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Hard Bop: Ten Essential Live Albums

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Courtesy Barbara DuMetz

By Chris May
December 2, 2021
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Lee Morgan was the only young cat that scared me when he played. He had so much fire and natural feeling. I had more technique, but he had that feeling.
—Freddie Hubbard

"Fire! That's what people want. Music is supposed to wash away the dust of everyday life. You're supposed to make them turn around, pat their feet. That's what jazz is about. Play with fire. Play from the heart, not from your brain. You got to know how to make the two meet."

So said drummer and hard bop pioneer

Art Blakey

drums
1919 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Art Blakey in an interview with David Rosenthal in the 1980s. To which his partner in funk, the blues-and-gospel referencing pianist

Horace Silver

piano
1928 - 2014

" data-original-title="" title="">Horace Silver, added that "meaningful simplicity" should be a cornerstone of the music.

Hard bop ruled the inner-city jazz world from the mid 1950s through the early 1960s but it was never one-size-fits-all. Alongside Blakey and Silver's strand were more astringent stylists such as pianist

Elmo Hope

piano
1923 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">Elmo Hope and saxophonists

Tina Brooks

saxophone, tenor
1932 - 1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Tina Brooks and

Jackie McLean

saxophone, alto
1932 - 2006

" data-original-title="" title="">Jackie McLean. And menacing prowlers such as trumpeters

Lee Morgan

trumpet
1938 - 1972

" data-original-title="" title="">Lee Morgan and

Freddie Hubbard

trumpet
1938 - 2008

" data-original-title="" title="">Freddie Hubbard. And lyricists such as trumpeter

Art Farmer

flugelhorn
1928 - 1999

" data-original-title="" title="">Art Farmer and saxophonists

Benny Golson

saxophone, tenor
1929 - 2024

" data-original-title="" title="">Benny Golson and

Gigi Gryce

saxophone
1927 - 1983

" data-original-title="" title="">Gigi Gryce. And experimentalists such as saxophonists

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane and

Sonny Rollins

saxophone
b.1930

" data-original-title="" title="">Sonny Rollins and pianists

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk and

Andrew Hill

piano
1931 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Andrew Hill. Then there was the soul jazz of organists such as

Jimmy Smith

organ, Hammond B3
1925 - 2005

" data-original-title="" title="">Jimmy Smith and

Jack McDuff

organ, Hammond B3
1926 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">Jack McDuff, related to hard bop but distinct from it. And all manner of cross fertilization between the sub-genres.

It is a feast alright and here are ten of the greatest live albums from hard bop's purple period. Six of them recorded in New York City (at Birdland, Caf�� Bohemia, Five Spot, Village Vanguard, Carnegie Hall and Village Gate), and four of them on the Coast (at San Francisco's Jazz Workshop and Blackhawk and Hermosa Beach's Lighthouse).

Hopefully you will find an item or two you are not familiar with, or whose glories you have perhaps forgotten. Enjoy.

HARD BOP: TEN ESSENTIAL LIVE ALBUMS

There are of course more than ten essential live hard-bop albums. That is why this article is titled Ten Essential Live Albums not The Ten Essential Live Albums.

Art Blakey Quintet
A Night At Birdland
Blue Note, 1954

Recorded in early 1954, on the cusp of bop morphing into hard bop, A Night At Birdland presents four key players in that transition—trumpeter

Clifford Brown

trumpet
b.1930

" data-original-title="" title="">Clifford Brown, alto saxophonist

Lou Donaldson

saxophone
1926 - 2024

" data-original-title="" title="">Lou Donaldson, pianist Horace Silver and drummer Art Blakey; the group's bassist,

Curley Russell

bass, acoustic
1917 - 1986

" data-original-title="" title="">Curley Russell, continued to be more closely aligned with bop. Some key characteristics of hard bop's foundational aesthetic are already in place. These include Silver's extensive use of blues-and-gospel-based motifs; Brown's embrace of half-valve effects and smears, soon to be developed further by Lee Morgan; and Blakey's stripped-down, visceral take on the complexities of bop drumming as exemplified by

Max Roach

drums
1925 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Max Roach. Originally released on three 10" LPs, the Birdland recordings are available on two separate CDs, A Night At Birdland Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, both of which include additional material from the gig. By the time Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers' At The Caf�� Bohemia (Blue Note) was recorded in late 1955, with trumpeter

Kenny Dorham

trumpet
1924 - 1972

" data-original-title="" title="">Kenny Dorham and tenor saxophonist

Hank Mobley

saxophone, tenor
1930 - 1986

" data-original-title="" title="">Hank Mobley replacing Brown and Donaldson, Blakey's hard bop was pretty much codified, though by no means set in stone.

