Let’s do some more guided listening. Here’s Art Blakey playing a little Quincy Jones groove arrangement with a nine piece ensemble: Plenty, Plenty Soul, from the Milt Jackson album of the same title. The form […]
Category: Art Blakey
Transcription: Art Blakey – The Egyptian
Here’s a drum intro… hey, this could go in my Book of Intros, which HAHAHAHA is still languishing a few hours of work away from completion… a drum intro, played by Art Blakey on The […]
Transcription: Blues March – two intros
Two intros to a famous tune: Blues March, by Benny Golson. One is by Art Blakey, from the Jazz Messengers album Moanin’, and the other is by Lex Humphries, from Art Farmer and Benny Golson […]
Transcription: Art Blakey – Afrique
Here’s the drum solo from the same tune as our GOTD the other day: Afrique, from The Witch Doctor, by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers. Blakey’s solos with his group often serve a compositional […]
Groove o’ the day: Art Blakey – Afrique
Here’s Art Blakey playing an Afro 6 feel in 1961, on Afrique, from the Jazz Messengers album The Witch Doctor— the first Blakey record I ever bought. I should start noticing when this type of […]
Art Blakey in ’85
Here’s video of Art Blakey playing in 1985. I saw him in Eugene, Oregon during this same tour, when I was a senior in high school. He played impressively loud— he had this heavy ride […]
Groove o’ the day: Art Blakey afro
This is a triplet Afro feel by Art Blakey, one of the major people playing that feel in a hard bop setting in the late 50s/early 60s. I usually call it a 6/8 feel— some […]
Art Blakey in a nutshell
Play it strong. Hard at work with new record stuff and next-tour stuff this week, so we’ll be on light posting for a moment. But here’s a little something from the Art Blakey web site: a brief […]
Drum intro: Art Blakey — Straight, No Chaser
Every part of this is just so classically Art Blakey— except maybe his touch, which is somewhat gentler than usual. This is his intro on Straight, No Chaser, from Thelonious Monk’s album Genius of Modern […]
VOQOTD: the Blakey hang
“I used to play every night. It didn’t matter how much money I was making, I just had to play every night. When we’d get through playing at night, it was daybreak: 6:00. Then we’d […]