School Back in Session as Messengers Salute Blakey

When Art Blakey died in 1990, one of the better-known alumni of his Jazz Messengers ensemble, saxophonist Benny Golson, declared, “School is out.” Through four decades, Blakey’s ensemble had provided hands-on training for such important musicians as Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Cedar Walton, Wynton and Branford Marsalis and dozens of others.

Using the Jazz Messengers name, Golson has assembled his own ensemble of Blakey veterans to keep the drummer-bandleader’s memory alive. The six-piece, cross-generational group, which recently released a tribute album on the Telarc label, “The Jazz Messengers: The Legacy of Art Blakey,” stirred the hard-bop fires Saturday at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex on the campus of Cal State L.A., underscoring the importance of Blakey’s Messengers to jazz in this half of the 20th century.

Golson’s ensemble included trombonist Curtis Fuller, a fixture in Blakey’s band of the early ‘60s, pianist George Cables, a Messenger in the late ‘60s, and trumpeter Brian Lynch, who toured with Blakey’s last band. Despite the age differences, the musicians had no trouble finding common ground on what have become timeless pieces composed for Blakey by Golson, Fuller, Shorter, pianist Bobby Timmons and others.

While the band seldom achieved the highly integrated sound of Blakey’s best groups, it spawned a surplus of fine individual efforts. Trumpeter Lynch, encouraged in fine Blakey style by drummer Lewis Nash, served as a flash point, recalling Hubbard’s glory days with long, involved lines and bluesy asides. Golson’s more mellow tone and approach and Fuller’s often blustery manner combined for riveting moments during Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia” and Fuller’s own, Eastern-influenced “Arabia.”

Cables, often under-amplified and difficult to hear, made particularly soulful statements during Timmons’ “Moanin’.” Bassist Peter Washington, like Nash, drove the band with his accompaniment, while adding a crisp, lyrically inclined improvisation on “Along Came Betty.” Golson’s spoken introductions shed light on the Messengers’ legacy and Blakey’s genius as a leader.