At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1

Infobox Album |
Name = At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1
Type = Live album
Artist = Art Blakey


Released = 1955
Recorded = November 23, 1955
Genre = Hard bop
Length = 61:44
Label = Blue Note Records (1955)
Producer = Michael Cuscuna
Alfred Lion
Reviews = *Allmusic rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ac6atr6lkl3x link]
*Penguin Guide to Jazz rating|3.5|4
Last album ="Jazz Messages (album)"
(1954)
This album = "At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1"
(1955)
Next album ="At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 2"
(1955)

"At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1" is a 1955 live album release by jazz drummer Art Blakey for Blue Note Records. It featured the first incarnation of the Jazz Messengers, Blakey's career-spanning band, and is the first of two volumes recorded on November 23, 1955 at Cafe Bohemia, a famous night club in Greenwich Village in New York.

With the July 31, 2001 CD re-issue, three additional tracks from this night were added: "Lady Bird,"Deciphering the Message," and "What's New?"

Track listing

Personnel

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers:
*Art Blakey — drums
*Horace Silver — piano
*Kenny Dorham — trumpet
*Hank Mobley — saxophone (tenor)
*Doug Watkins — bass

Production:
*Bob Bluementhal, Leonard Feather — liner notes
*Michael Cuscuna — reissue producer
*John Hermansader — cover design
*Alfred Lion — producer
*Rudy Van Gelder — digital remastering
*Francis Wolff — photography

Reception

This album, which sees the first version of The Jazz Messengers on record, was noted as not "match [ing] the intensity which the quintet secured at Birdland."cite book|last = Cook| first = Richard| authorlink = Richard Cook| coauthors = & Brian Morton| title = The Penguin Guide to Jazz (7th Edition)|publisher = Penguin Books| year = 2004|pages =153| id = ISBN 0-14-101416-4 ] Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, in particular, is noted as "a somewhat unfocused stylist." However, trumpeter Kenny Dorham is seen as an "elusive brillance [that] was seldom so extensively captured" and the playing in general "is just as absorbing" as the Birdland albums and is "still timeless music." [cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ac6atr6lkl3x|title= At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1|author= Scott Yanow|accessdate=2006-11-26]

References