MAO Legendás Albumok | Art Blakey Quintet: A Night at Birdland

The significance of the Blue Note record label can hardly be overstated. After 1945, the albums bearing the famous blue note label captured the pioneers of bebop and, later, the defining small-ensemble recordings of the hard bop era—these have become timeless highlights of jazz. Drawing on recordings from that first great era, the soloists of the Modern Art Orchestra evoke the moments captured on those blue-and-white-labeled records.

A fresh, elemental energy bursts from this record, whose introduction alone is legendary: “We have something special down here in Birdland this evening,” says Pee Wee Marquette into the microphone. And there was, something truly special. This introduction was mixed onto “Cantaloop” by US3. Blakey is at least as fantastic a bandleader as he is a drummer, though he was also a trailblazer behind the kit with his storm-like solos built on massive crescendos. Pianist Horace Silver is still a member of the Blakey Quintet here, but later they would go on to found the Jazz Messengers together. It was largely Blakey and his band who gave birth to the Blue Note sound, which became the standard for jazz worldwide for decades and remains just as fresh today as it was in 1953.