Art Blakey, The Jazz Messengers

1992 release (light wear) ** The 1957 Columbia session with a split personality, and both halves are excellent. One side belongs to the Art Blakey Percussion Ensemble - Art Blakey surrounded by Latin percussion masters, exploring African and Afro-Cuban drumming in extended, ritualistic pieces years before such projects became fashionable. The other side is a hard-swinging Messengers date, business as usual at the highest level. Blakey's lifelong fascination with the drum as a global instrument, made explicit: he understood better than almost anyone in jazz that his kit was one branch of a much older tree. A conceptually bold record that also simply cooks. CD edition.