It took almost 50 years, but our modern voluminous jazz reissue era has finally brought to CD the very first jazz album I ever owned.
It was an odd, probably arbitrary, choice for a first jazz purchase. Side one was a one-off project of the Art Blakey Percussion Ensemble: Ray Bryant, Oscar Pettiford and five drummers. Side two was three tracks by an early (1956) edition of Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, with Bill Hardman, Jackie McLean, Sam Dockery and Spanky DeBrest.
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