Free For All!
Here I present one of the best recorded Blakey albums of the hard-bop era. The leader of the band, Art Blakey, one of the best drummers, produced a huge volume of high quality Jazz LP's that defined the music of that era.
This album is less accessible than the other Art Blakey albums. If you are new to Jazz check out Moanin' or A Night in Tunisia. If you are curious in more Blakey, check out Indestructible, Buhaina's Delight, and Mosaic.
The crew: ART BLAKEY, drums; FREDDIE HUBBARD, trumpet; CURTIS FULLER, trombone; WAYNE SHORTER, tenor sax; CEDAR WALTON, piano; REGGIE WORKMAN, bass.
To start off the description, it's not hard when you have one of the best drummers who can raise rhythmic hell, jamming with Hubbard (one of the coolest smooth horn players out there), Wayne Shorter (a sax genius who wrote some of the songs) and Cedar Walton whose tenacity can be heard in the first line of the song.
There are four tracks:
Free For All - The track opens with Walton laying down an opening line almost as soul shattering as My Favorite Things, followed band laying down the opening. Shorter takes a solo of epic proportions while the Blakey beats the hell out of the drums creating a rhythmic maelstrom of epic proportions as Walton slams down the chords and Workman keeps the whole band together going up and down scales of the Bass. Basically this song feels like an orchestrated free for all.
Hammer Head - Slows down a bit compared to Free For All and lets you settle back down a bit. The soloists don't rush themselves and they are able to produce a laid back feeling.
The Core - Workman opens the song with an awesome bass line. Then the piano puts a melody overtop of that, and then Blakey starts putting the rhythm on. The horns join in to open up, and Shorter rips open a solo. Expertly arranged and played.
Pensativa - Has a bossa nova feel to it, as the name would imply. A cool Latin influenced song.
Excellent album. My rating compared to the other Blakey albums:
8.5/10
Cheers,
Erik
