A Night in Tunisia (1960)

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A night in Tunisia
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers studio album

Publication
(s)

1960

Label (s) Blue Note Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

6 (LP) / 7 (CD)

running time

51:46 (CD)

occupation

production

Alfred Lion

Studio (s)

Van Gelder Recording Studio, Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey

chronology
The Big Beat
(1960) 		A night in Tunisia At the Jazz Corner of the World
(1961)
Art Blakey at a concert in 1985

A Night in Tunisia is a jazz album by Art Blakey with its Jazz Messengers . It was recorded on August 7th and 14th, 1960 in Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey , and released by Blue Note Records that same year . It is the second album that Blakey released under this title: In 1957 he had recorded an album A Night in Tunisia for RCA Bluebird .

The album

After the previous albums Africaine (November 1959) and The Big Beat (which was created in March 1960) it was the third album by the Jazz Messengers with the young tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter , who had replaced Benny Golson . In 1960 the Messengers' quintet also consisted of Lee Morgan (trumpet), Bobby Timmons (piano), Jymie Merritt (double bass) and band leader Art Blakey on drums.

The album begins with the title track, an eleven-minute version of Dizzy Gillespie's composition “ A Night in Tunisia ”, which is characterized here by Blakeys' polyrhythmic play; the band leader begins with a solo of over a minute, only accompanied by bassist Jymie Merritt. Then the winds make the Tunisia - topic before before Shorter goes into his solo. After Morgan's solo and a brief introduction to the bassist, Art Blakey enters an extended drum solo after five minutes, which is only accompanied by bass runs and the percussion of the other band members. After a short themed play by the wind instruments (7:52), there follows a passage in which the musical events change; the rhythm section pauses, Morgan and Shorter have the opportunity for short unaccompanied solos; Blakey sets short accents with call and response-like interjections in Morgan's solo and Morgan rings the end with the topic.

Gillespie's piece had been part of the messengers' live repertoire for five years ; “It's a really wonderful thing about this track,” said the band leader, “it's just that the track is so stimulating and we enjoy playing it and people like it. We play it every night, but it's never the same. ”Blakey had already recorded several versions of the title with his various Messengers editions, for example on A Night at Birdland in 1954 with Clifford Brown , Lou Donaldson and Horace Silver and as the title track of his RCA - album from 1957 with a woodwinds frontlne from Bill Hardman , Jackie McLean and Johnny Griffin .

The following Shorter composition "Sincerely Diana", dedicated to Shorter Blakey's wife Diana, is more conventional and swinging at a medium tempo. After Morgan's play, Timmons has a solo before Blakey offers a drum insert. Theme play by the winds and a fade out by the pianist end the piece. Bobby Timmons' "So Tired" is a theme in typical soul-jazz style of the period, as it is associated with Timmons / Blakey. Soloists are Shorter, Morgan and Timmons. Again, this piece was faded out with Timmons' game. That same week, Timmons took him on under his own name for Riverside .

The title of Lee Morgan's calm composition "Yama" (Japanese mountain ) refers to the beginning of the maiden name of Morgan's wife Yamamoto . “Yama” has “a calmly swaying blues-colored arrangement.” The title of “Kozo's Waltz”, also by Lee Morgan, again refers to the origin of his wife (Japanese child ).

This is followed by two more tracks, which were also made in the first session on August 7th but were not included on the original LP (BLP 4049), "When Your Lover Has Gone", one of the messengers' rare standards, and one Alternative version of Shorter's "Sincerely Diana", to which Bob Blumenthal noted that it shows a rather average solo Blakeys compared to the master version, while the selected version is the most impressive; but also Shorter's “excellent solo” could have been the decisive factor for the decision.

Rating of the album

The critic Bob Blumenthal praised the album when the album was reissued in the Rudy Van Gelder Edition (2004) and particularly emphasized the version of the title track, which was "something very special" compared to its predecessors from 1954 and 1957. The interpretation is presented "through the introduction of the Afro-Latin percussion ensemble in overdrive"; after Shorter's second chorus , “things would really explode” and Morgan “play with real ardor.” The author feels reminiscent of Blakey's orgy in rhythm recordings from March 1957, given the groove that percussionists and bassist Merritt create on Blakey's main solo . The extravagant codas by Morgan and Shorter at the end are also impressive .

Wayne Shorter

In the original liner notes, the critic Barbara J. Gardner emphasized that the album was "a first-class example of Blakey's efforts to highlight young talents who were able to show their talent here (except for the title track) in their compositions and arrangements."

In Allmusic Scott Yanow rated the album with four stars and restricted that the long title track “overshadowed the rest of the program”, but was “one of the most exciting versions” that Dizzy Gillespie's number had ever recorded. Lee Morgan, then in his early twenties, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt made up one of the strongest of the many editions of the Jazz Messengers .

Richard Cook and Brian Morton , in their review of the album, which they awarded the highest rating, emphasize that the A Night in Tunisia album is a permanent favorite of their oeuvre compared to the following works. In addition to the “wildness” of the title track, it is in particular Shorter's lovely “Sincerely Diana” and the two “enchanting” Morgan numbers “Yama” and “Kozo's Waltz” that speak for the album.

The titles

  • Blue Note , BLP 4049, BST 84049, (LP)
  1. A Night in Tunisia (D. Gillespie - F. Paparelli) - 11:11
  2. Sincerely Diana (Wayne Shorter) - 6:47
  3. So Tired (Bobby Timmons) - 6:36
  4. Yama (Lee Morgan) - 6:20
  5. Kozo's Waltz (Lee Morgan) - 6:45
  • CD edition: CDP 7 46532-2, CDP 7 84049-2
  1. A Night in Tunisia (D. Gillespie - F. Paparelli) - 11:11
  2. Sincerely Diana (Wayne Shorter) - 6:47
  3. Sincerely Diana (alternative take, Wayne Shorter) - 6:51
  4. So Tired (Bobby Timmons) - 6:36
  5. Yama (Lee Morgan) - 6:20
  6. Kozo's Waltz (Lee Morgan) - 6:45
  7. When Your Lover Has Gone (EA Swan) - 6:43
  • Tracks 2, 4, 6 and 7 were recorded on August 7th, tracks 1, 3 and 5 on August 14, 1960.

Editor's note

The following tracks were recorded on the two days of recording: "Noise In The Attic", "Sleeping Dancer Sleep On" (August 7, 1960), "Giantis", "Johnny's Blues" and "Like Someone In Love" (August 14 1960). They did not appear until five years later on the Blue Note LP Like Someone In Love (BLP 4245).

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Web links

Literature / individual references

  • Bob Blumenthal: Liner Notes from A Night in Tunisis , 2004
  1. ↑ a b c Cf. Blumenthal, Liner Notes 2004
  1. ^ Cook / Morton, p. 247
  • Barbara J. Gardner: Original Liner Notes from A Night in Tunisia , 1960
  1. ↑ a b c d See Gardner, Liner Notes 1960
  2. ↑ Morgan and his wife named their dog "Kozo"; see. Gardner, Liner Notes.
  1. ↑ See review of Scott Yanow's album in Allmusic

Remarks

  1. ↑ The remastered CD edition, expanded by two more tracks from the session, was released in 2004.
  2. ↑ Back then with Bill Hardman  (tp), Jackie McLean  (as), Johnny Griffin  (ts), Sam Dockery  (p) and Spanky DeBrest  (b).
  3. ↑ The recordings were also released on LP or CD under BST 84245, CDP 7 84245-2