Listening path
Art Blakey
How well do you know Blakey's records?
INew to themArt Blakey played the drums for more than 40 years and led the Jazz Messengers for most of them, a band that turned young players into leaders. This path starts with his best-loved record, goes back to see how the band began, follows him onto other people's sessions, and ends with the fiery sextet of the early 1960s.12 records · start →III know the classicsYou already know *Moanin'*, the Birdland nights and the sextet's best Blue Notes. This path fills in the story around them: the Columbia years after the first band broke up, the drum-choir experiments, the bands that kept changing around Blakey, and the sextet's work for Riverside, roughly in order.12 records · start →IIII know them wellFor the serious listener: Blakey before the Messengers, the sideman dates that show how he could fit almost anyone, the drum records, music Blue Note left on the shelf, and the bands of the mid-1960s. It runs roughly in order, from 1947 to 1966.12 records · start →