Valery Ponomarev was 30 when he defected from Soviet Russia for the United States in 1973. Four years later the trumpeter was a core member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, touring and contributing to several recordings before bowing out to go the solo route, his place taken by a young Wynton Marsalis. Although he never became a major jazz name, Ponomarev has maintained a solid career, releasing albums as a leader and penning a memoir, but he still recalls those first dream-come-true days with Blakey with great fondness.
This new release, his first live album, serves as something of a sequel to 2001’s The Messenger, but it’s nothing like it. Where the earlier set was a quintet record in Blakey’s own small-group hard-bop tradition, for this new one Ponomarev reconstructs several signature Blakey performances for big band. In doing so, his ingenuity allows him to succeed where so many tributes fail.
Valery Ponomarev Jazz Big Band: Our Father Who Art Blakey
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