Art Blakey was like a holy guru to aspirant young jazz musicians, taking generations of young jazz talents through the ins and outs of jazz music with his various incarnations of The Jazz Messengers. Getting the chance to play with Blakey was like a young boxer getting the chance to train under Mohammed Ali in his prime. You knew you were going places when Blakey was leader.

The title track, shortened to "Bu's Delight", has some shuffling Blakey drum solos from about 3:25 onward. "Reincarnation Blues" is a fantastic cooperative effort with each performer contributing, Wayne Shorter standing out especially. This reissue is part of the Blue Note Rudy Van Gelder Edition series, so it has been digitally remastered at 24-bits at high resolution by Van Gelder himself. Be sure not to miss out on this title and grab it during your next purchase here at Amazon! You'll thank me.

Personnel:

Art Blakey (drums)
Freddie Hubbard (trumpet)
Curtis Fuller (trombone)
Wayne Shorter (tenor sax)
Cedar Walton (piano)
Jymie Merritt (bass)

Producer: Alfred Lion
Label: Blue Note
Dates: November 28 & December 18, 1961
Location: Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Edition: Rudy Van Gelder Edition (24-bit digital remaster)

If you know nothing about a particular jazz CD but see Art Blakey on drums, you can bet it'll be a good one (you can say the same thing about Jimmy Cobb). This lineup features big names Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter, and also well-regarded Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton, and Jymie Merritt. The lineup's promising, and the songs are very solid. They seem pretty even to me, I don't want to name the best and worst songs, because my opinion is hardly set into stone. There are also bonus versions of four of the six songs. The original album at 40 minutes is a decent length. The thing that makes this a 4-star CD is that there aren't any GREAT songs, they're merely all good. If it had a song like "The Egyptian" or "Moanin'", it'd be a 5-star CD.

From the start of Backstage Sally, you know this is another classic messengers session. Recorded in 1961 Blakey and his men focus on tunes displaying the energy and talent of Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton, and of course Blakey himself. Wayne Shorter wrote most of the tunes contained in this album. Shorter wrote "Backstage Sally" the beautiful ballad "Contemplation" and "Reincarnation Blues." In each of these pieces Shorter wrote all of them away from the piano. He found working without a piano you get a different approach, a broader outlook. You'll notice that in each piece it gives the instrumentalist a freer approach to express themselves note from note. The highlight for Blakey fans would "Bu's Delight" an excellent tune written by trombonist Curtis Fuller for Art Blakey which gives him a excellent thunderous drum solo! This is supersonic hard bop at its best! Not to be forgotten on this cd as well is Cedar Walton's "Shaky Jake" and Wayne Shorter's arrangement of Hank Mancini's "Moon River", conceived as a slow ballad Shorter makes it swing Art Blakey style. This album is one every jazz messenger fan should own!!

This session practically validates Wayne Shorter's initial refusal to leave Blakey's group when Miles Davis began courting the emerging tenor star (his talents on soprano would not become apparent until Weather Report). Shorter plays with a straight-ahead, hard-edged, definitive boppish assurance that's frankly quite refreshing after hearing much of his later, more tentative and experimental work.

I've never been crazy about the Blakey ensembles that exceed five players--too much solo space is sacrificed to ensemble effect. But Curtis Fuller is especially nimble on this date and moreover contributes the title number--sufficient reason in itself to pick up this recording. More than a "throwaway" head for a drum feature, "Bu's Delight" is a contagious melody, resembling an operatic aria in its sweeping contours and sustained phrases that are picked up and completed by Blakey's percussive extensions. His solo is a thing of beauty--not so much because of technical wizardry or a panoply of various percussive instruments and tunings--but because of his ability to keep it swinging. The high hat is rock steady despite the fast tempo and the absence of the other instruments. Bu maintains the musical continuity of the original composition rather than using it as a mere set of book-ends for a drum exhibition.

Shorter's arrangement for "Moon River" works surprisingly well as a driving, hard-bop vehicle, though it strikes me that some of the alterations, while making the tune less of a harmonic obstacle course, detract from the more tuneful, infectious qualities of one of Mancini's better songs.

Recorded in late 1961, this album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers actually takes a step back from "Mosaic," the brilliantly intense but somewhat cold debut of the most explosive and arguably the best edition of the group. This album features the same personnel: Freddie Hubbard plays trumpet, Wayne Shorter is the tenor saxophonist, Curtis Fuller plays trombone, Cedar Walton is the pianist, Jymie Merritt plays bass, and Art Blakey leads and pushes from behind the drumset. Whereas "Mosaic" features mostly uptempo tunes, "Buhaina's Delight" is made up of medium swing grooves more reminiscent of the group that preceeded this one (with Lee Morgan in place of Hubbard, Bobby Timmons instead of Walton, and Fuller omitted), though the compositions, with Wayne Shorter as musical director, definitely have a more modern harmonic approach. The medium tempo selections swing hard (nobody was better than Art Blakey at medium tempo) and feature excellent soloing from the talented band. In addition to the swingers, this album features a rare ballad, Shorter's beautiful "Contemplation," my favorite Messengers ballad performance. There is also a beautiful uptempo arrangement of "Moon River" and an extended drum feature, "Bu's Delight." Given that Art Blakey's solo vocabulary was somewhat limited, the latter can be a bit predictable at times if you've heard other Blakey features, but his time and swing are perfect. Drummers take note.

All in all, this is a very accessible album and a relatively tame way to get introduced to this edition of the Jazz Messengers. It stands in the shadow of "Mosaic" (though I prefer this one) and the absolutely brilliant "Free For All" that would follow in three years, but it is still a great session all around.