At the Café Bohemia, Volumes 1 and 2 – Blue Note 1507 and 1508

Is it possible for a band to be both legendary and underrated? The Jazz Messengers at the Café Bohemia makes that case.

Jazz fans know the Jazz Messengers is the definitive, go-to band for straight-ahead hard bop. Art Blakey was both master drummer and master talent scout – the man who co-founded and sustained the celebrated group. For all his talents as a trailblazing harp bop drummer, Blakey’s probably better known for discovering and nurturing several generations of new jazz stars in the Messengers. It’s a long, impressive list.

Fans may debate which incarnation of the Jazz Messengers was the greatest, but this 1955 ensemble is arguably both the best and the most underrated.

If you made a list of the most famous jazz trumpeters of all time – Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, etc. – you’d have to go pretty far down to find Kenny Dorham. Ditto tenor sax player Hank Mobley. And yet both are among the best hard boppers ever, and they anchor this 1955 version of the Messengers.

Dorham is a fast, smooth trumpeter with a sound and style a lot like Gillespie’s and Clifford Brown’s. Mobley could easily be the Charlie Parker of the tenor. This live session is hard proof.

Volume 1 includes three originals by Dorham. “The Theme” is a ridiculous fast, triple-time bopper that features Blakey riding the rim and trying every other manner of clever time-keeping to push the tempo ever faster. Dorham, Mobley and pianist Horace Silver solo marvelously. Dorham’s second number, “Minor’s Holiday,” is another blisteringly paced bop piece. The CD’s liner notes call this “one of Dorham’s greatest performances,” and that’s not an exaggeration. It sings. Silver, on a slightly out-of-tune piano, is the essence of breathless speed and fluidity.

Volume 2 includes three Mobley originals. The opener, “Sportin’ Crowd,” is another great toe-tapping bop vehicle with an inspiring Silver solo and great work from the horns. Mobley’s “Avila & Tequila” is perhaps the most original piece from the live set, Afro-Cuban tinged drums and 12 minutes of serious cooking on horns. Mobley solos soulfully on the Gillespie standard “I Waited For You.”

At the start of Volume 1, Blakey announces to the crowd that this will be “a little cooking session for Blue Note,” featuring the “new star” Mobley and arranger Dorham. This is certainly their star turn and one of the best examples of hard bop ever recorded live. It belongs in every jazz collection.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Many copies on Amazon, new and used

Cost: Under $4 each used

The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Volumes 1 and 2 – Blue Note 1505 and 1506

Think of jazz, and the trombone almost never comes to mind.

Didn’t used to be. In the beginning, every jazz band had a trombone. But that was the Dixieland era, and Dixieland bands aren’t much in vogue anymore. (Unless you’re a fan of HBO’s Treme and you listen to Trombone Shorty. Sadly, not enough people do, or Treme would still be on the air.)

Then came the big band era, and suddenly lots of trombones were the fashion, all in one band. Think Tommy Dorsey or Juan Tizol of the Duke Ellington band.

And then there was bebop. Suddenly, everything but the trombone was cool. There were plenty of bebop trumpeters and pianists and sax players and bassists. But trombones? There was really just one, and J.J. Johnson was it.

But damn, he was good.

One good place to begin with J.J. Johnson are the albums with fellow trombonist Kai Winding. They made lots, and all are good. But they’re an odd bunch – quick, name one other trombone duo – and if not exactly a novelty, they aren’t exactly representative, either.

Better to start with the classic Blue Note sides. These are the earliest and maybe the best.

J.J. Johnson could do what few trombonists before him could: spit out lots of notes, very fast, melodically, on an instrument not exactly designed for it. Bebop is easy – well, easier – on a piano or trumpet or sax. Not so the trombone, with its cumbersome slide. Johnson made it sound easy.

These two Blue Note records chronicle three recording sessions from 1953 to 1955. The best takes are the earliest, with the phenomenal young trumpeter Clifford Brown sounding an awful lot like a latter-day Dizzy Gillespie. The Johnson original, “Turnpike,” even sounds uncannily like Dizzy’s “Salt Peanuts.”

(Unfortunately, Volume 1 also includes a John Lewis original, “Sketch 1,” which sounds very much like a chamber-jazz number for the Modern Jazz Quartet. Not surprising, since the group featured three future members of the MJQ, including Lewis. Sadly, it’s doesn’t give Johnson much to work with.)

Volume 2 features two more groups, including one with conga master Sabu, and several bouncy Latin-tinged numbers. The third group includes a fluid, bopping Horace Silver sounding great – every bit the equal to Johnson.

In the bebop world, J.J. Johnson was virtually a sound unto himself. These two Blue Note classics are an excellent place to hear him at his best.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Many copies on Amazon, new and used

Cost: Under $4 each used

The Amazing Bud Powell, Volumes 1 and 2 – Blue Note 1503 and 1504

In the pantheon of bebop’s Founding Fathers, there are three giants. Everyone knows Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Everyone forgets Bud Powell.

Like Bird and Diz, Powell could spit out notes faster than anyone before or since. Also like Bird and Diz, Powell sometimes fell in love with his own speed, so some recordings became exercises in ridiculously frantic keyboard runs because… well, he could.

Fortunately, these two early Powell discs emphasize the quirky, fun, inventive Bud Powell. While no pianist was ever quite as quirky and original as Thelonious Monk, Powell might place a close second.

The two CDs chronicle three recording sessions from 1949, 1951 and 1953 – first a quintet of traditional bop with Fats Navarro and Sonny Rollins, second a trio with Roy Haynes or Max Roach on drums, and third (all of disc 2) a trio with bassist George Duvivier and Arthur Taylor. All are fun.

The highlight of Volume 1 is three takes of the Powell original “Un Poco Loco” with the Roach trio. I’m not a fan of alternate takes – too often they’re too alike – but here you can actually hear the evolution of a classic. On Take 1, Powell is clearly fumbling around with his solos, trying anything, mostly short snippets that go nowhere. Eventually, he gives up. On Take 2, Powell is obviously running with new ideas. And on Take 3, he’s got it – a final, finished product. No melodic excursion here. With Roach doing a Latin-tinged tap-a-tap-a-tap tap on the cymbals, Powell creates odd flourishes and angular riffs. It is, in short, unique – an overused word, but in this case, apt.

The highlight of Volume 2 come on the very first two tunes. “Autumn in New York” starts with a furious, stormy pounding of chords and sheets of rain in the right hand, followed by a pretty melody and wonderful interplay between the piano and bass. The very next tune, “Reets and I,” is the kind of jaunty, toe-tapping bop that makes 1950s jazz so much fun.

Yep, I said “fun” three times. These are fun records. Parker was fun, Gillespie was fun, bebop is fun. What’s wrong with that?

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Many copies on Amazon, new and used

Cost: Under $4 each used