Jazz Messages

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Jazz Messages
Jazz Messages (album).jpeg
Studio album by
Released1957
Genre Jazz
Label Jazztone

Jazz Messages is a 1957 LP re-issue and compilation of tracks by (i) the Clifford Brown Ensemble and (ii) The Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey. It was released on Jazztone Records (catalog #J-1281).

Contents

Comments

"Ritual" – For the purpose of improving his art, Blakey, in 1947, worked his way over to Nigeria on a ship, and, while there, visited, Ghana. He stayed for a little over a year. Later, in the New York Jazz scene, Blakey became influential in raising awareness of African-based percussion. Among other things, he composed "Ritual" out of inspiration from his experiences in Africa. [1] Jazz critic Norman Weinstein opined that "Ritual" was one of several projects where Blakey showed an interest in African diasporic musical connections, expressed in "quasi-Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean terms." [2]

"Daahoud," sometimes spelled "Dawud," means "David" in Arabic. Brown named the composition after Talib Dawud, a trumpet-playing acquaintance – with Dizzy and Lee Morgan – in Philadelphia from the early 1950s.

Brown, on June 26, 1954, married LaRue Anderson (maiden; 1933–2005). [lower-roman 1] He called her "Joy Spring," and, in her honor, composed a piece in her name in 1954. They had been introduced by Max Roach.

Track listing

Jazztone re-issue
Jazz Messages(album art: Roy Doty; liner notes: George T. Simon)

Side 1: Clifford Brown's All Stars
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Gone with the Wind" (recorded September 8, 1954) Allie Wrubel 3:37
2."Tiny Capers" (recorded September 8, 1954) Clifford Brown 4:13
3."Joy Spring" (recorded August 12, 1954) Clifford Brown 3:13
4."Blueberry Hill" (recorded September 8, 1954) Vincent Rose 3:13
5."Daahoud" (recorded August 12, 1954) Clifford Brown 4:11
Side 2: The Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Once Upon a Groove" (recorded January 14, 1957, New York)Owen Eugene Marshall8:36
2."Touche" (recorded January 14, 1957, New York) Mal Waldron 6:16
3."Blakey's comments on 'Ritual'" (Blakey; February 11, 1957, New York) Blakey 1:55
4."Ritual" (recorded February 11, 1957, New York) Art Blakey 9:59

––––––––––––––––––––

Matrix – Side 1 (printed on label): HO-8P-0788
Matrix – Side 2 (printed on label): HO-8P-0789

––––––––––––––––––––

Original releases
1) Pacific Jazz Presents the Clifford Brown Ensemble
(originally released in 1955 by Pacific Jazz; OCLC   12149539; the August 12 and September 8 sessions were at Capitol Records "A," Los Angeles; all compositions arranged by Jack Montrose) [3] [4]
Side A:
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Gone with the Wind" (recorded September 8, 1954) Allie Wrubel 3:37
2."Joy Spring" (recorded August 12, 1954) Clifford Brown 3:13
3."Finders Keepers" (recorded August 12, 1954) Jack Montrose 3:49
4."Blueberry Hill" (recorded September 8, 1954) Vincent Rose 3:13
Side B:
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Tiny Capers" (recorded September 8, 1954) Clifford Brown 4:13
2."Bones for Jones" (tecorded September 8, 1954) Clifford Brown 4:13
3."Daahoud" (recorded August 12, 1954) Clifford Brown 4:11
Personnel
2) Ritual: The Modern Jazz Messengers
(recorded January 14, 1957, New York; [4] selections used for the release of Jazz Messages)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Once Upon a Groove" (recorded January 14, 1957, New York)Owen Eugene Marshall8:36
2."Touche" (recorded January 14, 1957, New York) Mal Waldron 6:16
3."Ritual" (recorded February 11, 1957, New York) Art Blakey 9:59

Personnel

Notes and references

Notes

  1. Brown and Anderson had three marriage celebrations, partly because their families were on opposite coasts and partly because of their differing religions – Brown was Methodist and Anderson was Catholic. They were first married on June 26, 1954, in Los Angeles (on Anderson's 21st birthday), then again in a religious ceremony on July 17, 1954, in Los Angeles, then, Anderson's parish priest followed them to Boston, and, on August 1, 1954, performed their marriage ceremony at Saint Richards Church in the Roxbury neighborhood. ("Clifford Brown in Los Angeles," by Eddie Spencer Meadows, PhD; born 1939; Black Music Research Journal, published by the Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago and University of Illinois Press, Vol. 31, No. 1, Spring 2011, pps. 45–63; JSTOR www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/blacmusiresej.31.1.0045 ; OCLC   729620529, 6733333114, 778359559; ISSN   0276-3605)

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References

  1. "Jazz Records," by Edwin R. McDonald (né Edwin Ruthven McDonald; 1906–1991), St. Joseph News-Press Gazette, October 27, 1957, p. 8C (accessible via Newspapers.com , subscription required)
  2. The African Diaspora: A Musical Perspective, by Ingrid T. Monson, Routledge (2003); OCLC   57124953
    Chapter 11: "Art Blakey's African Diasporo," pps. 334–353
    Section: "African Independence and AfroCuban Collaborations," pps. 342–350
  3. "Clifford Brown in California - The 1954 Sessions," James A. Harrod, Jazz Research (on Blogspot; research blog of James A. Harrod), June 2016 (retrieved June 26, 2019)
  4. 1 2 "Clifford Brown" (Musician detail: B13511 & B13513), The Jazz Discography Online ( lordisco.com ), Tom Lord (ed.) (retrieved June 19, 2019); OCLC   182585494, 690104143

Additional reading