Kenny Dorham
'Round About Midnight At The Caf�� Bohemia
Blue Note, 1956

In his passionately polemical, and mostly on the money Black Nationalism And The Revolution In Music (Pathfinder Press, 1970), Frank Kofsky tried to cancel Kenny Dorham. He described the trumpeter as "a nice, safe, domesticated neobopper" (Dorham had raised Kofsky's ire by telling another critic that he disliked

Albert Ayler

saxophone, tenor
1936 - 1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Albert Ayler's music). Like all the best put-downs, Kofsky's contained a smidgen of truth, albeit one that was heavily spun. Dorham is more fairly described as a disciplined and technically adroit musician who could play with either the exuberance of

Dizzy Gillespie

trumpet
1917 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Dizzy Gillespie or the introspection of

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis but who generally inhabited an emotionally tempered middle-ground between those poles. 'Round About Midnight At The Caf�� Bohemia is a minor masterpiece. It is hard bop to soothe the savage beast: Thelonious Monk's title track and Vernon Duke's "Autumn In New York" are sublime examples of balladeering and even Gillespie's "A Night In Tunisia," though energized, avoids urgency. Dorham's band comprises the idiosyncratic tenor saxophonist

J.R. Monterose

saxophone, tenor
1927 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">J.R. Monterose and the lyrical funksters pianist

Bobby Timmons

piano
1935 - 1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Bobby Timmons and guitarist

Kenny Burrell

guitar, electric
b.1931

" data-original-title="" title="">Kenny Burrell. Another Dorham live album of note is Inta Somethin' (Pacific Jazz, 1962), in particular for the berserker soloing of alto saxophonist Jackie McLean.

Thelonious Monk Quartet
With John Coltrane At Carnegie Hall
Blue Note, 1957/2005

This is that rare thing: a "lost album" that lives up to all the hype a record company might throw at it. Recorded by Voice of America in November 1957, but not released until 2005, At Carnegie Hall captures Thelonious Monk's quartet with tenor saxophonist John Coltrane after the group had been bonding at New York's Five Spot three times a week for four months. Bassist

Ahmed Abdul-Malik

bass
1927 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Ahmed Abdul-Malik (who had replaced

Wilbur Ware

bass, acoustic
1923 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Wilbur Ware a month or so into the residency) and drummer

Shadow Wilson

drums
1919 - 1959

" data-original-title="" title="">Shadow Wilson complete the lineup. The group are at ease with each other but Monk's music retains all of its edge and asymmetry. Importantly, Coltrane had successfully put heroin and alcohol dependencies behind him back in April and was playing with unprecedented precision. The concert was a fundraiser for a community centre—the quartet shared the bill with

Billie Holiday

vocals
1915 - 1959

" data-original-title="" title="">Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie and

Sonny Rollins

saxophone
b.1930

" data-original-title="" title="">Sonny Rollins among others—and there were two performances, one at 8.30pm, the other at midnight. The album includes both of the quartet's sets and is a joy from the opening saxophone-and-piano-only reading of "Monk's Mood" through the closing iteration of "Epistrophy."

Sonny Rollins
A Night At The "Village Vanguard"
Blue Note, 1957

John Coltrane ultimately became the most influential saxophonist in post-1960s jazz, but in 1957, when A Night At The "Village Vanguard" was recorded, the jazz establishment was divided over whether he or Sonny Rollins was the "top tenor," an idiotic debate given the players' broader than Broadway stylistic differences. Critics took up opposing positions for and against Coltrane's chordal (vertical) approach and Rollins' thematic (horizontal) one. Like another stonking 1957 Rollins set, Way Out West (Contemporary), the Village Vanguard recording was made with a trio. Actually, two trios. The afternoon set featured bassist

Donald Bailey

drums
1933 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Donald Bailey and drummer

Pete La Roca

drums
1938 - 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">Pete La Roca, while the evening ones, from which most of the album is drawn, had bassist

Wilbur Ware

bass, acoustic
1923 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Wilbur Ware and drummer

Elvin Jones

drums
1927 - 2004

" data-original-title="" title="">Elvin Jones. Rollins is a force of nature, wrenching the listener along with him. Every bit as magnificent as Saxophone Colossus (Prestige) from earlier the same year.

