Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers - A Night in Tunisia (1973 Japanese RCA Mono Vinyl LP)

Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers - A Night in Tunisia | Vinyl LP - 1973 Japanese RCA Mono Reissue (RGP-1067(M), RCA Jazz Spirit 1300 Series, Victor Musical Industries)

• The only recorded instance of Jackie McLean and Johnny Griffin playing together, two of the sharpest saxophone voices in hard bop captured across two sessions in New York in April 1957
• Nearly thirteen minutes of “A Night in Tunisia” opens the record, with Blakey driving the sextet through one of the most intense readings of the Gillespie standard ever put on tape
• Japanese mono reissue on RCA Camden, manufactured by Victor Musical Industries with liner notes by Nat Hentoff and the pioneering Japanese jazz critic Shoichi Yui

On the original Vik Records release, Jackie McLean was credited as “Ferris Bender” to get around his contract with Prestige. By 1973, when Victor Musical Industries pressed this Japanese reissue, his real name was restored. The alias is a footnote, but the session behind it is anything but. This is the only time Blakey put McLean’s tart, crying alto alongside Johnny Griffin’s muscular tenor in the front line, and the pairing is electric. Griffin would soon replace McLean as the group’s sole saxophonist, which makes these April 1957 dates a one-off document of a lineup that existed only briefly. Bill Hardman’s trumpet completes a three-horn front line that Blakey pushes hard from behind the kit. The programme opens with “A Night in Tunisia” at nearly thirteen minutes, the Gillespie standard rebuilt as a vehicle for extended soloing, with Blakey’s press rolls and polyrhythmic accents at their most commanding. Griffin’s “Off the Wall”, McLean and Blakey’s “Couldn’t It Be You?” and Hardman’s “Theory of Art” are all band originals, and Sonny Rollins’s “Evans” closes the set.

The rhythm section of pianist Sam Dockery and bassist Spanky DeBrest (listed here as Jimmy De Brest) is less documented than the front line, but both are solid. Dockery comps cleanly and stays out of the soloists’ way, while DeBrest holds the bottom with a firm pulse that gives Blakey room to roam. This was the second iteration of the Jazz Messengers, after the departure of Horace Silver and the original quintet, and before the celebrated Morgan/Golson/Shorter lineups that followed. It is sometimes overlooked in the Messengers’ discography, which is a mistake. The album was originally released on RCA Victor’s Vik subsidiary (LX-1091, 1958) and has appeared under multiple titles including Theory of Art. This is the 1973 Japanese mono reissue on RCA Camden as part of the RCA Jazz Spirit 1300 Series, catalogue number RGP-1067(M), manufactured by Victor Musical Industries, Inc.