BST 84258

Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers - The Witch Doctor

Released - January 1969

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, March 14, 1961
Lee Morgan, trumpet; Wayne Shorter, tenor sax; Bobby Timmons, piano; Jymie Merritt, bass; Art Blakey, drums.

tk.14 Those Who Sit And Wait
tk.21 A Little Busy
tk.23 Joelle
tk.28 Afrique
tk.29 Lost And Found
tk.30 The Witch Doctor

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
The Witch Doctor	Lee Morgan	March 14 1961
Afrique	Lee Morgan	March 14 1961
Those Who Sit and Wait	Wayne Shorter	March 14 1961
Side Two
A Little Busy	Bobby Timmons	March 14 1961
Joelle	Wayne Shorter	March 14 1961
Lost and Found	Clifford Jordan	March 14 1961

Liner Notes

IN music, as in painting, as in living, certain qualities endure. The years pass, but the value of these qualities does not diminish. Consider Art Blakey. In his work, in the bands he leads, there has always been a clarity and strength of emotion that retain an energizing power. It's like having a reservoir of an elixir to which you can turn when you need recharging. This album, recorded in March 1961 , fills the reservoir higher, and therefore is to be welcomed.

The title tune, by Lee Morgan, has Lee's characteristic resilience and litheness of line. And this particular Blakey combo was so "together" that it projected a formidable ease along with its unleashed power. It's an ease that comes of its collective ability to complement the individualistically assertive solos. On this track, I was particularly taken by the organic flow of the solos within the overarching design and mood of the piece. It's all a relaxed whole, a supple whole.

Lee also wrote "Afrique," which begins with an insistent rhythmic pattern to which new textures are added incrementally as the tension builds to be pierced by Wayne Shorter's speech-like statement. (Note here, as elsewhere in the album, the crisp, stimulating but never intrusive comping of Bobby Timmons.) Lee Morgan's solo has that tangy, tensile quality which always jolts me into attention whenever I hear those first immediately identifying Morgan notes in a club or on a recording. Bobby Timmons follows in a more reflective vein until Blakey bursts through into one of his multiple resourceful solos — a mobile of accents and cross-accents, all integrated into a kaleidoscope of percussive colors.

Wayne Shorter, then as now, is a writer with very definite things to say and with discipline to structure them for directness of impact. "Those Who Sit And Wait" is a case in point — a piece powered by his own surging solo; Lee Morgan's fiery incisiveness; Bobby Timmons's clean, firm articulation; and a rhythm section that keeps the momentum buoyantly alive.

"A Little Busy" is by Bobby Timmons, and it does connote from the start a whirlpool of energy. But it's a carefully conceived whirlpool, as is evident by the shadings of dynamics in the ensemble passages and the interweaving of the solos with Art Blakey's attentively responsive rhythmic patterns. Just for kicks — and instruction — listen all the way through one or more times for Blakey alone. as if there were a choir of drummers.

"Joelle" is Wayne Shorter's — a sinuously-shaped, briskly-paced work which is exactly apt for Lee Morgan's tart, whip-like assertiveness. The composer himself whirls through an intriguingly conceived improvisation while Bobby Timmons again brings a measured calm to the proceedings.

Tenor saxophonist Cliff Jordan is the composer of "Lost And Found," which from the opening note, is like a leap into affirmation. Five musicians of skill and passion engaged in a celebration of their craft and art. Like all jazz that lasts, the performance is an act of definition — a definition of self and of that unity among peers which makes the jazz experience so regenerating for both musicians and listeners.

This, in sum, is an album that stands firmly on its own justified sense of self-worth and achievement. It's the kind of distilled maturation of technical and expressive abilities that has secured its place in time. No matter what other direction jazz has explored since, and no matter what unpredictable contours will come in the years ahead, this is one of those basing points. a coming together at a particular stage in the development of five individuals and the collective development of the Art Blakey concept of what his kind of jazz is all about.

Ever since he became a leader. Art Blakey and his various colleagues during any given period have indeed been messengers. The message is swift and clear — know your horn, use it to convey the immediacy of your experience, and listen to what's going on around you. You can always tell an Art Blakey combo in the first few bars. There's no waste of time or motion, no pretentious preludes. These are men taking care of business with forceful economy, deep roots in the essentials of the jazz language, and that particular flair — a jaunty élan — that is the hallmark of an Art Blakey unit.

As it happens, this particular group was one of Blakey's best — a fusion of independent stylists who nurtured each other's ardor with a seriousness and a joyfulness of musical purpose that gives this music its impregnable identity. It is an album that will have something to say to you as long as you're around to listen.

— NAT HENTOFF