{"id":41299,"date":"2009-01-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/roots-herbs\/"},"modified":"2009-01-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-08T00:00:00","slug":"roots-herbs","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/roots-herbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Roots & Herbs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The painting on the front cover of Roots & Herbs <\/i>features Art Blakey, sticks clenched comfortably in his hands, sitting behind a drum set while the metallic drum pieces illuminate his face.\u00a0 The album name, in bright yellow, rests above his head.\u00a0 Upon first viewing, I got a sense that what followed would be an exploration of those parts of American music that are originally African.\u00a0 Like a musical version of Alex Haley\u2019s Roots, <\/i>the album cover implies that the recording is a history lesson on the influence of African rhythms and harmonies in the American musical psyche.\u00a0 As an exploration of how the roots of African music and the blues became the herbs of jazz, Roots & Herbs<\/i> succeeds magnificently.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Blakey, one of the originators of modern bebop drumming, chose to feature younger musicians in this 1961 recording, as he often did after his move from sideman with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and others to band leader in the early 1950\u2019s.\u00a0 This time around, Blakey chose trumpeter Lee Morgan, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, bassist Jymie Merritt and pianists Walter Davis, Jr. and Bobby Timmons to be his Jazz Messengers.\u00a0 Featuring only Wayne Shorter compositions, the album presents a wide range of what bebop has to offer, from the swinging \u201cLook At The Birdie\u201d to the bluesy title track and the Caribbean influenced waltz \u201cUnited.\u201d\u00a0 With sing-able melodies, charismatic solos and exciting chord progressions, each individual composition has the ability to instantly capture the listener and enthrall them with musical bliss.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Take the aforementioned \u201cUnited.\u201d\u00a0 The melody is reminiscent of indigenous Caribbean music and African-American spirituals.\u00a0 The rhythmic qualities created by Blakey slowly transform from an organic, upbeat groove to a traditional bebop waltz.\u00a0 The solos are dynamic and well-constructed, especially Shorter\u2019s, and the solo section brilliantly concludes with a drum solo in which Blakey moves in and out of complex rhythms and subdivisions while, in legendary Blakey fashion, maintaining a waltz backbeat with his hi-hat.\u00a0 (To their credit, the Messengers are able to keep a consistent rhythm on auxiliary percussion amidst Blakey\u2019s complexity).\u00a0 Blakey then methodically eases his way back into the original Caribbean rhythm as the song makes a seamless transition into the melody.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Despite how wonderful the individual compositions and their executions are, the album as a whole is not without its flaws.\u00a0 The overall flow of the album is somewhat trite and monotonous, probably more so for jazz newcomers than for seasoned listeners.\u00a0 Recorded in 1961 but not released until 1970, one wonders whether these recordings were picked by Art Blakey or by producer Alfred Lion, co-founder of Blue Note Records.\u00a0 The album suffers terribly from the lack of a ballad.\u00a0 Although each composition has very unique melodies and rhythms, they are all relatively high-energy songs with flowing rhythmic variations.\u00a0 Including a ballad would give the listeners a chance to rest their ears, therefore illuminating the unique nature of all the compositions.\u00a0 Instead, the album\u2019s repetitiveness tends to override the subtle differences of each song, making this an album that should be listened to in stages rather than continuously.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Secondly, there are major problems with the disc\u2019s production.\u00a0 Originally produced by Alfred Lion and produced for release by Michael Cuscuna, Shorter\u2019s alto saxophone is perfectly balanced when he and Morgan are playing simultaneously, but loses its zeal during solos. Shorter\u2019s sound is kept far to the right, making his recorded tone thin and distant (all those Weather Report fans out there know that Shorter\u2019s tone is anything but thin and distant).\u00a0 In contrast, Morgan\u2019s trumpet, kept more towards the center, sounds strong.\u00a0 The producers should have mixed the instruments differently for each situation, especially when there was remixing for final release in 1970, when it was more plausible to do so.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Regardless of these flaws, Roots & Herbs<\/i> is worth purchasing and listening to.\u00a0 The highlights of the album are the piano solos in the title track and \u201cThe Back Sliders,\u201d performed by Davis and Timmons, respectively.\u00a0 Both solos are ardently bluesy, sounding almost Ray Charles inspired and providing a needed break from the swing and bebop lines employed by the two lead players.\u00a0 While I would not recommend listening to the album in one sitting, the songs are exciting to listen to in spurts.\u00a0 And although they bring nothing new to the album\u2019s repertoire, even the alternate tracks included on the 1999 re-release are fine ways to experience Blakey\u2019s musical concoction of roots and herbs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":29698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6140],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-41299","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-art-blakey-and-the-jazz-messengers","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41299"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}