Strasbourg 82 (2LP) [Vinyl]

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers' previously unreleased recording "Strasbourg 82" is now available!

This is a collection of live recordings from a performance by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, a prestigious jazz band led by Art Blakey, a representative drummer of modern jazz, held in Strasbourg, France in April 1982.

This previously unreleased recording, cut from the original master tapes carefully preserved by the Blakey family, was mastered at Gearbox's all-tube, future-of-the-art analogue studio in London and is presented on 180g double gatefold vinyl.

It's the earliest live full-length recording of the Blanchard/Harrison Messengers, a formation that would define the band for years to come and help lead the Young Lions movement beyond mere revivalism into deeper territory.

At 62, Blakey has never mellowed with age; if anything, he's only become more committed to his mission. "You go to school to get your diploma," he once said. "You go with me to get an education." Strasbourg 82 is an education in progress: raw, unfiltered, a record of a university at a moment in time when it was being rebuilt.

Art Blakey; drums

Johnny O'Neal; piano

Donald Harrison; alto saxophone

Terence Blanchard; trumpet

Billy Pierce; tenor saxophone

Charles Fambrough: double bass

Recorded on 1st April 1982 in Strasbourg, France

Mastered by Caspar Sutton-Jones at Gearbox Records, London

Album artwork by Alan Foulkes