Ich hab das irgendwie nie hinterfragt, weil mir die Messengers schon seit einer Ewigkeit gefallen (Einstieg waren die Cafe Bohemia-Aufnahmen und „Moanin'“, aber im väterlichen Plattenregal steht auch „Free for All“, die es mir dann bald auch angetan hat und immer noch meine liebste Blakey-Scheibe ist). Aber Du hast schon recht, die Attitüde ist eine eigene – und die geht vom Leader und seinem Schlagzeugspiel aus … und sowohl Morgan wie auch Hubbard (für dessen Spiel ich ja generell weniger Sympathie empfinde) waren perfekte Besetzungen dafür. Timmons für mein Empfinden auch. Shorter bildet dazu aber, so höre ich das, einen lyrischen Gegenpol, der vielleicht – er war ja der musikalische Leiter der Gruppe, drum blieb er anscheinend ja auch so lange – das heimlich Zentrum ist? In den Liner Notes zu „Africaine“ (1979 von einem Conrad Silvert geschrieben, der damals offensichtlich mit Shorter gesprochen hat) gibt es diese schöne Passage:
Lee Morgan, Blakey’s young star on the trumpet, had been excited about Shorter and was the catalyst who brought Wayne to the band. He was immediately accepted by the band–Shorter is the kind of man who elicits both respect and affection from his associates–but all didn’t go smoothly in the studio on this first date.
Rudy Van Gelder was the engineer, and, of course, Alfred Lion was the producer. The band was working overtime to obtain a „take“ of Shorter’s „Lester Left Town,“ a crisp and clever piece that is typical of Wayne’s uncannily forward-looking sensibility. Apparently, the tune wasn’t exactly what Mr. Lion was envisioning the Blakey sound to be. For whatever reason, the tapes were put on the shelf, and the Messengers rerecorded „Lester“ several months later as part of The Big Beat.
„I think my tune was too new,“ Wayne now says with two decades of hindsight. „The modernity, all those chromatics were too much for Alfred,“ Art said, „We play progressive jazz. We wanted to stretch out and really work on it. And Alfred was nervous because we needed to work overtime to get it right. Art exploded, picked up his sticks and got up from the drums. That was the first time we ever saw him get really mad, and we respected him for it.“
„I think Alfred was looking for another ‚Moanin.‘ Maybe he was on the hit trail, thinking Bu (Blakey’s nickname, short for Buhaina) would become another Jimmy Smith, keep in that groove. But Art would say, ‚All those records sound alike. We want to do our own thing.'“
At that first session, Blakey barked at Lion, „It’s my band, and I’m gonna run it.“ And run he did, beautifully. The story has a happy ending. By the next session, Blakey and Lion were hugging one another, according to Shorter. Lion laughed and said, „Art, you make me so damn mad!,“ to which Blakey, not the kind of man to hold a grudge, smiled sweetly and said, „Alfred, you’re all right with me.“
--
"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #164: Neuheiten aus dem Archiv, 10.6., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba