Tag Archives: Art Blakey

RSD 2025 Release – Alts ‘n Outs – The Other Side of Blue Note – A Deeper Dive

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The Record Store Day 2025 list dropped this week and there are quite a few interesting releases to consider. Blue Note Records celebrated 85 years in 2024 and there were a lot of special releases continuing into 2025. Some big titles were the return of the Blue Note Review Series and Vinyl Me Please reissued the really cool boxset The Story of Blue Note. The Story of Blue Note was originally released to celebrate Blue Note’s 80th anniversary.

On the list for Record Store Day (which will be a bit early this year on Saturday, April 12th) kind of hidden in the Various Artists section is Alts ‘n Outs : The Other Side of Blue Note, which is a 1 LP compilation of session outtakes from some of Blue Note Records’ iconic releases on blue vinyl. The title seems to be a nod to the 1964 album In ‘N Out by Joe Henderson. This focuses mostly on the post bop, hard bop period from Cannonball Adderley (which sneaks Miles Davis onto the release), Grant Green, Wayne Shorter, Art Blakey, Jimmy Smith and Sonny Clark. The songs have been released previously as bonus tracks on the more recent CD versions of the albums. I’ll break down the tracks and the session information as well as provide a playlist of the songs in order.

  1. Bangoon (aka Alison’s Uncle) (outtake from Cannonball Adderley’s Somethin’ Else) – This song was recorded during the March 9, 1958 sessions for Somethin’ Else with Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, NJ, but not included on the original 5-track release. Somethin’ Else is one of the few times that Miles Davis appears as a sideman after 1955. Adderley was added to Davis’ “First Great Quintet” (actually expanding it to a sextet) and recorded Milestones before the sessions for Somethin’ Else. This song started to be added to the CD release of Somethin’ Else starting around 1986, originally titled “Alison’s Uncle” but eventually given its correct title “Bangoon” which was composed by session pianist Hank Jones.
  2. Jean de Fleur (alternate track from Grant Green’s Idle Moments) This track is actually the original 8:09 take of “Jean de Fleur” recorded on November 4, 1964 at Hackensack by Rudy Van Gelder. Because producer Alfred Lion liked the 15 minute version of “Idle Moments” (there was apparently some confusion over how many bars the chorus was supposed to have which caused the take to be longer than planned) the decision was to record shorter takes of “Jean de Fleur” and “Django” on November 15, 1964. The original takes would become bonus tracks on the CD versions of Idle Moments.
  3. Dance Cadaverous (alternate take from Wayne Shorter’s Speak No Evil) During the sessions on December 24, 1964 for Speak No Evil, Wayne Shorter backed by the powerhouse band of Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Freddie Hubbard and Elvin Jones an alternate take of “Dance Cadaverous” was recorded which was included in the 1999 RVG CD edition. Both takes of “Dance Cadaverous” are about the same length at over 6 minutes.
  4. Moanin’ (alternate take of Art Blakey’s Moanin’) During the October 30, 1958 session in Hackensack with Van Gelder, the Jazz Messengers recorded one of Blakey’s biggest releases Moanin’. The album release used take 4, and take 2 was added to the CD release as a bonus track.
  5. On The Sunny Side of the Street (outtake from Jimmy Smith’s Back At The Chicken Shack) On April 25, 1960, Jimmy Smith along with Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Burrell and Donald Bailey recorded a number of tracks that would become 1961’s Midnight Special and 1963’s Back at the Chicken Shack. During this session they also recorded the 1930 jazz standard “On The Sunny Side of the Street” composed by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields. This was included in the 1987 CD reissue of Back At The Chicken Shack.
  6. Lover (outtake from Sonny Clark Cool Struttin’) Pianist Sonny Clark hit Hackensack on January 5, 1958 along with Art Farmer, Jackie McLean, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones to record what would become Cool Struttin’, out in August of that year. One of the unused songs was a 1932 Rodgers and Hart song “Lover” originally used in the Maurice Chevalier film Love Me Tonight, where the song was sung by actress Jeanette MacDonald. As with most Rodgers and Hart compositions, this song became part of the so-called Great American Songbook with other notable jazz greats like Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, and Charlie Parker all recording versions of it.

