Jazz Icons: Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers Live in '58

Product Description Jazz Icons: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers features what many consider to be one of the fi nest line-ups in the history of jazzÂ?Bobby Timmons (Piano), Jymie Merritt (Bass), Benny Golson (Sax) and the legendary trumpet player, Lee Morgan. Lost for nearly 50 years, this historic 55 minute concert, fi lmed in Belgium in 1958, one month to the day after they recorded their masterpiece Moanin,Â? is the only known visual document of this infl uential band who were together for only six months. Amazon.com Choosing a favorite edition of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers is about as easy as choosing a favorite Frank Lloyd Wright work or Matisse painting, but by any criteria, the group captured on this frequently thrilling concert film ranks with the best of them. That trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist (and music director) Benny Golson, pianist Bobby Timmons and bassist Jymie Merritt were together for only six months under the aegis of master drummer and headmaster Blakey makes the discovery of the footage from this 1958 Belgium performance all the more noteworthy. Morgan, only 20 at the time, is nothing less than sensational, whether firing up Blakey's perennial favorite "Night in Tunisia," mourning the premature death of trumpeter Clifford Brown on Golson's "I Remember Clifford" or feeding the call and response of Timmons's gospel-tinged hit, "Moanin'." We're not in Ken Burns country here: the black and white images are grainy and the camera work is rudimentary, but the filmmakers' modest, attentive approach serves the music and the moment well. The accompanying booklet boasts a great collection of photos. --Lloyd Sachs Review "Jazz Icons is doing for jazz what the Criterion Collection has done for classic and important films". -- Jazz Times From the Contributor JAZZ ICONS(tm) is an ongoing DVD series featuring full-length concerts and in-studio performances by the greatest legends of jazz, filmed all over the world from the 1950s through the 1970s. Beautifully transferred from the riginal masters, none of these concerts has ever been officially released on home video, and in many cases, the material was never broadcast. Each DVD is produced with the full support and cooperation of the artists or their estates. JAZZ ICONS(tm) comes to you from Reelin' In The Years Productions, GRAMMY Nominated producers of the American Folk Blues Festival DVDs 1962 - 1966.