Jazz Icons: Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers Live in '58
Choosing a favorite edition of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers is about as easy as choosing a favorite Frank Lloyd Wright work or Matisse painting, but by any criteria, the group captured on this frequently thrilling concert film ranks with the best of them. That trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist (and music director) Benny Golson, pianist Bobby Timmons and bassist Jymie Merritt were together for only six months under the aegis of master drummer and headmaster Blakey makes the discovery of the footage from this 1958 Belgium performance all the more noteworthy.  Morgan, only 20 at the time, is nothing less than sensational, whether firing up Blakey's perennial favorite "Night in Tunisia," mourning the premature death of trumpeter Clifford Brown on Golson's "I Remember Clifford" or feeding the call and response of Timmons's gospel-tinged hit, "Moanin'." We're not in Ken Burns country here: the black and white images are grainy and the camera work is rudimentary, but the filmmakers' modest, attentive approach serves the music and the moment well. The accompanying booklet boasts a great collection of photos.--Lloyd Sachs