This is a playlist of all of the tracks on Alts ‘n Outs:

(Upcoming Release) Blue Note Records Releases Lost 1959 Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers Album on 4/24 : “Just Coolin'” : A Deeper Dive

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Cover Art for Lost 1959 album Just Coolin’ out April 24th on Blue Note Records

We’re treated to yet another “lost” album from the jazz archives, this time from the extensive Blue Note Records archives. On April 24th Blue Note will be releasing an originally rejected release titled Just Coolin’ from a March 8, 1959 session recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Hackensack, NJ. This session was dropped due to the fact that four of the six tracks recorded overlapped with At The Jazz Corner of the World (not to be confused with the 1960 2 LP Meet Me At The Jazz Corner of the World with Wayne Shorter) album recorded by Alfred Lion at Birdland in NYC just over a month later on April 15th, 1959. Split over two volumes, the first was released in 1959, and the second in 1960.

Drummer Art Blakey’s legendary Jazz Messengers band had a lot of lineup changes during its 35 year run. The period from 1958-1964 is generally regarded as the most notable run for the band. Blakey pulled together a band of Philly natives: Lee Morgan (trumpet), Benny Golson (tenor sax), Bobby Timmons (piano), and Jymie Merritt (bass). This is the band that Blakey had on his Blue Note Records debut Moanin’ (Blue Note 4003), recorded in October of 1958 and released in January of 1959. Following the sessions for Moanin’, the band hit the road for an extensive tour of Europe producing the live albums 1958 – Jazz Olympia (on Fontana) and Art Blakey et les Jazz-Messengers au club St. Germain (on French RCA) among other later releases (mostly unofficial) that came out in the 1970’s to capitalize on Blakey’s departure from releasing albums as changing tastes in modern music turned away from his music.

By the time Blakey returned to the studio with Alfred Lion in March 1959, Benny Golson left the band for Art Farmer’s sextet, which included Bill Evans on keys (check out Modern Art for the results of that). Golson was replaced by Hank Mobley who had been a member of the first Jazz Messengers from 1954-1956. Mobley stayed with the Messengers during this third iteration of the band long enough to get this session and Jazz Corner of the World recorded before he was arrested in 1958 for possession of narcotics and spent the rest of the year in prison (only the first of stints he would do, unfortunately). Mobley was replaced by Wayne Shorter, who was hired after Lee Morgan ran into him at The Toronto Jazz Festival in July of 1959.

Ultimately, the replacement of Mobley with Wayne Shorter resulted in two of my favorite albums in the Jazz Messenger catalog: the 1961 release A Night In Tunisia, and the very-underappreciated (in my opinion) 1962 album Mosaic.

Mobley spent a brief stint in Miles Davis’s band as a replacement for the departed John Coltrane starting in 1961. But that pairing never really resulted in the partnership that Davis was missing with Coltrane. He appears on the studio album Someday My Prince Will Come (which somewhat awkwardly also features Coltrane) and two live albums : Friday and Saturday Nights Miles Davis In Person at the Blackhawk, San Francisco and Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall.

Just Coolin’ is an album that documents a brief interval in the changing lineups of The Jazz Messengers, but an important one nonetheless. Hank Mobley wrote three of the songs for the album, and they also appear on Jazz Corner of the World: “Hipsippy Blues,” “M&M,” and “Just Coolin’.” The early reviews suggest that the studio takes lack the energy and possibly the polish of the live versions, but the inclusion of two previously unheard songs pique the interest of fans and present a kind of “what if” scenario with Mobley had he been able to continue with the band.

The first track we get to hear is the previously unheard Bobby Timmons composition “Quick Trick.”

Here is the track listing for Just Coolin’ with YouTube links to the four versions from At The Jazz Corner of the World fso you can get an idea of what the other songs will sound like.

