The Century Room

About this event

($30-$40 + DICE Fees | 6:30pm & 8:30pm Shows | 16+) Grammy Award-winning author, music historian, journalist and educator Ashley Kahn returns to the Century Room to lead us through the life and legacy of Jazz Messengers bandleader and drummer Art Blakey! Ashley will introduce and give context to the songs performed by drummer Arthur Vint and his quintet. Art Blakey is one of Art Vint’s biggest influences on the instrument and he is excited to celebrate what would have been Blakey’s 107th birthday (October 11, 1919). Jason Carder (trumpet) Simeon Roth (sax) Angelo Versace (piano) Scott Black (bass) Arthur Vint (drums) THE BIG BEAT OF MODERN JAZZ Art Blakey was a giant of modern jazz — one of the rare drummers who played with every other pioneer and grew to become a bandleader in his own right. He is still celebrated as much for his distinctive musical vocabulary — dramatic press rolls, spicy rim shots, leaning on the hi-hat for the primary pulse — as he is for hiring legions of future jazz stars in his Jazz Messengers group (Wayne Shorter, Wynton Marsalis, and Terence Blanchard are but three headliners who graduated from the University of Art Blakey!) He’s also known as the father of hard bop, the blues-rich style that is the primary flavor of small-group jazz to this day. Who was Blakey and how did he achieve his greatness? What about his breakthrough recordings and this “hard bop” approach that still sounds so modern? The answers to these and other questions will be answered at The Century Room.