In the mid-1950s he and Horace Silver formed ‘The Jazz Messengers’: a group that Blakey would perform and record with for the next 35 years.

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He was an original, an important drummer you’d hear…and would recognize immediately.Īrt Blakey was inducted into the Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame (1981), the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame (1991), the Grammy Hall of Fame (19) and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 2005. A loud and domineering drummer…but Blakey also listened and responded to the others in the band. His signature polyrhythmic style was amazing, exuding power and originality, creating a dark cymbal sound punctuated by frequent loud snare and bass drum accents in triplets or cross-rhythms. His collaborations were numerous and include working with equally legendary artists such as Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Chet Baker, John Coltrane….and countless others.Īrt Blakey was a major figure and a pioneer for modern jazz, he assumed an aggressive swing drumming style early on in his career and is known as one of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming. In the decades that followed Blakey recorded for all THE labels that mattered in the field of jazz (Columbia, Blue Note, Atlantic, RCA, Impulse!, Riverside, Prestige, Verve, etc.). He is often considered to have been Thelonious Monk's most empathetic drummer (he played on both Monk’s first recording session in 1947 and his final one in 1971). The American jazz drummer and bandleader made a name for himself in the 1940s and 1950s playing with contemporaries such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Art Blakey (1919–1990) actually needs little introduction.

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