Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Caravan

Riverside 30187

Art Blakey cultivated many excellent ensembles under the Jazz Messengers mantle, but it’s the sextet with the front line of Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller and ace-in-the-deck Wayne Shorter that gets my vote as nonpareil. The group was only together fleetingly and is probably best known for its short succession of Blue Note albums that burned like a comet trail through the label’s discography. A trio of contemporaneous sessions for Riverside didn’t generate the same degree of fervor, but in Caravan’s case, the lesser profile status isn’t deserved. The rhythmic energy at the core of the Ellington-owned title cut seems custom-built for Blakey. Shorter retools the tune into an interlocking suite that echoes the “Night in Tunisia” from the band’s eponymous Blue Note album in terms of uncorked energy and excitement. Blakey’s surging press rolls suggest a stable’s worth of camels galloping across desert dunes at thoroughbred speeds. “Sweet ‘n’ Sour” seesaws between the contrasting flavors in its title, starting with a sharp cutting Shorter solo before leavening the intensity through a tightly harmonized ensemble exit. Fuller and Hubbard take the honors on the gentle reading of “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” with Blakey scaling back to a position of relative calm and wiping the perspiration from his brow. Shorter leads the charge again on his own “This is for Albert” gliding the changes as Blakey generates more cymbal froth. Hubbard answers his colleague’s opening challenge and piece winds down with more arranger’s ingenuity from Shorter. “Skylark” features more dexterous Hubbard in reflective mood and the original album closer “Thermo” affords insight into his own compositional acumen at corkscrew hardbop. As mentioned, the Messengers were home to numerous estimable combinations, but in my estimation they don’t come much more satisfying than this.

~ Derek Taylor