Originally released in 1963, Caravan was Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ first album for Riverside Records. Featured in addition to Blakey are Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Curtis Fuller (trombone), Wayne Shorter (sax), Cedar Walton (piano) and Reggie Workman (bass).

This new edition is released as part of the Original Jazz Classics Series and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI with all-analogue mastering from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and presented in a Tip-On Jacket. US Import.

Side A:
1. Caravan
2. Sweet ’N’ Sour
3. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning

Side B:
1. This Is For Albert
2. Skylark
3. Thermo

In truth, this album was one of my very first purchases of a jazz LP, in 1963 or 1964, at a record store near St Lazare station in France. Why this one? First of all, the cover caught my eye. Art Blakey enthroned in front of his drums, lips pursed, focused on his playing. The title too, Caravan in large font and the name Art Blakey in gold letters. A real gem to behold and not just musically, of course.

Apart from the name of the drummer, the other performers were total strangers to me (at the time). By then I was more familiar with the Ventures’ version of Caravan than Duke Ellington’s. And apart from listening to Caravan at the beginning, I was always taken aback by this music, but from listening to the album over time, I have come to wholly appreciate everything about how Blakey constructs his musical acts of sheer wonderment.

It was much later that I realized that I owned one of the best Jazz Messengers albums, the group formed between 1961 and 1964 (approximately from the albums Mosaic to Free for All) which included three blowers destined for a very great career: Curtis Fuller (trombone), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet) and especially Wayne Shorter (tenor sax). Cedar Walton on piano and Reggie Workman on double bass completed the group.

This album, in particular, was recorded in October 1962. Three standards, Caravan and the balladry of both Skylark and and In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning were the go-to ones for the radio back then, whereas the two Shorter compositions Sweet ’N’ Sour and This Is For Albert (dedicated to Bud Powell) are pure dynamite, with one of Hubbard’s Thermo also becoming part of this musical history.

A boiling hot record that starts with a hell of a version of the Duke Ellington/Juan Tizol jazz standard Caravan, along with sparkling soloists galore and moments of genuine heartfelt and impassioned joy, now listening to this 180 Gram vinyl (from Craft Recordings) again proves to me just how this most divine record hasn’t aged a bit (just like me!)

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