Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. and the Grammy Hall of Fame (in 1998 and 2001). He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Early life and education

Blakey was born on October 11, 1919, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, probably to a single mother who died shortly after his birth; her name is often cited as Marie Roddicker, or Roddericker, although Blakey's own 1937 marriage license shows her maiden name to have been Jackson. His biological father was Bertram Thomas Blakey, originally of Ozark, Alabama, whose family migrated northward to Pittsburgh sometime between 1900 and 1910. Blakey's uncle, Rubi Blakey, was a popular Pittsburgh singer, choral leader, and teacher who attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Blakey was raised with his siblings by a family friend who became a surrogate mother. According to Leslie Gourse's biography, the surrogate mother was Annie Parran and her husband Henry Parran Sr. The stories related by family and friends, and by Blakey himself, are contradictory as to how long he spent with the Parran family, but it is clear he spent some time with them growing up. These injuries caused him to be declared unfit for service in World War II. He stated in a 1979 interview, discussing the context of the decision at the time:

Blakey is known to have recorded from 1947 to 1949.

As the 1950s began, Blakey was backing musicians such as Davis, Parker, Gillespie, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk; and he played on both Monk's first recording session as a leader (for Blue Note Records in 1947) and his final one (in London in 1971), as well as many in between.

He continued performing and touring with the group through the end of the 1980s. Ralph Peterson Jr. joined in 1983 as a second drummer due to Blakey's failing health. Ron Wynn noted that Blakey had "played with such force and fury that he eventually lost much of his hearing, and at the end of his life, often played strictly by instinct." He stubbornly refused to wear hearing aids, arguing that it threw his timing off, so most of the time he played by sensing vibrations. Javon Jackson, who played in Blakey's final lineup, claimed that he exaggerated the extent of his hearing loss: "In my opinion, his deafness was a little exaggerated, and it was exaggerated by him. He didn't hear well out of one ear, but he could hear just fine out the other one. He could hear you just fine when you played something badly and he was quick to say 'Hey, you missed that there.' But anything like 'I don't think I'll be available for the next gig', he'd say 'Huh? I can't hear you. Another bandmate, Geoffrey Keezer, claimed that "He was selectively deaf. He'd go deaf when you asked him about money, but if it was real quiet and you talked to him one-on-one, then he could hear you just fine."

Blakey's final performances were in July 1990. In a 1973 drum battle with Ginger Baker, he can be seen repeatedly changing grip during his performance.

As the supporting materials for Ken Burns's series Jazz notes, "Blakey is a major figure in modern jazz and an important stylist in drums. From his earliest recording sessions with Eckstine, and particularly in his historic sessions with Monk in 1957, he exudes power and originality, creating a dark cymbal sound punctuated by frequent loud snare and bass drum accents in triplets or cross-rhythms." This source continues:

Personal life

In addition to his musical interests, Blakey was described by Jerry "Tiger" Pearson as a storyteller, as having a "big appetite for music [...] women [and] food", and an interest in the sport of boxing.

Blakey married four times and had other long-lasting relationships throughout his life. He married his first wife, Clarice Stewart, while still a teen, then Diana Bates (1956), Atsuko Nakamura (1968), and Anne Arnold (1983

Blakey traveled for a year in West Africa, in 1948, to explore the culture and religion of Islam, which he later adopted alongside changing his name; his conversion took place in the late 1940s at a time when other African Americans were being influenced by the Ahmadi missionary Kahili Ahmed Nasir, according to the Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History, and at one time in that period, Blakey led a turbaned, Quran-reading jazz band called the 17 Messengers (perhaps all Muslim, reflecting notions of the Prophet Muhammad's and music's roles as conduits of the divine message).

Other specific recollections have Blakey forswearing serious drink while playing (after being disciplined by drummer Sid Catlett early in his career for drinking while performing), and suggest that the influence of "clean-living cat" Wynton Marsalis led to a period where he was less affected by drugs during performances. and in extended footage of a 1973 appearance with Ginger Baker, Blakey begins a long drummers' "duel" with cigarette alight.

Death

Blakey died at St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center in Manhattan, on October 16, 1990, from lung cancer. He was survived by nine children: Gwendolyn, Evelyn, Jackie, Sakeena, Kadijah, Akira, Takashi, Gamal, and Kenji.

Legacy

The legacy of Blakey and his bands is not only the music they produced, but also the opportunities they provided for several generations of jazz musicians.

The Jazz Messengers nurtured and influenced many of the key figures of the hard bop movement of the late 1950s to early 1960s, and of the neotraditionalist movement of the 1980s and 1990s, both of which had the Jazz Messengers in a stylistically seminal role. In the words of drummer Cindy Blackman shortly after Blakey's death, "When jazz was in danger of dying out [during the 1970s], there was still a scene. Art kept it going."

Awards

  • DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame Reader's Choice Award (1981)
  • Jazz Hall of Fame Induction (1982)
  • Grammy Award Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group, for the album New York Scene (1984)
  • Grammy Hall of Fame Induction for the album Moanin (2001)

Discography

  • Blakey's solo or semi-solo albums are denoted in bold.
  • Album dates are based on the year of recording, not the release year.
  1. New Sounds (1952)
  2. A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 (1954)
  3. A Night at Birdland Vol. 2 (1954)
  4. A Night at Birdland Vol. 3 (1954)
  5. Blakey (1954)
  6. At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1 (1955)
  7. At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 2 (1955)
  8. The Jazz Messengers (1956)
  9. Originally (1956)
  10. Hard Bop (1956)
  11. Ritual (1957)
  12. Drum Suite (1957)
  13. Orgy in Rhythm (1957)
  14. A Midnight Session (1957)
  15. Selections from Lerner and Loewe's... (1957)
  16. Cu-Bop (1957)
  17. With Thelonious Monk (1957)
  18. Hard Drive (1957)
  19. Big Band (1957)
  20. A Night In Tunisia (1958, Vik).
  21. Moanin (1958)
  22. Drums Around the Corner (1958)
  23. Holiday for Skins (1958)
  24. 1958 – Paris Olympia (1958)
  25. Des Femmes Disparaissent (1958)
  26. The St. Germain Club (1958)
  27. At the Jazz Corner of the World (1959)
  28. Just Coolin (1959)
  29. Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1959)
  30. Africaine (1959)
  31. The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1959)
  32. Paris Jam Session (1959)
  33. The Big Beat (1960)
  34. A Night in Tunisia (1961)
  35. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (1961)

References

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