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@kathimmel@mstdn.social#art #history: jazz juggernaut, arthur blakey (born #otd in 1919 to a single mum who died soon after art arrived), was raised by a family friend. he first gravitated toward the piano, but soon found his true groove with the drums & rose up through the ranks playing alongside bebop monsters charlie parker, dizzy gillespie & thelonious monk.
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#illustration #artBlakey #jazz #music #drummer #drums
whilst on tour in the ‘40s with fletcher henderson, art was so viciously beaten by some georgia cops that he required surgery & had a metal plate inserted in his skull for his trouble. a few years on from this ordeal, off to africa he went. it’s there that he converted to islam & changed his name to abdullah ibn buhaina (or bu, endearingly).
#artBlakey #art #islam #africa #music #jazz
his time in africa undoubtedly inspired the album, ‘the freedom rider’ which he released with his jazz messengers in 1964. on the title track, a drum instrumental, you can hear the rumbling of the coaches that carried its eponymous civil rights subjects. the tight rolls evoke the racial tension. hard snares feel like stones hurled by bigots at those who are fighting for equality. it is a magnificence...a tour de force.
#artBlakey #jazzMessengers #freedomRiders #illustration