BY MICHAEL CHAIKEN | REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
The late Art Blakey was more than just a guy behind a drum kit.
According to drummer Carl Allen, who was mentored by the jazz great, Blakey was a musician first.
Allen will be part of a centennial celebration of Blakey’s music when the annual Litchfield Jazz Festival goes virtual this year on Saturday.
Jazz drummer Art Blakey will be the subject of a centennial tribute as part of the annual Litchfield Jazz Festival, which will be streamed live on Saturday.
“Art Blakey was a musician who just happened to play the drums,” said Allen, explaining why the iconic jazz figure was more than just a guy who kept the beat. “He had an innate ability to hear everything around him when he played, which would explain his way of orchestrating the band.”
Blakey was born in 1919. He began his music career, playing piano, in church as a member of a devout Seventh Day Adventist family. According to ArtBlakey.com, Blakey’s “career on the piano ended at the wrong end of a pistol when the owner of the Democratic Club — the Pittsburgh nightclub where he was gigging — ordered him off the piano and onto the drums.”
Blakey first came under the tutelage of drummer Chick Webb, serving as valet. Blakey formed his first band in 1937. In the late 1940s, Blakey formed his first incarnation of the Jazz Messengers, a 17-piece big band. In 1955, Blakey and Horace Silver co-founded the quintet that subsequently was dubbed the Jazz Messengers. In 1956, Silver left the group and Art Blakey took over. Through the years, the group featured many future jazz luminaries such as Wayne Shorter, Chuck Mangione, Keith Jarrett and Wynton Marsalis.
Blakey died in 1990 at the age of 71.
Typically band leaders are lead instrumentalists, like sax players or trumpeters. Drummers, again, are typically set in the backrow providing the foundation of the music but not the tone.
But this was not the case with Blakey and his Jazz Messengers, explained Allen.
Besides being a musician, said Allen, “Art’s leadership skills went beyond just playing the drums. As a bandleader one of the things that he stressed was communication with your audience.”
Carl Allen will sit behind the drum kit for the Art Blakey centennial tribute as part of the virtual Litchfield Jazz Festival, which will be streamed live from the event’s Facebook page.
Blakey “also made it a point to raise the band members to be leaders themselves when they left the Jazz Messengers to continue the tradition of jazz music,” said Allen.
As a drummer himself, who also earned a recording contract thanks to Blakey’s sponsorship, Allen said Blakey provided inspiration for his own musical ambitions.
“The way that Blakey played… commanded the respect of others, musicians as well as the audience,” said Allen
Blakey would say, explained Allen, “Music washes away the dust of everyday life.”
“This simply meant that as musicians we are charged with making a difference through our music,” explained Allen.
Personally, said Allen, “Listening to (Blakey) inspires me because I know that I too am here to serve the music.”
Blakey nurtured a good deal of jazz talent through the years.
“I think we all want to be a part of something that’s greater than we are and Art exemplified that,” said Allen. “When you were with the Jazz Messengers you were part of a family that connected you with history that could not be erased.”
The Blakey centennial tribute will close out Saturday’s virtual festival, starting at 5 p.m.
Besides Allen, the band will be trumpeter Valery Ponomarev, who played in the Jazz Messengers; saxophonist Dan Braden; trombonist Robin Eubanks, who collaborated with Blakey; bassist Lonnie Plaxico, who played on 12 Blakey’s albums; and pianist Zaccai Curtis.
Allen said Blakey is most worthy of a centennial tribute.
“Art Blakey was jazz,” said Allen. “His spirit was consistent with what this music – jazz- is all about. Love, struggle, pride, creativity, forward thinking, community and so much more.”
“As long as jazz is alive so will be Art’s spirit,” said Allen.
IF YOU STREAM
WHAT: The virtual 25th Litchfield Jazz Festival on Saturday, July 25.
WHERE: Litchfield Jazz Festival’s Facebook page COST: Free
ITINERARY
1 p.m. — “Litchfield’s Own Legends,” featuring vocalists Nicole Zuraitis and Anson Jones, Jen Allen on piano, Luques Curtis on bass and Dan Pugach on drums
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2:45 p.m. — “The Charlie Parker Centennial Tribute,” featuring Kris Allen on alto sax, Bruce Harris on trumpet, Jen Allen on piano, Zwe Bell le Pere on bass, Jonathan Barber on drums
5 p.m. — “Art Blakey Centennial Tribute,” featuring Valery Ponomarev on trumpet, Don Braden on saxophone, Carl Allen on drums, Robin Eubanks on trombone, Lonnie Plaxico on bass and Zaccai Curtis on piano.
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