Thursday, September 27, 2012

Groove o' the day: Art Blakey with Hank Mobley

This is from the 1955 album Hank Mobley Quartet (it doesn't appear to have been reissued recently, so you'll have to just buy the mp3). The tune is Avila and Tequila, and Art Blakey plays what I'll call a Blue Note cascara on the intro:




The right hand part in the last two measures is similar to a bell pattern I've seen associated with a Mozambique feel. In the 50's fashion, they play the Latin feel on the intro and A sections only, and swing the rest of the tune, including the solos. Notice that Blakey seems to have a hard time not swinging the rhythm.

Audio after the break:


This band has a huge sound. Note that around 1:20 the drums and piano do a thing which gets severely abused today, but would have been very modern at the time— they land big accents together every three beats for several measures:





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