Search - Art Blakey :: In My Prime 1

Practically Priceless

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 11/16/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can think of no group in jazz more underrated than the '70's Messengers or of any more original, visionary composer than Walter Davis Jr. When will someone have sense to assemble his compositions and perform them as they were intended to be played. He takes Bud Powell's "Un Poco Loco" into another world and to a higher level of music, evolving the art and tradition in a direction other than modal, free, fusion or funk. Are musicians too enamored of their own "creations" to hear and build on the best of the tradition?



Such is not the case, thankfully, with these disciples, Blakey's most soulful overachievers, including the forcefull tenor of Dave Schnitter. Unfortunately, the only major Walter Davis composition on this album is the grandiose and operatic, "Jodi," a dramatic jazz "aria" on steroids and by itself easily worth the price of the CD."