Art Blakey - The Musical Drummer
"Jazz Washes Away the Dust of Everyday Life" —Art Blakey
The band led by drummer Art Blakey groomed more than 150 alumni members, including saxophonist Wayne Shorter and trumpeter Lee Morgan.
Abdullah Ibn Buhaina (1919-1990), more widely known to the world of jazz by his pre-Islamic name: Art Blakey.
Truly a powerhouse in swing and blues, Blakey led the hard bop playing Jazz Messengers from the 1950s to the 1980s (recording for Blue Note Records between 1947 and 1964), and holding claim to famous alumni such as Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Bill Pierce, Branford Marsalis, and Chuck Mangione, to name but a few.
A Piano Player Turned Drummer
Art Blakey began drumming, as many people know, by being held at gunpoint at a Pittsburgh joint called The Democratic Club in the mid 1930's; forced to give up his seat at the piano he'd been playing and made to play the drums, despite the fact that he never played drums! This would begin a six decade career for Blakey as one of jazz drumming greats.
The Musical Drummer
Though Blakey was a force to be reckoned with on the drum set, playing in the style of Chick Webb and Big Sid Catlett, don't let that make you think he couldn't be musical. We've all heard the drummer jokes (like, what do they call the guy that hangs around musicians? A drummer!); but, as a bandleader and drummer, Blakey always played in the most musical way. He always served the song. In fact, this is the aspect of his drumming that most draws people in.
All one has to do is listen to Blakey's arrangements to know just how musical a drummer can be.
Drummer jokes aside, it's not a rule that drummers can't be musical leaders. In fact, some of the best drummers in the world are also great band leaders. And Blakey was one of those great bandleader/great drummer/great musician types. He played for over 60 years and inspired generations to look at drumming in a new way: with an ear toward the music; always placing the music first. But the converse is also true, According to Chris Kelsey, "Blakey's influence as a bandleader could not have been nearly so great had he not been such a skilled instrumentalist."
According to Wynton Marsalis, graduate of the Blakey School for Swing and a very notable trumpeter, "On the eighth day, God created Art Blakey." Such was the esteem given to a man greater at his job than most before or after.
A Teacher of Time
Whether you're listening to the rolling tom toms and snare solo of "Sakeena's Vision" (truly a lesson in keeping a straight pulse on the hats while throwing fills around the kit—signature Blakey to be sure) or you're desperately trying to find the proper place for the bass drum kicks on Thelonious Monk's "Humph," Blakey is there to teach. And his lessons all come from a place of tremendous experience.
Sakeena's Vision:
Listening to 1947's "Humph" and 1981's "Cheryl," one quickly finds that Blakey's style changed drastically over time and followed the development of jazz. So, it wouldn't necessarily be fair to say that Blakey had one style of drumming—in fact, he created many styles during his long career.
According to John Ramsay, "When you compare the two [time periods], I think you can hear how Art's style grew and evolved over the years. The 1947 recording shows a style more like that of the 1930's and 1940's, whereas the 1981 recording is like that of the be-bop and hard bop style that Art helped create."
And that's really what we get with Art Blakey: the creation of music from the seat of a drum throne. He always seemed to be doing something new. To prove Blakey's willingness to be the first—at anything, really—there's a fun little trivia fact that, in 1960, Blakey's Jazz Messengers actually became the first American jazz band to play in Japan—this would begin a relationship with the Japanese people that would persist for decades.
An Indestructible Introduction to Musical Drumming
The album that first introduced me to Art Blakey was his last Blue Note Records album, Indestructible (Blue Note, 1965). The lineup for Indestructible consisted of the following players:
Lee Morgan: Trumpet
Curtis Fuller: Trombone
Wayne Shorter: Tenor Saxophone
Cedar Walton: Piano
Reggie Workman: Bass
Art Blakey: Drums