At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1


At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1 is a live album by the Jazz Messengers for Blue Note Records. It featured the original incarnation of the Jazz Messengers, Art Blakey's career-spanning band, and is the first of two volumes recorded on November 23, 1955 at Café Bohemia, a famous night club in Greenwich Village in New York.
With the July 31, 2001 CD re-issue, three additional tracks from this night were added: "Lady Bird", "Deciphering the Message", and "What's New?".

Reception

This album, which sees the first version of The Jazz Messengers on record, was noted as not "match the intensity which the quintet secured at Birdland." Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, in particular, is noted as "a somewhat unfocused stylist." However, trumpeter Kenny Dorham is seen as an "elusive brilliance was seldom so extensively captured" and the playing in general "is just as absorbing" as the Birdland albums and is "still timeless music."

Track listing

  1. Announcement by Art Blakey 1:32
  2. "Soft Winds" 12:34
  3. "The Theme" 6:11
  4. "Minor's Holiday" 9:11
  5. "Alone Together" 4:15
  6. "Prince Albert" 8:51
  7. "Lady Bird" 7:30
  8. "What's New?" 4:31
  9. "Deciphering the Message" 10:13

    Personnel

Production