Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers -

Date: February 21,1954
Release: Blue Note #1521
Cover Art: view / download
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There are many things that could happen at a nightclub on a particular night. A guy might be drinking his paycheck, while his wife waits at home. A couple might be thinking of other people, or reaching for each other’s legs under the table. Someone might be in the corner resolving to change his ways. Any or all of these things could have been happening on the night of February 21, 1954 at Birdland in New York. I know because A Night at Birdland Volume 1 puts me there, sitting in the dark, listening to the sounds of sweat, smoke, sex and solitude. This was be-bop hardening into hard bop, and it was young lions feeling their influences and letting them fly.

The line-up of musicians was eclectic, explosive: Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Curly Russell, Lou Donaldson and Clifford Brown

“Already ranking with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis as one of the top trumpeters in jazz, Brownie was still improving in 1956,” the year he died in a car accident at the age of 25. “A truly great bebop player, Donaldson (on alto) at his best exemplifies the Charlie Parker spirit without being a slavish imitator.”

Pioneering pianist Horace Silver “blended vintage R&B, bebop, gospel, blues and Caribbean elements into jazz,” while drummer Art Blakey was “hard bop’s guru, the percussive anchor of countless brilliant bands.” (All quotes from All Music Guide)

The collective talent on this outing is shocking and the music is pure excitement, careening forth with joy and fire. There is a thick sense of anticipation as the chubby emcee Pee Wee Marquette introduces the band and they unleash into Silver’s “Split Kick,” on which Donaldson, Brown and Silver all drop outrageous solos. A ballad follows, with Brown stretching out, and then another Silver barn burner, “Quicksilver.” I could try and compare Clifford Brown’s jaw-dropping solo on “Quicksilver” with his jaw-dropping solo on “Wee-Dot,” but there’s really no point – Brown’s playing throughout this whole night of music is jaw-dropping, mind-boggling stuff and must be heard to be believed. After “Wee-Dot,” which truly soars, there is a tasty, traditional blues and then “A Night in Tunisia.”

Echoes of Dizzy can be found in many corners of this album, as well as the embers of ragtime, Satchmo and the whispers of jazz to come. A Night at Birdland Volume 1 is a treasure and a precious document. It is relentlessly swinging, stampeding, soaring music, Birdland, 1954. (For more on Brownie, read Chapter 8 in Nick Catalano’s excellent biography, Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter).

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