The Jazz Messengers represents possibly the most significant dynasty in the whole of jazz. Beginning in the early 50s as a collective of boundary-pushing musicians, they were a force to be reckoned with all the way up to 1990, when founding drummer and long-time leader, Art Blakey, passed away. A prolific musician outside the Messengers, Blakey made a name for himself in the bebop era, working with luminaries such as Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker. Yet, it was the fountain of youth that drew his interest, and the Messengers acted as a wellspring that kept on producing. Blakey said of the collective: "Yes sir, I'm gonna to stay with the youngsters. When these get too old, I'm gonna get some younger ones. Keeps the mind active."
Throughout the years, the Jazz Messengers nurtured the ability of artists like Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Terence Blanchard and the musician-educators, brothers Wynton and Branford Marsalis. For this 1963 concert at the legendary Olympia venue in Paris, The Messengers featured Wayne Shorter as musical director, just a year before he left to join Miles Davis so-called Second Great Quintet. Cedar Walton is on the keys, a musician who would go on to pen several enduring standards and a young Freddie Hubbard gives a taste of his fire and blistering speed. Led by the inimitable Blakey, a drummer whose style influenced not just American jazz but also African musicians, notably the Afrobeat founder Tony Allen, this was one of the Messengers' best ever formations.
