condition (record/cover): NM / EX- (light yellowing on back)

Insert and obi included.

New York, mid-eighties, party atmosphere: Art Blakey ringing in the new year at Sweet Basil, the Village club that hosted so much great music in that decade, with a late-period Messengers unit in full flight. There is something perfect about Blakey on New Year's Eve - the man spent forty years turning every gig into a celebration anyway, so the occasion simply met its master. Long grooves, hard swing, a room full of people exactly where they wanted to be. Japanese release on Paddle Wheel, the King imprint that documented so much eighties New York jazz. The press roll that launched a thousand careers, still rolling at midnight.