Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Mosaic – 180 Gram Vinyl Record

Description

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Mosaic – 180 Gram Vinyl Record

Mosaic captures one of the most formidable editions of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, a sextet with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Cedar Walton on piano, and Jymie Merritt on bass. Recorded in October 1961, the album expands the group’s familiar quintet sound with a third horn. The added voice gives the arrangements weight and color while Blakey’s drums continue to provide the band’s unmistakable forward drive.

Cedar Walton’s title composition occupies much of the first side. Its shifting rhythmic figures and broad ensemble writing allow each horn to emerge from a dense collective sound. Hubbard attacks the changes with bright precision, Fuller provides a rounded middle register, and Shorter brings the darker, more oblique phrasing that was already reshaping the Messengers’ book. Blakey’s press rolls and cymbal accents keep the long performance in constant motion.

The second side begins with Freddie Hubbard’s “Down Under,” a tune whose buoyant melody disguises demanding harmonic movement. Shorter’s “Children of the Night” follows with the mysterious atmosphere and unusual intervals that would become central to his writing. “Arabia,” by Curtis Fuller, uses the three-horn front line for dramatic contrasts, while Hubbard’s “Crisis” closes the album with an urgent theme and a hard, decisive swing.

Mosaic is more than a collection of solo features. The Messengers were a working band, and the arrangements depend on the way these musicians phrase together. Walton’s piano comping leaves room for the horns, Merritt’s bass steadies Blakey’s surges, and each composer writes to the individual strengths of the ensemble. The result is polished without sounding restrained, combining rehearsal-room precision with the pressure of a live performance.

This Blue Note vinyl edition presents the complete original five-track album. UPC 602455242532 identifies the 180-gram reissue, separating it from compact-disc editions and later digital programs. The single-LP sequence preserves the deliberate scale of the title track and the contrasting compositions contributed by Walton, Hubbard, Shorter, and Fuller.

Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic

Record Details

Artist: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
Title: Mosaic
Format: 180 Gram Vinyl Record
Label: Blue Note Records
Release year: 1961
UPC: 602455242532

Track Listing

A1. Mosaic
A2. Down Under
B1. Children of the Night
B2. Arabia
B3. Crisis