The Jazz Messengers

The Witch Doctor is a 1961 session by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers that stayed in the Blue Note vaults for six years. It only came out in 1967. It catches the quintet with Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter at full strength. Most of the material comes from the two horn players and leans toward the modal writing that was changing hard bop at the time.

The band was recorded at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on March 14, 1961, with Rudy Van Gelder engineering and Alfred Lion producing. Art Blakey is on drums, Morgan on trumpet and Shorter on tenor saxophone. Bobby Timmons plays piano and Jymie Merritt bass. It is the same line-up that had cut The Big Beat a year earlier. Morgan and Shorter each wrote two of the six tunes, and Timmons one.

Morgan's title track opens the set, followed by his Afrique, a modal piece in 6/8. Shorter's Those Who Sit and Wait is a brooding minor-key theme, and his Joelle is the other piece from his pen. Timmons brings his soul-jazz roots to A Little Busy. The album ends with a quick, nimble run through Lost and Found, a tune by the tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan.

Its delayed release meant the record reached critics late. DownBeat reviewed it in 1969 and gave it four and a half stars. AllMusic today rates it four, and The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (2008) three and a half. The 1967 sleeve has art direction by Frank Gauna and a cover photograph by Martin Felix. Later CD editions added an alternate take of the title track.

This is the Japanese Ultimate High Quality CD from Universal Music Japan (UCCQ-9727, 2024), remastered by Kevin Gray. It comes in a jewel case with obi strip, with the original sleeve notes by Nat Hentoff reproduced on the back inlay.