'Just Coolin' Studio Album By Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers Gets First-Time Release

On July 17th, you'll be able to pick up an historic release in Just Coolin’, a never-before-released studio album by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers.

Just Coolin' was recorded on March 8, 1959 in Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack, New Jersey studio, and the session featured a short-lived line-up of The Jazz Messengers with drummer Art Blakey, trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, pianist Bobby Timmons, and bassist Jymie Merritt.

The album is being released by Blue Note on CD, digital download, and an all-analog 180g vinyl pressing that was mastered by Kevin Gray.

"Hippsippy Blues" has been released as a preview:

Five weeks after this studio session, Blue Note founder and producer Alfred Lion decided to record the band again at Birdland in New York City on April 15, 1959, capturing a live recording that included four of the six titles that had been recorded in the studio in March. The Birdland sessions ended up beating the studio recording to release when Lion instead released the two-volume live album Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers At The Jazz Corner Of The World later that year.

61 years later jazz fans have the chance to listen to those studio tracks for themselves.

The track listing includes:

SIDE 1

1. Hipsippy Blues (Hank Mobley)
2. Close Your Eyes (Bernice Petkere)
3. Jimerick (unknown)

SIDE 2

1. Quick Trick (Bobby Timmons)
2. M&M (Hank Mobley)
3. Just Coolin’ (Hank Mobley)