Kenny Burrell with Art Blakey
On View At The Five Spot Caf��
Blue Note, 1960

There is no shortage of cracking live albums by guitarist

Kenny Burrell

guitar, electric
b.1931

" data-original-title="" title="">Kenny Burrell and picking out just one of them is a tough call. From hard bop's belle epoque, a strong contender is A Night At The Vanguard (Argo), which Burrell recorded with bassist

Richard Davis

bass, acoustic
1930 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Richard Davis and drummer

Roy Haynes

drums
1926 - 2024

" data-original-title="" title="">Roy Haynes in September 1959. Another is On View At The Five Spot Caf�� , made a month earlier with a quintet: tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks, alternating pianists Bobby Timmons and

Roland Hanna

piano
1932 - 2002

" data-original-title="" title="">Roland Hanna, bassist

Ben Tucker

bass, acoustic
b.1930

" data-original-title="" title="">Ben Tucker and drummer

Art Blakey

drums
1919 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Art Blakey. The presence of the singular and immensely talented, but deeply troubled, Brooks gives the Five Spot album added allure. So devastated was Brooks' life by heroin that he was active for only around four years, making every album on which he appears collectable. Another live release featuring Brooks is organist Jimmy Smith's Cool Blues (Blue Note), recorded at Small's Paradise in 1958 but not released until 1980.

Barry Harris
At The Jazz Workshop
Riverside, 1960

Pianist

Barry Harris

piano
1929 - 2021

" data-original-title="" title="">Barry Harris was part of the band which recorded Lee Morgan's best-selling The Sidewinder (Blue Note, 1964), one of the most incendiary hard bop albums of all time. Yet Harris never recorded under his own name for Blue Note. In a 1977 interview with Cadence magazine, he said, "I went to [Alfred Lion] and I asked him why didn't he give me a record date—he said I played too beautiful. So I thanked him and walked out." Harris' elegance is in full effect on At The Jazz Workshop made with bassist

Sam Jones

bass, acoustic
1924 - 1981

" data-original-title="" title="">Sam Jones and drummer

Louis Hayes

drums
b.1937

" data-original-title="" title="">Louis Hayes, his colleagues in alto saxophonist

Cannonball Adderley

saxophone
1928 - 1975

" data-original-title="" title="">Cannonball Adderley's band in early 1960. Harris has always bristled at the term "hard bop," considering himself a pure bop player (check the YouTube interview below with

Bob Cranshaw

bass
1932 - 2016

" data-original-title="" title="">Bob Cranshaw, bassist on The Sidewinder). But on At The Jazz Workshop, despite tunes written by

Charlie Parker

saxophone, alto
1920 - 1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, the only track with a thoroughly boppish feel is Harris' "Curtain Call." Elsewhere, his touch is weighty and deliberate and he often comes down hard on the first beat of the bar—all hard bop signatures. The music cooks.

Miles Davis
In Person Friday And Saturday Nights At The Blackhawk Complete
Columbia, 1961/2003

OK, this is a bit of a cheat, as it is a box set comprising four CDs. Single disc versions have been released, but just as fans of Davis' 1965—1968 quintet have to have the seven CD The Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel 1965 released by Columbia in 1995, so fans of Davis the hard bopper have to have the complete Blackhawk set. The lineup is genre perfection: Davis plus Hank Mobley, pianist

Wynton Kelly

piano
1931 - 1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Wynton Kelly, bassist

Paul Chambers

bass, acoustic
1935 - 1969

" data-original-title="" title="">Paul Chambers and drummer

Jimmy Cobb

drums
1929 - 2020

" data-original-title="" title="">Jimmy Cobb. And the set lists are heaven, too: "If I Were A Bell," "On Green Dolphin Street," "Walkin,'" "Someday My Prince Will Come," "Autumn Leaves," "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise" and "Bye Bye Blackbird" are among the selections. Davis himself regarded the band and the material as backward steps after the modal revolution he had sparked with A Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959). But hard bop was what club owners wanted to book (hard bop audiences were consumers, baby).

