Free for All (album)

For the Ted Nugent album, see Free-for-All (Ted Nugent album).

Free for All
Studio album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
Released	July 1965 [1]
Recorded	February 10, 1964
Studio	Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs
Genre	Post-bop
Length	36:47
Label	Blue Note BST 84170
Producer	Alfred Lion
Art Blakey chronology
A Jazz Message (1963) Free for All (1965) Kyoto (1966)
The Jazz Messengers chronology
Ugetsu (1963) Free for All (1965) Kyoto (1966)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[4]
DownBeat	[5]

Free for All is an Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, recorded in February 1964 and released on Blue Note Records in July 1965. It was originally titled Free Fall. ^[6]

The Allmusic review by Al Campbell awards the album 4 stars and states, "This edition of the Jazz Messengers had been together since 1961 with a lineup that would be hard to beat: Freddie Hubbard on trumpet... Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Cedar Walton on piano, and Reggie Workman on bass. Shorter's title track is one of the finest moments in the Jazz Messengers' history." ^[2]

Composition

Freddie Hubbard's composition "The Core" is dedicated to the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and expresses "Hubbard's admiration of that organization's persistence and resourcefulness in its work for total, meaningful equality." "They're getting", he explains, "at the core, at the center of the kinds of change that have to take place before this society is really open to everyone. And more than any other group, CORE is getting to youth, and that's where the center of change is." The piece was called that way also because Hubbard thought that the musicians "got at some of the core of jazz – the basic feelings and rhythms that are at the foundation of music." ^[7]

"Pensativa" was composed by Clare Fischer, but was arranged by Hubbard for the occasion: "I was playing a gig in Long Island", he recalls, "and the pianist started playing it. The mood got me, this feeling of a pensive woman. And the melody was so beautiful that, after I'd gotten home, I couldn't get it out of my mind." ^[7]

The album was intended to have featured three more tunes, Shorter's "Eva" and two vocals by Wellington Blakey, Blakey's cousin. These were attempted, but no valid takes were recorded. Additionally, the musicians tried a second take of "Free for All", an attempt that producer Lion had to stop because Blakey's drums broke, according to his log. This alternate take, first released on the limited 2014 Japanese SHM-CD, is three minutes shorter. ^[6]

Track listing

Original vinyl

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Free for All"	Wayne Shorter	11:04
2.	"Hammer Head"	Shorter	7:47
3.	"The Core"	Freddie Hubbard	9:24
4.	"Pensativa"	Clare Fischer	8:19

2014 Blue Note SHM-CD Remaster Edition (Japan Release)

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Free for All"	Shorter	11:04
2.	"Hammer Head"	Shorter	7:47
3.	"The Core"	Hubbard	9:24
4.	"Pensativa"	Fischer	8:19
5.	"Free for All" (Alternate Take)	Shorter	8:26

Personnel

• Art Blakey – drums
• Freddie Hubbard – trumpet
• Curtis Fuller – trombone
• Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophone
• Cedar Walton – piano
• Reggie Workman – double bass

References

1. Billboard July 31, 1965
2. Campbell, Al. Free for All at AllMusic
3. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 26. ISBN   0-394-72643-X.
4. Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (9th ed.). London: Penguin. p. 134. ISBN   978-0-14-103401-0.
5. DownBeat magazine, November 4, 1965, p. 28
6. Liner notes to the 2014 SHM-CD by Michael Cuscuna
7. Original 1964 liner notes by Nat Hentoff