Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Just Coolin'

Never-before-released 1959 studio date with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers!

Includes two previously unissued compositions

All-analog 180-gram LP mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio

No drummer more palpably imprinted their sonic identity and aesthetic principles on the soundtrack and culture of late 20th- and early 21st-century jazz than Art Blakey.

In early 2020, Blue Note plans to release Just Coolin', a previously unissued studio date from March 8, 1959, with the same personnel: Lee Morgan on trumpet, DownBeat Hall of Fame inductee Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, Bobby Timmons on piano and Jymie Merritt on bass — who made the classic live album At The Jazz Corner Of The World five weeks later.

The session for Just Coolin' was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack, N.J. studio on March 8, 1959. The six-song set includes two previously unissued compositions: "Quick Trick" and "Jimerick." Blue Note presents the essential collection on all-analog 180g vinyl LP mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. 

For 35 years, Blakey's vehicle was the Jazz Messengers; their message remains as vibrant as ever in the year of the leader's centennial. Tribute bands led by acolytes Ralph Peterson, Carl Allen and Lewis Nash continue to channel Blakey's mojo on Messenger repertoire by notable alumni such as Benny Golson, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller and Bobby Watson.

Blakey's five-star drumming was the core of his immense footprint. "Art could reach inside your emotions," Golson said on WKCR in 1996. "There was no wasted effort when he played. It was meaningful, logical and sounded fantastic — the epitome of swinging. His style was such that you didn't want to hear or play with any other style."

Side A:

1. Hipsippy Blues

2. Close Your Eyes

3. Jimerick

Side B:

1. Quick Trick

2. M&M

3. Just Coolin'

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