Free for All
Occupation
- Trumpet: Freddie Hubbard
- Tenor Saxophone: Wayne Shorter
- Piano: Cedar Walton
- Bass: Reggie Workman
- Drums: Art Blakey
Free for All is a jazz album by Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers, which was taken on February 10, 1964 by Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and published in the same year by Blue Note Records.
The album
Beginning in 1961, resulting album Mosaic Art Blakey worked with a frontline that three winds, which is considered by many critics as the most famous Jazz Messengers edition: Wayne Shorter (tenor sax ), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet ) and Curtis Fuller ( trombone). In addition to Blakey played in the rhythm section of pianist Cedar Walton and bassist Jymie Merritt, who was eventually replaced in October 1962 by Reggie Workman. Immediately afterwards, was still at the Free for All session in February, a live recording in Kyoto; Mid- 1964, these Messengers edition disbanded when Shorter was a member of the Miles Davis Quintet.
Free for All was the first Blue Note album of the Jazz Messengers after two years; In between, some productions for Impulse! (A Jazz Message) and Riverside ( Ugetsu ). The occupation of the Messengers was 1964 of four jazz composers ( Shorter, Hubbard, Fuller and Walton ), but contributed only two musicians pieces on the album with Wayne Shorter, the title track " Free for All " and " Hammerhead" and Freddie Hubbard " The Core ". The last track " Pensativa " comes from Clare Fischer and arranged by Freddie Hubbard.
" Free for All " will begin after a short piano introduction with a unison beginning of a " solemn, majestic theme, in which Blakey already prophesied the fire that will come soon ," said Nat Hentoff in the original liner notes. Shorter increases monotonically with a vigorous game is similar fanfare, thematic fragments, on the Hubbard / Fuller in call and response game way reply. After Fuller and Hubbard match the band leader is a solo before the three wind instruments aboard again. After " Hammerhead" in the medium - pace the Hubbard composition " The Core", the title is followed by a play on words; for one, it is the abbreviation of the estimated Hubbard anti-discrimination organization Congress of Racial Equality, on the other hand is Core (English for core ) " the center of all kinds of change that must occur before this society is really open to anyone " so Hubbard. [ Hentoff 1] The last track " Pensativa " was arranged by Freddie Hubbard, who also plays first lyrical solo, followed by Shorter. [ Blumenthal 1]
Album Review
The critic Bob Blumenthal praised the album for its new edition in the Rudy Van Gelder Edition (2003) particularly because of the benefits Wayne Shorter, whose work supported the issuing of the ensemble passages, both in " Free for All " as well as " Hammerhead". His playing was as it were a watershed to the "old" Wayne Shorter. " Free for All " and Hubbard's " The Core" are also examples of compositions of this time that is not built up only on scales, as did the Modal Jazz. The pieces were " perfect vehicle of transition for a music in the change ", even this change is not as " free " as the music of Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman was. [ Blumenthal 2]
In Al Campbell Allmusic described the album as a high point in the enormous oeuvre Blakey and gave the second highest grade. Free for All will played by a cast that has existed since 1961 and is hard to beat: The title track of the album is one of the greatest moments in the history of the Jazz Messengers. In its eight minutes, " Free for All " reach the edges of the free bop, but without leaving Blakey's rhythmic foundation. Shorter's " Hammerhead" own the groove of soul-blues; Shorter, Hubbard and Fuller had exceptional solos, while Blakey energetic swinge medium tempo. Hubbard's " The Core" came close up to the heat of the title track and contains a similarly fiery interplay. Clare Fischer " Pensativa " went down in the repertoire of the Messengers, and was for years a favorite Blakey. Campbell says: " a passionate work of the Messengers, which has proved to be essential. " [ Campbell 1]
Richard Cook and Brian Morton emphasize in their review of the album, which she excelled with the highest score, the Cedar Walton's contribution to the music of these Messengers output than the somewhat lightweight Bobby Timmons. The recordings with this lineup were the boldest of the Messengers; to the three masterpieces of this phase include the authors first the amusing and intense Free for All, as well as Mosaic ( October 1961 ) and Buhainia 's Delight on November / December 1961. [ Cook 1]
Russ Musto wrote in All About Jazz to the new edition of the album, that it was part of the works of the Jazz Messengers, demonstrated the clear Blakey's ability to instigate his young musicians to be creative and to keep an identifiable group sound that is open to change. So documenting Free for All " the most creative output " of the Messengers just before their last recording. Although the band from Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton and Reggie Workman ( previously ) 've added more albums with great music, Free For All rage alone his " incredibly high energy level" out. In four long pieces prove Blakey " indomitable strength and his untiring vitality ". In particular, the title track is by the incredible intensity of the soloists ' fearsome as they are under the fire of Blakey's relentless battery of stunning rhythms ". Shorter's " Hammerhead" is by contrast a " refreshing trip " because it appears less einschüchtend; it is rather conventional in his melodic lines and swinging through Blakey's medium - pace. Hubbard's " The Core" on the other hand possess " a forcefulness that ecstatic expressions of the four soloists calls forth ", supported by Workman's rugged beats and polyrhythmic Blakey lasting impact. Is Exposed Hubbard's relaxed arrangement of the Bossa Nova " Pensativa ". [ Musto 1]
Brian Priestley mentioned in his review of the album, which he pointed out the extensive catalog Blakey, the former influence of John Coltrane on the music of the Jazz Messengers and Wayne Shorter "growing stature ". [ Priestley 1]
The title
- Blue Note BST 84170 (LP), 7243-5-71067-2-6 (CD Rudy Van Gelder Edition )