Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers - Ugetsu: Live At Birdland ★★★★

By the middle of 1961, The Jazz Messengers’ front line had expanded from two to three sharpshooters with Freddie Hubbard and Curtis Fuller joining Wayne Shorter thus giving it an even deeper texture. Similarly, in the engine room, Cedar Walton was soon to replace Bobby Timmons at the piano. For some, this is regarded as the last great line-up. Anyway, this new edition of The Messengers recorded not only for Blue Note but also made brief stopovers at Impulse, United Artists, Colpix as well as logging three albums for Riverside. This, their second for Riverside was the umpteenth time that they were captured at full throttle on Birdland’s famed bandstand and includes Wayne Shorter’s ‘Ping Pong’ which, much later became a popular floor filler on the London Acid Jazz scene. Here, the original six-track (vinyl) release is bolstered by a further four titles from the very same 16 June, 1963 performance to make it even more desirable than before. For further confirmation check out their treatment of George Shearing’s ‘Conception.’

– Roy Carr