Billboard : 10/06/1956
Score of 77

Two earlier Blue Note 10-inchers are combined. Half were originally grouped under the Silver Quintet, which, on the next group of sessions become the Messengers. The latter name has more acceptance today, altho the personnel has turned over (Kenny Dorham, Silver and Hank Mobley have left). Silver also is more salable today, and his 12-inch volume should do well in the jazz market place.

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Cash Box : 10/06/1956

One of Blue Note’s best jazz sales attractions is the Jazz Messengers. Here the boys, headed by Horace Silver‘s fine keyboard inventiveness, swing heartily through some fascinating original material. Standout tenor sax work is provided by Hank Mobley. Also Art Blakey pitches in resound drum-work – particularly in the closing moments of Hippy. Class disk by a group that sells well. Solid stock for the jazz shelves.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

Late in 1954 a quartet under the leadership of Horace Silver was playing at Minton’s Playhouse. As a result of earlier successes on the Blue Note label, (hear BLP 1520 for these first trio dates) Horace’s star was in the ascendancy and Alfred Lion was anxious to record more of his brilliant hard driving piano.

It was decided that this date would present Horace as a combo leader for the first time. He responded by getting Kenny Dorham and Art Blakey to join himself and two of the members of his Minton’s quartet, Hank Mobley and Doug Watkins. Thus the Messengers were born, or reborn. Actually the name had been used before by Art Blakey when he led a 17 piece band on occasional gigs, and a septet on Blue Note, both in the late Forties. The present Messengers have laid permanent claim to the name by their length of existence and their musical excellence. In most informed, aware jazz circles they are considered to be the most muscular, spiritually rewarding group to come along in the past two years.

In this LP, which represents the first and the second sessions recorded by the Messengers, Horace has supplied seven of the eight originals.

Proceedings start with a fast unison theme, Room 608 named for Horace’s hotel room (Horace is hewing to the correct jazz line here, for hotel rooms have made jazz tune titles ever since Benny Goodman cut Room 1411 in 1928). The ensemble is followed by two choruses of trumpet that will serve to convince you of Kenny Dorham’s true ability. Seldom has he played with such fluency and assurance, in a style that seems to blend the best elements of both Gillespie and Davis. After two typically well-constructed choruses by Horace there is a series of cute unison breaks and piano fill-ins before Mobley takes over for a swinging solo. A rousing drum chorus precedes the return to the theme.

Creepin’ In sets a wonderful minor mood – slow, slinky and funky. It is better listened to than described. Listen to it.

Stop Time contains only 16 bars of fast unison’ theme and gives everybody a chance to accomplish what seems to me to be their best work on the entire session: Dorham, Mobley, Silver and Blakey all sit in the spotlight successively and successfully.

The open letter, To Whom It May Concern, has scriveners Silver, Mobley and Dorham spreading the word to one and all on the merits of getting to the heart of the matter and what it is all about.

Art Blakey knocks on the door and everyone falls in: Kenny Dorham and his pungent, ‘running style’’ trumpet. Hank Mobley’s sinuous. sinewy tenor, the constantly building ideas of Horace’s piano and Art Blakey’s talking drums. Enough to satisfy any Hippy.

Once when Horace was being interviewed in reference to the group he said, ‘We can reach way back and get that old time gutbucket barroom feeling with just a taste of the backbeat.”’ He was referring, of course, to The Preacher, an earthy swinger somewhat reminiscent of I’ve Been Working On The Railroad in its melody line. In keeping with the title, everyone ‘‘preaches’’ in their solos. First Kenny exhorts and then Hank follows with a bluesy sermon. Rev. Silver gives the benediction and the congregation answers him. Another version of this tune can be heard as played by organist Jimmy Smith on Blue Note 1512.

Hank Mobley shines on his original Hankerin’ with a pace-setting opening solo that Kenny picks up beautifully before handing it over to the “Silver fingered orator” to expound on. Art has a characteristically telling solo before the close.

Doodlin’ is a 12-bar blues in which the tenor creeps below the trumpet at whole-tone intervals in the first 8 bars. Note, too, the humorous use of staccato notes in bars 8 and 9. Note more particularly Horace’s superb comping behind the Dorham and Mobley solos, in which he sometimes gets a 12-to-the-bar feel.

This record proves again that the strength of jazz recording lies with the honest independents who are always the first to recognize and record real talent.

Blue Note’s records have made Blue Note’s record one to be admired. More often than not they have blazed a trail in jazz which is then travelled by other settlers. As the old adage says, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”