Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Three Blind Mice, Volume 1 & 2 (1962) {2CD Set Blue Note rel 1990}

Phenomenal live material from the sextet-era version of the Jazz Messengers! This 2-volume CD series takes a small amount of live material that was originally issued under the 3 Blind Mice title, and adds a huge amount of previously unreleased tracks to expand both CDs into a whopping batch of hardbop killers. The group includes Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller, and Cedar Walton – and the live setting shows the band at their finest, able to trade lines and invent solos with amazing dexterity.

Three Blind Mice is a 1962 jazz album released by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers for United Artists Records. It was later reissued in two volumes by Blue Note Records. It features live material recorded in 1961 at The Village Gate, NYC and The Renaissance Club, Hollywood, in 1962. It was bassist Jymie Merritt's final recording with the group before having to leave to recover from an illness; he would be replaced by Reggie Workman. Blue Note has re-issued a two-volume CD set, Three Blind Mice Vols. 1 & 2, with supplementary live tracks from the original dates of recording.

Personnel
Art Blakey, drums
Freddie Hubbard, trumpet
Curtis Fuller, trombone
Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone
Cedar Walton, piano
Jymie Merritt, bass

Track Listing

Volume 1

1. Three Blind Mice (Fuller) 8:20
2. Blue Moon (Hart, Rodgers) 6:01
3. That Old Feeling (Brown, Fain) 6:36
4. Plexis (Walton) 5:51
5. Up Jumped Spring (Hubbard) 9:48
6. Up Jumped Spring [alternate take] (Hubbard) 5:18
7. When Lights Are Low (Carter) 4:11
8. Children of the Night (Shorter) 8:13

Volume 2

1. It's Only a Paper Moon (Arlen, Harburg, Rose) 13:27
2. Mosaic (Walton) 12:30
3. Ping Pong (Shorter) 12:24
4. The Promised Land (Walton) 13:13
5. Arabia (Fuller) 11:25