A Night at Birdland Vol. 1


A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 is a 1954 release by jazz artist Art Blakey, and a quintet which featured Clifford Brown, Lou Donaldson, Horace Silver and Curly Russell. It was first released by Blue Note Records as a 10" LP and then as a 12" LP containing material from the second 10" album. It was reissued for the first time on CD in 1987 with two additional tracks, previously released on a 2 LP Compilation in 1975 called Live Messengers. The CD was reissued again in 2001 as an "RVG Edition" remastered by Rudy Van Gelder with the tracks in a different order. The 1987 CD used the second 12" LP cover, the 2001 CD revived the original 10" LP cover.
All of the music surfaced as part of a Clifford Brown box set for Mosaic Records and a complete Clifford Brown set put out by Capitol has also appeared.
The recording was produced by Alfred Lion and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder for Blue Note. The reissues were produced by Michael Cuscuna. The spoken announcement by Pee Wee Marquette is sampled in the US3 song "Cantaloop "

Track listing

10" LP

12" LP

CD Reissues

Personnel

Art Blakey Quintet:
Production:
The two albums that were released from the Birdland sessions are considered by The Penguin Guide to Jazz to be part of their "core collection." A reviewer for allaboutjazz.com said simply that "Blakey and company had clicked that night at Birdland." Allmusic mentions that, on this first album, "all of the participants in inspired form. Classic bop."