Recorded in 1956,
Art Blakey's
Drum Suite was a wonderful hybrid of African, Latin, and hard bop rhythms that prefigured the concept of Afro-beat by at least a decade, and the sheer energy and sonic expanse of the original suite, not to mention its very special and fresh-sounding intimacy, make it still astounding 50 years on. Even more amazing is that the three parts of the suite --
Blakey's "The Sacrifice,"
Ray Bryant's "Cubano Chant," and
Oscar Pettiford's "Oscalypso" -- were recorded straight through live, and were only intended to be a pre-take run-through, but as is obvious here,
Blakey and company nailed the whole thing right out of the box. The original LP was issued by Columbia with the drum suite on one side, and three tracks recorded by a 1956 version of the Jazz Messengers (
Bill Hardman,
Jackie McLean,
Sam Dockery, and
Spanky DeBrest) for
Blakey's first Columbia album,
Hard Bop, on the other side. This CD reissue adds three more tracks written by trumpeter
Donald Byrd ("L'il T" and two takes of "The New Message") from yet another edition of the Jazz Messengers from 1956, this time sporting a lineup of
Byrd,
Ira Sullivan,
Kenny Drew,
Wilbur Ware, and, of course,
Art Blakey. The original LP featured a shortened version of the opening cut, "The Sacrifice," which is here expanded to its full-length, bringing this reissue to a little over 65 minutes in length. Groundbreaking for its time, and still sounding vital, powerful, and visionary, the
Drum Suite album is somewhat of a lost masterpiece that deserves a fresh audience. [The CD was also released with bonus tracks.] ~ Steve Leggett