SIDE 1
Hipsippy Blues (Hank Mobley) Live version
Close Your Eyes (Bernice Petkere) Live version
Jimerick (unknown)
SIDE 2
Quick Trick (Bobby Timmons)
M&M (Hank Mobley) Live version
Just Coolin’ (Hank Mobley) Live version


B-Sides in the Bins #56 – Mt. Vernon, IA 8/20/2011 – Art Blakey’s Drum Suite

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Drum Suite - Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
My wife had a wedding makeup gig in Mt. Vernon on Saturday and since I didn’t have a lot going on I offered to come along and help her load in and out. I figured I’d check out the antique shops to see what books or vinyl they might have. Unfortunately, there used to be a really great record store in Mt. Vernon above one of the art stores. I guess the father of one of the owners of the store had a large record collection that they wanted to sell, so they ran a store for a while.

After helping Sherry, I parked the car and set out on foot to see what I could find. The former Mt. Vernon Middle School is now known as The First Street Community Center and this is where I found the one record I picked up. The school has been converted into a number of small shops and businesses– most of them antiques and gifts. On the second floor of the building I found a lone stack of  records in front of one of the shops. The stack was marked $2. So, I flipped through them not expecting to really find anything as the records were largely 60’s era ephemera like orchestra, some odd soundtracks and some foreign music titles. One I almost picked up was a University of Iowa title called The Songs of Iowa or something like that and had a selection of music from the various cultures– Mesquaki Indian music, Czechoslovakian, German, Dutch. But, just before I got to the bottom of the pile this familiar collection of African masks was staring me in the face.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Drum Suite (LP, Columbia CL 1002, 1957)($1.00) Wow! First, it is Mono and original Columbia Records “Six Eye” label, so it is an original pressing. The record was missing the inner paper sleeve, but the record itself was in pretty decent shape! It had some slightly incriminating scuffs, but I figured for a record over 50 years old, it wouldn’t be perfect, and the price was right. After a conversation with the nice lady who ran the little shop, and who attempted to just give the record to me, we arrived at $1.

When I got home, I gave the record a wipe with Gruv-Glide II (I highly recommend this stuff!) which did a fantastic job of cleaning out the groove of dust and debris and also provided an anti-static barrier. The record had a deep black sheen and it took some close looking to even see the original scuffs! The record played with very little noise.

Drum Suite is really two recordings. Side One is the three-part “Drum Suite” performed by The Art Blakey Percussion Ensemble which was made up of Specs Wright on percussion, Ray Bryant on piano, cellist/bassist Oscar Pettiford, Sabu Martinez on congas, and bassist Candido Camero. As is frequently commented about this release, it predates Afrobeat music by many years, and considered by many to be quite revolutionary at the time. Listening to it now, I notice how well the ensemble ties standard hard bop jazz with the world beats making it pretty listenable (“never descends into cacophony” was one review I read).

The second side of the record is a selection of songs by one of the many iterations of The Jazz Messengers. While enjoyable, is not in my opinion as strong as other Jazz Messenger releases like my personal favorite Mosaic.

When I heard the middle part of the Drum Suite “Cubano Chant” I found it to be familiar, so I looked into that track further. “Cubano Chant” was composed by the pianist Ray Bryant and included in his 1956 album on Epic Records The Ray Bryant Trio (Epic LN 3279)– which is sadly very out-of-print. The version on Drum Suite has some vocals (“Vamos a bailar la cha-cha-cha!”) where his version (and most other cover versions) doesn’t. Ray Bryant passed away in June at 79 years old. One of his noted contributions to the world of jazz is “Cubano Chant” which seems to be regarded as kind of a standard, considering how many people covered it. I found a pretty cool video of Steely Dan’s touring band from 2003 performing it as a warmup before a concert. I’m not exactly sure where I heard this before, but I guess it could be anywhere– but I’m pretty sure I heard it on “Dancing With the Stars” though I don’t know what season that would have been.

I managed to find a vinyl rip of Ray Bryant Trio (the Epic release, not the confusingly same-titled Prestige album from the same year– although some call that one Piano Piano Piano) on the internet which is pretty cool– but considering the apparent significance of “Cubano Chant” you’d think that they would have reissued this. It’s on my “wishlist”  to get on vinyl.

A bit of a side note: Ray Bryant recorded a single in 1960 called “The Madison Time” which was featured prominently in the first film version of Hairspray (not the John Travolta version, the Rikki Lake one). Here are the instructions for how you can dance “The Madison Time,” too!