Free for All (Blakey album)

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Free for All
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers studio album

Publication
(s)

1964

Label (s) Blue Note Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

4th

running time

36:50

occupation

production

Alfred Lion

Studio (s)

Van Gelder Recording Studio, Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey

chronology
A Jazz Message
(1963) 		Free for All Kyoto
(1964)
Art Blakey at a concert in 1985

Free for All is a jazz album by Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers . It was recorded on February 10, 1964 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey , and released by Blue Note Records that same year .

The album

Beginning with the 1961 album Mosaic , Art Blakey worked with a frontline of the three wind instruments that are considered by many critics to be the most famous jazz messenger edition: Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet) and Curtis Fuller (trombone). In addition to Blakey, the pianist Cedar Walton and bassist Jymie Merritt played in the rhythm section , who was finally replaced by Reggie Workman in October 1962 . Immediately after the Free for All session in February, there was a live recording in Kyoto ; In mid-1964, this edition of Messengers disbanded when Shorter became a member of the Miles Davis Quintet.

Free for All was the Jazz Messengers' first Blue Note album in two years; in between were some productions for Impulse! ( A Jazz Message ) and Riverside ( Ugetsu ). The line-up of the Messengers consisted of four jazz composers (Shorter, Hubbard, Fuller and Walton), but only two musicians contributed pieces to the album, Wayne Shorter the title track "Free for All" and "Hammer Head" and Freddie Hubbard " The Core ". The last track "Pensativa" was written by Clare Fischer and arranged by Freddie Hubbard.

"Free for All" begins after a short piano introduction with a "grave, imposing theme that begins in unison , where Blakey already predicts the fire that will come soon", says Nat Hentoff in the original liner notes. Shorter immediately starts playing vigorously, placing fanfare-like, thematic fragments to which Hubbard / Fuller respond in a call and response manner of playing. After Fuller's and Hubbard's play, the band leader gives a solo before the three wind players join in again. After “Hammer Head” in medium tempo, the Hubbard composition “The Core” follows, the title a play on words ; On the one hand it is the abbreviation of the anti-discrimination organization Congress of Racial Equality , valued by Hubbard , on the other hand Core is "the focus of all kinds of change that must occur before this society is really open to everyone" said Hubbard. The final track "Pensativa" was arranged by Freddie Hubbard, who also plays a first lyrical solo, followed by Shorter.

Rating of the album

The critic Bob Blumenthal praised the album in its new edition in the Rudy Van Gelder Edition (2003) especially for the achievements of Wayne Shorter, whose work supports the ensemble's opening passages, both in "Free for All" and in "Hammer Head" . His game is like a watershed from the "old" Wayne Shorter. “Free for All” and Hubbard's “The Core” are also examples of compositions of this time that were not based exclusively on scales, as did modal jazz . The pieces are "perfect vehicles of transition for a music in change", even if this change is not as "free" as the music of Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman .

Wayne Shorter

In Allmusic , Al Campbell described the album as a high point in Blakey's enormous oeuvre and gave it the second highest note. Free for All is played by a line-up that has existed since 1961 and is hard to beat: The title track of the album is one of the greatest moments in the history of Jazz Messengers . In its eight minutes, "Free for All" reached the edges of the free bop without, however, leaving Blakey's rhythmic foundation. Shorter's "Hammer Head" has the groove of soul blues; Shorter, Hubbard, and Fuller had exceptional solos while Blakey swung vigorously at medium tempo. Hubbard's "The Core" comes close to the heat of the title track and contains a similarly fiery interplay. Clare Fischer's "Pensativa" entered the messenger repertoire and became a Blakey favorite for years. Campbell sums it up: "A passionate work by the messengers that has proven to be essential."

Richard Cook and Brian Morton , in their review of the album they awarded the highest rating, emphasize Cedar Walton's contribution to the music of this Messengers edition compared to the rather lightweight Bobby Timmons . The recordings with this cast were the boldest of the messengers ; Among the three masterpieces of this phase, the authors first count the enjoyable and intense Free for All , but also Mosaic (October 1961) and Buhainia's Delight from November / December 1961.

Russ Musto wrote in All About Jazz about the reissue of the album that it was one of the works of the Jazz Messengers that clearly demonstrated Blakey's ability to incite his young musicians to creativity while maintaining an identifiable group sound that is open to change. Free for All documents “probably the most creative edition” of the Messengers shortly before their last recording. Even if the band of Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton and Reggie Workman have (previously) recorded other albums with great music, Free For All stands out for its "incredibly high energy level" alone. In four long pieces, Blakey proves "indomitable strength and his untiring vitality". The title track in particular is "terrifying as the soloists stand under the fire of Blakey's relentless battery of breathtaking rhythms" because of the unbelievable intensity of the soloists. In contrast, Shorter's “Hammer Head” is a “refreshing excursion” because it seems less intimidating; it is more conventional in its melodic lines and through Blakey's swinging medium tempo. Hubbard's “The Core”, on the other hand, possesses “an urgency that evokes ecstatic forms of expression in the four soloists”, supported by Workman's robust beat and Blakey's persistent polyrhythmic bumps. Hubbard's relaxed arrangement of the Bossa Nova "Pensativa" is also highlighted.

Brian Priestley mentioned in his review of the album, which he highlighted from the extensive Blakey catalog, the influence of John Coltrane on the music of the Jazz Messengers and Wayne Shorter's "growing stature" at the time.

The titles

Cedar Walton in Dachau (2001)
  • Blue Note BST 84170 (LP), 7243-5-71067-2-6 (CD Rudy van Gelder-Edition)
page A
1. Free for All - 11:06 (Wayne Shorter)
2. Hammer Head - 7:48 (Wayne Shorter)
Side B
3. The Core (Freddie Hubbard) 9:23
4. Pensativa (Clare Fischer) 8:22

Web links

Sources / individual references

Curtis Fuller
  1. ↑ See Blumenthal, Liner Notes 2003
  2. ↑ See Blumenthal, Liner Notes 2007
  1. ↑ See review of Campbell's album in Allmusic
  1. ↑ See Brian Priestley's biography and review of the album in the Jazz - Rough Guide
  1. ^ Cook / Morton, p. 247
  • Nat Hentoff: Original Liner Notes from Free for All , 1964
  1. ↑ See Nat Hentoff, Original Liner Notes
  1. ↑ See review of Russ Musto's album in All About Jazz

Remarks

  1. ↑ The remastered CD was released in 2001.
  2. ↑ In April / May 1964, the Blue Note studio album Undestructible was created , for which Lee Morgan returned to the Messengers . For another recording session for Limelight Records ( 'S make It ) came in December 1964 guest musician (and replacement for Shorter) was John Gilmore ; for Walton came John Hicks and for Workman Victor Sproles . The recordings were re-released on Verve in the 2000s. See Cook / Morton
  3. ↑ Despite the word Message in the title, this is Blakey's album without the Jazz Messengers ; he played with Sonny Stitt , McCoy Tyner and Art Davis in Rudy Van Gelder's studio.
  4. ↑ In the original: "... the horns state the grave, stately theme with Blakey presaging the fire storms to come." after Nat Hentoff, Liner Notes 1964
  5. ↑ In the original: "a passionate Jazz Messengers workout that proves essential".