Art Blakey: Anthenagin

I have always really liked the little-noticed Messengers records on Fantasy/Prestige from the early '70s: Anthenagin, Buhaina, and Childs Dance, now re-released on CD in a Vol. 1Vol. 2 setup by OJC/Concord. Theres a sense of the cultural moment here with Cedar Waltons Rhodes, the one-chord vamps on a number of tunes, and Tony Waterss conga pumping it out in tandem with the redoubtable Buhaina. The highlight for me has been a number of great Woody Shaw solos throughout these dates, as well as the beginnings of the frontline partnership of Woody and tenor saxophonist Carter Jefferson, which bore fruit later in the '70s in Woodys own group. Anthenagin has a great soloone of Woodys case studies in how to sustain interest on a limited harmonic base and reach multiple peaks in a solo statement. I feel Woody is getting into a new gear here in the development of his vocabulary; theres a greater variety of melodic gestures (which you can really keep track of due to the harmonic stasis of the tune itself), and he can keep the line going longer.