Search - Art Blakey :: Quadromania

Four Superb CD's from Varied Time Periods

Dennis G. Voss Jr. | Lexington, KY USA | 06/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Quadromania" is a series of no-frills imports that provide 4 CDs worth of music for the price of a single CD. The case (including the teeth holding in the CDs) is rather fragile, but the packaging is especially attractive for a budget compilation of this sort.



I can't attest to the sound quality of the series, but I took a chance on this Blakey compilation and I was delighted with both the performances and the sound. I already owned the music on one of the four CD's, but I still can't believe what a bargain I got. So that you don't have to gamble the way I did, here's what the package contains:



CD 1 compiles various sessions from 1947-1949.

* The first four tracks (plus an alternate) are dated 27 Dec 1947 in the support material but apparently they come from the 22 Dec 1947 inaugural session of the "Art Blakey Messengers" as available, for example, on the album "New Sounds."

* Then there are a pair of 1948 sessions held by "James Moody and his Bop Men," with Gil Fuller writing/arranging much of the music.

* Finally, there are a pair of 1949 recording sessions from Europe, one in Lausanne and one in Stockholm.



CD 2 features a concert from Birdland recorded on 21 Feb 1954. It's available elsewhere as a performance of the "Art Blakey Quintet Live at Birdland Volume 2." The "new trumpet sensation" Clifford Brown sat in, so the concert has been released under his name as well (i.e., as CD #4 in the Complete Clifford Brown on Blue Note/Pacific Jazz boxed set).



CD 3-4 provide a lengthy 11 Oct 1980 performance at Bubba's Restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Just about all of these songs appeared on a pair of CD's released by the Break Time label. Wynton Marsalis is featured on trumpet. Really exciting performance ... Makes me wonder why Art Blakey doesn't get more credit for the 1980s revival of acoustic jazz. This concert is much more fun than what the Miles Davis alumni recorded around the same time period; Blakey's group sounds like people playing passionate music rather than people conducting a nostalgia tour.

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