Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - The Witch Doctor

The Witch Doctor is a Jazz Messengers session that sat on the shelf for six years and still sounds anything but leftover.

Recorded in 1961 and released by Blue Note in 1967, it features one of Art Blakey's finest lineups, with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Bobby Timmons on piano and Jymie Merritt on bass. Why it waited so long is anyone's guess, because the playing is as fierce and focused as anything this group put to tape during its celebrated early-sixties run.

Morgan wrote the opening pair. "The Witch Doctor" struts on a bluesy, swaggering theme, and "Afrique" rolls on percussive rhythms that put Blakey's thunder right at the front. Shorter's "Those Who Sit And Wait" shows the moody, harmonically curious writing he was bringing to the band, while Timmons contributes the hard-swinging "A Little Busy", and a Clifford Jordan tune closes things with a confident stride.

Blakey drives every tune with his trademark press rolls and explosive fills, never letting the energy dip for a moment, while Merritt's bass keeps the floor solid underneath.

Hard bop rarely gets more muscular or more melodic than this, and it deserves a place beside Moanin' and Mosaic in any Blue Note collection.