Jazz Messages

Jazz Messages is a 1957 LP re-issue and compilation of tracks by (i) the Clifford Brown Ensemble and (ii) The Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey. It was released on Jazztone Records (catalog #J-1281).

Comments
"Ritual" – For the purpose of improving his art, Blakey, in 1947, worked his way over to Nigeria on a ship, and, while there, visited, Ghana. He stayed for a little over a year. Later, in the New York Jazz scene, Blakey became influential in raising awareness of African-based percussion. Among other things, he composed "Ritual" out of inspiration from his experiences in Africa. Jazz critic Norman Weinstein opined that "Ritual" was one of several projects where Blakey showed an interest in African diasporic musical connections, expressed in "quasi-Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean terms."

"Daahoud," sometimes spelled "Dawud," means "David" in Arabic. Brown named the composition after Talib Dawud, a trumpet-playing acquaintance – with Dizzy and Lee Morgan – in Philadelphia from the early 1950s.

Brown, on June 26, 1954, married LaRue Anderson (maiden; 1933–2005). He called her "Joy Spring," and, in her honor, composed a piece in her name in 1954. They had been introduced by Max Roach.

Track listing

 *  Jazztone re-issue 

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 * Matrix – Side 1 (printed on label): HO-8P-0788
 * Matrix – Side 2 (printed on label): HO-8P-0789

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 *  Original releases 


 * Personnel


 * Clifford Brown – trumpet
 * Stu Williamson – valve trombone
 * Zoot Sims – tenor sax
 * Bob Gordon – bari sax
 * Russ Freeman – piano
 * Joe Mondragon – bass (August 12 session)
 * Carson Smith – bass (September 8 session)
 * Shelly Manne – drums

Personnel

 * Jackie McLean – alto sax
 * Bill Hardman – trumpet
 * Sam Dockery – piano
 * Spanky DeBrest – bass
 * Art Blakey – drums

Additional reading

 * Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter, by Nick Catalano, Oxford University Press (2000; paperback 2001), p. 129;