Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - At The Cafe Bohemia

Classic Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers album 'At The Caf� Bohemia' with pictures by iconic photographer Francis Wolf.

One of the definitive bands of the hard bop genre, The Jazz Messengers' soulful and hard driving sound set the benchmark of excellence in jazz from the group's inception in the early 1950s to its culmination in 1990. This set, recorded live at the celebrated Caf� Bohemia in New York, was one of the best from their early years.

There's excellent, cohesive trumpet by Kenny Dorham and piano by Horace Silver that leaps into the emotions by its continually attacking, almost ferocious intensity and swing. Tenor Hank Mobley is the least individual of the soloists. Doug Watkins is equal to the never-coasting rhythmic demands of Silver and the omni-cooking Art Blakey. Recorded sound is particularly good for a non-studio assignment. Nat Hentoff, Down Beat