This is a less heard album from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. I have never heard a track from this album played on the radio. But it is my favorite Blakey album. Morgan, Shorter, Timmons, Merritt, Blakey, probably the most innovative and serious Messenger band ever, playing at their peak. It features the best solos of Shorter and Morgan during their Blakey chapters, upbeat and provocative original compositions by band members, as well as the often elusive total surrender power soloing from Blakey that he hints about, but rarely unleashes. A lot of Morgan and Shorter originals. The emphasis here is on exploring the whole tone scale, or dominant sharp 11 scale, as Miles was doing with his moody dorian scales on Kind of Blue at the same time. This is harmonically sharper, angrier, intense, the tension is thick, then releases each chorus into a bluesy bridge or traditional bebop 2-5-1 sequence. Many of the tunes are built like that, so the album has a distinct vibe. The intensity is extreme, the musicians are clearly riding a spiritual vibe rarely heard on recorded bop, and similar to the vibration captured on other great blakey records like Moanin, Free for All, Birdland.
I was listening to this record a lot when Wynton joined Blakey. Blakey introduced me to Marsalis in 83 at a club gig in MA. I thought all Messenger trumpeters should be at least as good as their predecessors, which made the job rather tough, but I wanted it, so I set high standards for myself, and practiced hard. I was woefully disappointed when Wynton would stop and buzz his lips looking at Blakey like he didn't know what to do while Blakey set up an atomic blast that Morgan, Brown or Hubbard would have surfed the shock wave in flaming glory. This is Blakey power at its peak, the young lions have no clue.