Ugetsu: Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers at Birdland is a live jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 released by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in October 1963

1963 in jazz

1963 in jazz:-Album releases:*Charles Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady*Sun Ra: Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy*Joe Harriott: Movement*Andrew Hill: Black Fire*Bill Evans: Conversations with Myself...

 on Riverside Records

Riverside Records

Riverside Records was a United States record label specializing in jazz. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer under his firm Bill Grauer Productions, Inc. in 1953, the label was a major presence in the jazz record industry for a decade...

.

The album marked Riverside's recording debut at the Birdland

Birdland (jazz club)

Birdland is a jazz club started in New York City on December 15, 1949. The original Birdland, which was located at 1678 Broadway, just north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan, was closed in 1965 due to increased rents, but it re-opened for one night in 1979...

, one of the most famous and celebrated American jazz clubs. The original LP featured only six tracks. According to the liner notes, Orrin Keepnews

Orrin Keepnews

Orrin Keepnews is an American writer and jazz record producer. In June 2010, he received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts.- Career :...

, the producer, stated that "there were other performances taped that night that couldn't be fitted into the resulting album". So, when the album was finally released on CD, Keepnews added three new tracks taped that night. The Jazz Messengers' tour in Japan had ended a few months before this live performance, so the band decided to play two tracks as a homage to Japan: the eponymous "Ugetsu" and "On the Ginza".

Track listing

1. "One By One" (Wayne Shorter) - 6:18
2. "Ugetsu" (Cedar Walton) - 11:03
3. "Time Off" (Curtis Fuller) - 4:56
4. "Ping-Pong" (Shorter) - 8:09
5. "I Didn't Know What Time It Was
   I Didn't Know What Time It Was
   "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" is a popular song. The music was written by Richard Rodgers and the lyrics by Lorenz Hart for the musical Too Many Girls . Early hit versions included Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw...
   
   " (Richard Rodgers
   Richard Rodgers
   Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
   
   /Lorenz Hart
   Lorenz Hart
   Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...
   
   ) - 6:32
6. "On the Ginza" (Shorter) - 7:04
7. "Eva" (Shorter) - 5:58
8. "The High Priest" (Fuller) - 5:27
9. "The Theme" (Miles Davis) - 1:48

Tracks 7, 8, 9 are not part of original album.

Personnel

• Art Blakey
  Art Blakey
  Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
  
   - drums
• Wayne Shorter
  Wayne Shorter
  Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
  
   - tenor sax
• Cedar Walton
  Cedar Walton
  Cedar Anthony Walton, Junior is an American hard bop jazz pianist.-Biography:Walton grew up in Dallas, Texas. His mother was an aspiring concert pianist, and was Walton's initial teacher. She also took him to jazz performances around Dallas...
  
   - piano
• Curtis Fuller
  Curtis Fuller
  Curtis DuBois Fuller is an American jazz trombonist, known as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributor to many classic jazz recordings.-Biography:...
  
   - trombone
• Freddie Hubbard
  Freddie Hubbard
  Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
  
   - trumpet
• Reggie Workman
  Reggie Workman
  Reginald "Reggie" Workman is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey....
  
  - double bass