Vinyl records

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers vinyl records

48 albums with 1,269 vinyl pressings between them. Open an album to see all its pressings and how to spot the first one.

Archetypal hard-bop group of the late 1950s, most date their origin to 1954 or '55 when the first recordings credited to the band appeared. Playing a driving, aggressive extension of bop with pronounced blues roots, the group continued until Blakey's death in 1990. The name Jazz Messengers had been used by Art Blakey earlier, but when Horace Silver and Blakey began working together in the early 1950's the name had been dormant several years. The Jazz Messengers formed as a collective, nominally led by Silver or Blakey. Blakey credited Silver with reviving the Messengers name for the group. The original lineup of Blakey, Silver, Hank Mobley, & Kenny Dorham, was relatively shortlived.