Art Blakey
drums
Drummer and leader of the Jazz Messengers; Barry heard him on his first trip to New York in the early 1950s, and Blakey always let him sit in.
- mentions
- 3
- recordings
- 2
- Barry speaking
- 1
What Barry says
On his first trip to New York, with Doug Watkins around 1952 or 1953, Barry heard Bud Powell at Birdland and then Art Blakey at a Bronx club beside the elevated train. He was cross that Bird was out of town, but he got to hear Blakey.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶221Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶222Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶304
Blakey always let Barry sit in, and they always took A Night in Tunisia fast, the fastest Barry ever played it.
Barry names Blakey among the musicians, with Monk, Sonny Clark and himself, who were grateful to the jazz patron Pannonica de Koenigswarter for helping them out of poverty.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶331Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶333
Speaking of dance, Barry describes a film on Blakey in which young black English dancers had a whole routine set to his music. He found the dancing unbelievable, and goes on to wonder why jazz has been pulled away from dancing, when the two always went together.
In his own words
But I got to hear Art Blakey. And Art Blakey always used to let me sit in, too. And we’d always play Night in Tunisia fast. Fastest Night in Tunisia I ever played.
Then we went to another place in the Bronx and heard Art Blakey. There used to be a joint over in the Bronx that New Yorkers could tell you about, by the overhead El
Speaking of dance, you know, I saw in a movie on Art Blakey a bunch of English dancers, young black English dancers who had a set all set up to Art Blakey’s music.
we were very thankful to this lady who loved jazz and became a benefactress for all of us, you know, Art Blakey, all of us.
Every mention
3 moments in the recordings, 1 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York
Ep. 20 | Charles McPherson: Meeting Charlie Parker, Studying with Barry Harris, and the Art of Bebop
- 24:12
A student
Charles McPherson cites Blakey’s band as the kind of group called hard bop, after the original bebop.
In the interviews and notes
On his first New York visit, after hearing Bud Powell at Birdland, Barry went to a club in the Bronx beside the elevated train and heard Art Blakey.
Disappointed to find Bird away when he reached New York with Doug Watkins, Barry heard Blakey instead; Blakey always let him sit in, and they played A Night in Tunisia faster than Barry ever played it anywhere else.
Barry asks that the record mention Pannonica de Koenigswarter, the jazz-loving patron to whom he, Monk, Sonny Clark, Blakey and many others were grateful for rescuing them from poverty.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶331Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶333
Leroy Williams, a drummer who played with Barry, agrees that Kenny Clarke and Max Roach were his models and adds Philly Joe Jones and Blakey to them.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶132Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶133
Among the sources de Lima gathers on Bird’s rhythm, Steve Coleman observes that in one Parker recording Blakey plays parts of Bird’s phrases along with him, while Bud stresses the same rhythmic weights.
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.