Art Blakey – Art Blakeys Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk

Description

Release Date:09/07/2010;Notes:High-definition premium 180 gram vinyl pressing of this classic Jazz album. Although this album marks Thelonious Monk’s sole recording as a member of Art Blakey’s celebrated Jazz Messengers, the pianist and drummer were very close friends who understood each other well on both a personal and musical level. In fact, Blakey was present on both Monk’s first and last studio sessions, spanning a period of 24 years from the 1947 quintet and trio recordings to the last sets taped in London in 1971, when Blakey and Monk were touring with the group called the “Giants of Jazz” (which also included Sonny Stitt, Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding and Al McKibbon). in fact, all of these recordings (the 1947 sessions debuting the very personal musical conception of Thelonious Monk, this amazing 1957 session with the Messengers made during the zenith of Monk’s career and the 1971 London session) are true masterpieces in their own right. Art Blakey’s presence on all of these recordings was not purely accidental as he and Monk shared a common artistic feeling. Blakey never made a secret of his admiration for Monk both as a pianist and as a composer. With the exception of Johnny Griffin’s “Purple Shades\