Today is jazz drummer Art Blakey’s birthday, and to celebrate Gearbox Records is releasing Strasbourg 82, a recording of live concert Art Blakey did with his Jazz Messenger’s on April 1, 1982 in Strasbourg, France.

Blakey was born on October 11, 1919 and passed away October 16, 1990. So it is pretty amazing there is music still out there to be released 35 years after his death.

By the time Blakey had formed the Jazz Messengers in 1954, he had already had a distinguished career as a sideman, playing alongside the giants like Miles Davis, Coleman Hawkins, Thelonious Monk and Dexter Gordon. He is considered one of the three greatest drummers in the bebop era, Dizzy Gillespie once saying, “Kenny Clarke was the Godfather, Max (Roach) was the painter and Art (Blakey) was the volcano.”

There is no better description as Blakey led the charge towards a more hard bop sound when he formed his band with the intention of having his music contain catchy intros, tight arrangements and hard-driving solos with plenty of volcanic drum solos.

The Jazz Messengers began with an all-star group with Horace Silver on piano, Curly Russell on bass, Clifford Brown on trumpet and Lou Donaldson on tenor sax. On their live album Night at the Birdland (1954), Blakey made this prescient statement: “Yessir, I’m going to stay with the youngsters – it keeps the mind active.”

I wonder if Blakey knew at that moment how correct the statement would be with over 76 albums recorded with a who’s who of (over 200) musicians coming through the ranks, a very partial list being: Chick Corea, Kenny Dorham, Curtis Fuller, Hank Mobley, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, Benny Green and Wayne Shorter.

Any young musician who wanted to make a name in the world of jazz needed to spend time in Blakey’s band. Wynton Marsalis even stepped away from Julliard to tour with Blakey, the experience turning him from a career in classical music to full-time jazz.

“You go to school to get your diploma,” Blakey once said. “You come with me to get your education.”

By 1982 in Strasbourg, the youngsters were still paying their dues with Terence Blanchard on trumpet, Donald Harrison on alto sax, Billy Pierce on tenor sax, Johnny O’Neal on piano and Messenger veteran Charles Fambrough on bass. Listening to the album, the band is still tight and Blakey hard-charging. The songs on the album have the Jazz Messenger hits like “Along Came Betty” and “Moanin’” with a couple of standards like “I Can’t Get Started” and “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was.” And since Blakey was not a composer, he gave his disciples a wide berth to create their own music like the first song on the set, Fambrough’s “Little Man.”

Although this album has a release date that would have some ardent fans wondering if it should never have been released, I was surprised by the high fidelity of the recording, the expressive solos of the younger members and Blakey’s guiding hand still in control. Jazz music should be heard live and what a find to release a live recording of a jazz great.

Happy Birthday Art Blakey!