Java and My Old Flame, or on Action, Jackie's Bag, Right Now! and other albums. A tension-filled version of McLean's Little Melonae is the exception. If one tune on this collection stands out for me, this is it, as it finds McLean in a deeply laconic groove but one that never relieves the tension of Hardman's brittle wail for something wilder. With Dockery comping, McLean and especially Hardman turn this curious number into a restrained gem of near-abstract jazz.
So there's plenty here to impress, even if no set of songs ever quite matches the incandescence, say, of The Messengers' Live! At Slug's N.Y.C. (see my review), or the inspired felicity of some well-rehearsed Blue Notes to come. The sound is re-mastered in crisp, demonstration-class mono. A fat, glossy booklet includes sharp photos, informed liner notes and credits of dates and players. This session material could have appeared on each slipcase, which only list the songs. Since this puny shortcoming is the only genuine grumble, we're very much in luck!
****½"
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1