The Live Recordings That Started "The Blue Note Sound"
Michael B. Richman | Portland, Maine USA | 07/06/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It is my firm belief that Volumes 1 & 2 of The Jazz Messengers at the Cafe Bohemia are the genesis of what we now know as "the Blue Note Sound." While earlier albums, including Art's "A Night at Birdland" and "Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers" hinted at great things to come, these recordings just bring it all together for me. The hard bop is at a fever pitch, the songwriting is beginning to take on new, original and more creative direction, and the lineup is a killer -- Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley and Doug Watkins join Blakey and Silver. These are all trademarks of the great things we have come to expect from Blue Note. On Volume 2, standards "Like Someone in Love" and "Yesterdays" have fresh life breathed into them, while Mobley's "Avila and Tequila" adds the latin twist we'll hear later on "A Night in Tunisia." Finally, "I Waited for You" must be one of the best ballads of the mid-50s. Coupled with Volume 1 this is essential music."