Art Blakey Blue Note Poll

Pick your top 3 Blakey blue note albums. As possibly my favorite artist on this label, I am curious which albums people like the most. For me personally I have to go with Free For All, Mosiac, and A Night in Tunisia.

 

Of the 25 listed I own only 3 so I didn't vote. Just wanted to say thanks for making the poll and motivating me to play Mosaic right now!

 

Mosiac? The title is Mosaic.

 

Yeah. It's all good. Everyone knows what I mean.

 

I've been listening to Free For All a lot lately. Love it how the sheer intensity of the performances distorts the sound. A real audiophile nighmare!

 

Indestructible
Night in Tunisia
Moanin’

 

Happy 101st Bday Art!

Crisis - Remastered 2005

 

I hope no one picks Just Coolin

 

Wish there was 4 options so I could include Free For All.

 

"Free For All" is my favorite. Just furious. "Mosaic" is my second and then close behind would be the darker "Indestructible". "Moanin'"could float into any of those spots depending on the mood.

Outlier is "Buhaina's Delight". Really a good album that struck me as such on first listen.

 

Free For All
Moanin’
Indestructible

 

Precisely why I love it! Blakey’s ferocious, distortion-causing press roll in the opening head of the title track always gives me goosebumps

 

Same

 

Indestructable
Moanin'
Big Beat

although if you took side one of Moanin' and side 2 of the Big Beat, that would be the perfect Jazz Messengers album.

 

What's the story with Art leaving blue Note?

 

My choices: Free For All, Mosaic and The Big Beat (which is a sentimental favorite as it’s the first Blakey album I heard).

 

Man, this is tough! Moanin' is my all time favorite jazz album, so that's a quick kill. But it's about a dozen-way tie for second place!

Today, I'll go with Indestructible and Free For All, but that's reluctantly and painfully omitting a good number of other worthy contenders.

 

Yes, we all knew the OP meant Mosaic, what are your choices for Blakey albums or did you come here to nitpick a simple spelling error?

 

Yes, but then there are the two volumes of Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World where there is noticeable distortion, but has nothing to do with the band’s intensity.

 

1. Moanin'
2. Au Club Saint-Germain

I have this version
Art Blakey & Les Jazz-Messengers* - Au Club Saint-Germain
but just ordered the remastered version just in case:
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Complete Concert At Club Saint Germain

1. I am still working on the third choice.

Just Coolin' is not really cutting it for me, but might need more time playing...

 

Just Coolin is really bad I think. Listen to
At the Jazz Corner of the World Vol. 1 it has a lot of shared songs and are played much better.

 

I have spent the last year and a half or so getting to know nearly 20 of those titles. What a blast! I can’t pick 3 but I do love the live ones — and that new Coolin’ is a gift.

 

Free For All, Moanin’ and A Night in Tunisia. If allowed a fourth, I’d go with Indestructible. I guess that choosing the Mosaic 1960 complete box is cheating.

 

A Night At Birdland Vol. 1 is one of my favorite jazz albums, with the great Clifford Brown.

 

Honestly, I haven't heard them all, so it's hard for me to say something definitive.

That being said, of the half-dozen or eight albums I have heard, Moanin' and Indestructible are absolutely at the top of the list.

Some of the others I have heard have incredible highlights, but then some somewhat more merely average or above-average cuts. I remember when I was listening to the Live At the Cafe Bohemia records when they were long being offered at $50 as recently as a couple of years ago, I heard some highlights and they seemed to be having some fun, and then I also heard some somewhat perfunctory playing such as exact same rhythmic riffs I had heard before from other prior albums (even from other rhythm sections), so it showed a little bit of a lack of imagination or coasting. Free For All is a candidate, but I wish it weren't quite so relentless. I wish there were a bit more of a balance. Still, it's an exciting listen. The title tune of A Night In Tunisia is stunning, but the rest of the album is a bit of a letdown, never reaching the heights of the title, opening cut. In that light, I only selected two.

I have never heard Africaine, but from reading about it, it seems intriguing.