The Jazz Messengers

Art Blakey was the new hero on the Paris jazz scene, thanks to his Olympia concert on November 22nd 1958, and his subsequent appearances at the Club St. Germain. People swore by his 'Blues March' and 'Moanin', so why not get him to do the soundtrack for the film Molinaro just finished? The only problem, albeit a major one, was that time was short, so an original score was out of the question: the Jazz Messengers would have to preach the good word by other means. Fortunately, the band's tenor and arranger, Benny Golson, had become an expeet in the art of making somrthing new out of somrthing old, and he did it with equal talent and intelligence. Except for three originals, the musical sequences of the film are actually fragments from the Messengers' book, but in adapted versions; 'Whisper Not', for example, can be discerned underneath 'Ne Chuchote Pas'. It was an extremely hazardous process...but the result turned out to be remarkable!!!