At the Cafe Bohemia Volume 1

In late 1955 the Jazz Messengers were still a band of equals, grown out of Horace Silver's Blue Note dates and led on paper, Wikipedia says, by Silver or Art Blakey depending on the date. Leonard Feather, in the original notes, says their first official job was in February 1955 at the Blue Note in Philadelphia. He also hears what they wanted, and lets Silver say it:

We don't want to go too far out. We want people to understand what we're doing.

Horace Silver, in Leonard Feather's original liner notes

This record and At the Cafe Bohemia Volume 2 (BLP 1508) were, by Wikipedia's account, the first records issued under the Jazz Messengers name, though Feather notes that Blue Note had used it for a larger Blakey band in 1947. Both come from one night: Wednesday, November 23, 1955, at the Cafe Bohemia in Greenwich Village, with Alfred Lion producing. Feather tells the club's story. It ran burlesque-style shows until the spring of 1955, when its owner, Jimmy Garofolo, who knew nothing about jazz, turned it over to the music after musicians started sitting in. A sign announcing Charlie Parker's opening there was never used.

The band was Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Hank Mobley on tenor, Silver, Doug Watkins on bass and Blakey. Blue Note taped four sets, 20 takes in all, and 11 of them were issued on the two records. This one has five, and it does not follow the night's order: "Minor's Holiday" comes from the first set and "The Theme" from the end of the fourth.

After a spoken introduction by Blakey, "Soft Winds", from the old Benny Goodman Sextet, is stretched past 12 minutes into something Feather hears as easygoing and rocking. "The Theme", Dorham's, gives everyone room. Dorham's "Minor's Holiday" is faster and longer here than on his own Afro-Cuban LP. "Alone Together", Blakey's favorite ballad, is Mobley's feature. "Prince Albert" closes the record: Dorham's line over the chords of "All the Things You Are", which Feather says Dorham and Max Roach worked out around 1947.

Nat Hentoff, in Down Beat, gave it four stars, praised Dorham and the rhythm section, and thought Mobley had too much of the floor.

Wikipedia credits the cover design to John Hermansader and the photograph to Francis Wolff. Feather's last line sets the mood for the whole night:

So, as Art Blakey says, take off your shoes and have a ball.

Leonard Feather, original liner notes

Billboard reported in April 1956 that the Messengers had signed with Columbia; Dorham left and Donald Byrd took his place, and when the original group broke up, Blakey kept the name.