Although in the middle of a series of several successful records for Blue Note in 1961, Blakey departed to United Artists that year to make what turned out to be a single, isolated set, originally issued as two LPs. After Mosaic and Buhaina’a Delight, both top-drawer Messengers releases of the day on Blue Note, he went into the Village Gate in August to record tracks that should have formed the content of this album.
Some of the material had, however, already been released on the above-mentioned Blue Notes so many of the tracks were abandoned. Two survived on this album, The Promised Land and Arabia. The rest of the music, apart from three studio versions added as a bonus to this release, was recorded at the Renaissance Club in Hollywood in March 1961.
Three Blind Mice, the title track, is played here as a bouncy piece with a good three-man front line and some tasty, if slightly restrained solos. Blue Moon is also laid-back. It features Hubbard playing it straight, offering a cool reading of the melody and improvising gently on it. Then there’s a calm version of That Old Feeling with pianist Walton setting the mood and soloing at length. Was Blakey easing in his Hollywood audience relatively quietly, ahead of the fireworks to come? It seems likely as the set warms up gradually but effectively.
Children Of The Night, by Wayne Shorter, is fired up by Art on all cylinders. Urgent, provocative press rolls launch Hubbard and Shorter, who respond with crackling solo efforts. It is interesting though that this live version of Children is harder, fiercer and even louder than the studio version included here. Much the same can be said about Mosaic although both versions are fiery and swing like crazy. All the material, live and studio, is top-quality Messengers fare.
Shorter wrote material for this release much in the modal-flavoured style he would employ with Miles Davis later. Hubbard was always a good, brassy trumpet soloist even if he lacked the sheer exuberance, high-note antics and half-valve effects of his predecessor Lee Morgan. Walton, Merritt and Blakey stoke the fires throughout on what appears to have been a successful engagement on the West Coast.
Discography
CD1: (1) Three Blind Mice; Blue Moon; That Old Feeling; Plexis; Up Jumped Spring; When Lights Are Low; Children Of The Night; Up Jumped Spring; It’s Only A Paper Moon; (2) Children Of The Night (76.45)
CD2: (1) Mosaic; Ping Pong; (3) The Promised Land; Arabia; (2) Mosaic; Arabia (67.05)
(1) Freddie Hubbard (t); Wayne Shorter (ts); Curtis Fuller (tb); Cedar Walton (p); Jymie Merritt (b); Blakey (d). Hollywood, 18 March 1962.
(2) Same personnel. New Jersey, 2 October 1961.
(3) Same personnel. Village Gate, NYC, 17 August 1961.
Essential Jazz Classics EJC 55763
