The Freedom Rider

The Freedom Rider is an album by jazz drummer Art Blakey and his group the Jazz Messengers. Continuing Blakey's distinct brand of hard bop, this album features contributions from Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Blakey himself, and Kenny Dorham, a former Jazz Messenger. This was the final album by this particular edition of the Jazz Messengers, who had been together for 18 months, as Lee Morgan left after this album and was replaced by a Freddie Hubbard. The compositions themselves are varied, with Blakey contributing an energetic drum solo on "The Freedom Rider"; at least three of the compositions on the album are blues pieces. "El Toro" features a solo by Shorter incorporating the sheets of sound technique pioneered by John Coltrane. The CD version contains three bonus tracks originally released on the album Pisces.

The Freedom Rider
Studio album by
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
ReleasedFebruary 1964[1]
RecordedFebruary 12 (#7-8), February 18 (#4), and May 27 (#1-3, 5-6), 1961
StudioVan Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
GenreJazz
Length54:01 (CD reissue)
LabelBlue Note Records
BST 84156
ProducerAlfred Lion
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers chronology
Pisces
(1961)		 The Freedom Rider
(1964)		 Roots & Herbs
(1961)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [2]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[3]

The album's title track, a drum solo by Blakey, was recorded three weeks after the first of the 1961 freedom rides. These were a series of civil rights protests against segregation that took place on interstate buses traveling through the Southern United States.

Track listing
  1. "Tell It Like It Is" (Shorter) – 7:53
  2. "The Freedom Rider" (Blakey) – 7:25
  3. "El Toro" (Shorter) – 6:20
  4. "Petty Larceny" (Morgan) – 6:14
  5. "Blue Lace" (Morgan) – 5:59

Bonus tracks on CD reissue:

  1. "Uptight" (Morgan) – 6:12
  2. "Pisces" (Morgan) – 6:52
  3. "Blue Ching" (Kenny Dorham) – 6:43

Personnel

References
  1. Liner notes by Michael Cuscuna to 2015 Japanese SHM-CD reissue
  2. The Freedom Rider at AllMusic
  3. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 25. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
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