The Horace Silver Quintet
Doin' The Thing At The Village Gate
Blue Note, 1961

Along with Cannonball Adderley, Horace Silver was the funky but sunny face of hard bop, an alternative to the brooding menace projected by the school of Lee Morgan. In his liner notes to Serenade To A Soul Sister (Blue Note, 1968), Silver set out his "guide lines to musical composition." There were five of them: melodic beauty; meaningful simplicity; harmonic beauty; rhythm; and environmental, hereditary, regional and spiritual influences. In the wider hard bop context it is "meaningful simplicity" which is the chief take-away and around which the other four guidelines cluster. The glorious Doin' The Thing At The Village Gate has Silver at the top of his game, fronting his classic quintet with tenor saxophonist

Junior Cook

saxophone
1934 - 1992

" data-original-title="" title="">Junior Cook, trumpeter

Blue Mitchell

trumpet
1930 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Blue Mitchell, bassist

Gene Taylor

bass
b.1929

" data-original-title="" title="">Gene Taylor and drummer

Roy Brooks

drums
b.1938

" data-original-title="" title="">Roy Brooks. The original LP included just four tracks, each a Silver original clocking in at around eleven minutes and opening with the immortal "Filthy McNasty." Throughout, Silver delivers on both his own guidelines and his sometime colleague Art Blakey's exhortation that music should "wash away the dust of everyday life."

Cannonball Adderley Sextet
Jazz Workshop Revisited
Riverside, 1963

This album makes the honour roll on the strength of the eleven-minute version of cornetist

Nat Adderley

trumpet
1931 - 2000

" data-original-title="" title="">Nat Adderley's soulful "The Jive Samba" alone. As a single it was one of the last times jazz scored a sizeable juke-box, radio and retail hit in the US before "the British invasion" changed everything. But there is plenty more going for Jazz Workshop Revisited , not least the groovalicious presences of

Yusef Lateef

woodwinds
1920 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Yusef Lateef on tenor saxophone, flute and oboe and funk meister

Joe Zawinul

keyboards
1932 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Zawinul on piano. Three years on from the Barry Harris album, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes are still in place as Adderley's bass-and-drums team. Cannonball's programme announcements, the excited audience's audible (but not intrusive) enthusiasm, and Wally Heider's impeccable recording also contribute to the success of an album which chronicles the Adderley brothers' strand of hard bop like no other—though the same lineup's Nippon Soul (Riverside, 1963), recorded live in Tokyo, runs it a not too distant second.

Lee Morgan
Live At The Lighthouse
Blue Note, 1970

In his book Blues People: Negro Music In White America (George Morrow, 1963), LeRoi Jones, as Amiri Baraka was then known, wrote that by 1960 "hard bop, sagging under its own weight, had just about destroyed itself as a means toward a moving form of expression." Oops. True, clich�� began creeping in around the end of the 1950s, by which time heroin had taken its toll on many of the style's originators. But even allowing for rhetorical licence, Baraka was overstating his case, as was his wont. Lee Morgan's steaming Live At The Lighthouse, recorded over three days in July 1970 with a quintet including

Bennie Maupin

woodwinds
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Bennie Maupin on tenor saxophone and

Harold Mabern

piano
1936 - 2019

" data-original-title="" title="">Harold Mabern on piano, is one of many proofs that creative hard bop flourished beyond 1960—as, too, are British-based trumpeter

Mark Kavuma

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Mark Kavuma's new millennial The Banger Factory (Ubuntu, 2018) and Arashi No Ato (Banger Factory, 2021). Some hard boppers, John Coltrane and Miles Davis among them, were moving into new trajectories by 1960, but Morgan kept the faith right up until his life was snuffed out in January 1972. Expanded editions of the Lighthouse performances, originally released on a double LP, have been released on three-CD and, in 2021, eight-CD box sets. How big is the monkey on your back?

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