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Bobby Timmons

Bobby Timmons came out of Philadelphia at age 19, with a funky gospel tinged piano style, flavored with blues and hard bop. He would, in a recording career that would only span a short time frame, contribute to some of the best recordings on the legendary Blue Note sessions of the ’50s, and be a member of two of the premier bands of that time, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and the Cannonball Adderley Quintet.

Robert Henry Timmons was born in Philadelphia in 1935, raised by his grandfather who was a minister in a church. The young Timmons began formal piano lessons at age six, and was the organist at his grandfathers’ church. This early formative period would certainly be a factor in his piano approach. He was be able to innovate and improvise on his gospel foundations and brought them into jazz.

He had the lyricism of a Bud Powell in his solos, (who didn’t in the '50’s) combined with a very dominant left hand which was reminiscent of the stride and boogie players, but it was his sense of that down home chording and timing that really identified him. His musical resume for the period between 1956 and 1969 is very impressive. He was with Kenny Dorham and the Jazz Prophets in 1956, which also included Kenny Burrell on guitar. In the years ’56 through ’57 he was with Chet Baker.

The year 1957 would be a very productive and busy one as he worked and recorded with Hank Mobely, Sonny Stitt, Lee Morgan, and Curtis Fuller. In the same year and into ’58 was in Maynard Fergusons’ band, and also did session dates with Art Pepper and Kenny Burrell. He took over the piano chair in Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in 1958 at the age of 23.

It was in period, that he wrote the classic “Moanin”, that would be a defining tune for that band, and one of his signature tunes throughout his career. He jumped over to the Cannonball Adderley Quintet in ’59 where he then wrote two big hits for them in “Dis Here” and “Dat Dere”. He stayed with Addelry into ’60 then rejoined the Messengers. He stayed with the Messengers into ’61 then he began a solo career and worked with a trio format for a lot of his own recordings which continued up to 1969.

Also in ’60 he did a lot of work with Nat Adderly, Arnet Cobb, The Young Lions, Lee Morgan, and Johnny Griffin. His output was amazing for the time, as it seems in looking at the chronological order of dates, he must have been constantly in the studio, this not counting the live dates on the road. His work is available on the Blue Note, Prestige, and Riverside labels, and many others as reissues and compilations. Quite an achievement by any standard!

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Radio & Podcasts

Mandatory Merriment

Read "Mandatory Merriment" reviewed by Patrick Burnette


It's that holiday season once again, and Santa Mike insists we cover a slate of season-appropriate releases. Are they jazz appropriate as well? Not really, but two are jazz adjacent and one at least features an ex-Messenger, so there's that. There's also, er, Swamp Dogg. Pop matters travels from Sufjan Stephens to late eighties England to the soothing, ambient sounds of the Zamboni, nature's Andreas Vollenweider. Bobby Timmons: Holiday Soul; Swamp Dogg: An Awful Christmas and a Lousy New Year; ...

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Album Review

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings

Read "First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Perhaps Art Blakey's greatest gift was that he was able to—and also enabled you—to transport through time to when invention was new and not reheated, rebranded, or far worse, rejected out of hand. Just take his opening solo on the Charlie Parker-penned opener “Now's the Time" from the absolutely ribald and raucous First Flight To Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings and get a riotous earful for yourself. Blakey bops, pops, and booms and you're there in the room in Tokyo, ...

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Album Review

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings

Read "First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings" reviewed by Chris May


There is a saying in the opera world which, though innocuous on the face of it, damns a work before the overture has begun let alone after the fat lady sings. The saying, beloved of breathless publicists deaf to its implication, is that such and such an opera is “rarely performed." The reason it is rarely performed, of course, is because nine times out of ten it is a dud. When it comes to jazz albums the parallel ...

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Album Review

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Just Coolin'

Read "Just Coolin'" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Great moments play all over Just Coolin', the new archival Blue Note Art Blakey release from 1959, recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio with Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt. For a bit of history, let's just point out that Hank Mobley was returning to the tenor chair he held from 1951-56, but which had just recently (for back then) been occupied by Shorter, and before him Benny Golson. Not the slightest expectation here. And should there have been ...

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Album Review

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Just Coolin'

Read "Just Coolin'" reviewed by Chris May


It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man or woman in possession of a good quantity of Art Blakey albums, must be in want of a lot more. Previously unreleased albums are particularly enticing. So do not be fooled by the Reid Miles-inspired cover of Just Coolin': the disc is previously unissued. It presents Blakey in his pomp fronting a dream-team Jazz Messengers lineup. AAJers do not need to be reminded that Blakey was at the ...

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Extended Analysis

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Moanin'

Read "Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Moanin'" reviewed by Mike Oppenheim


Throughout its history, jazz has constantly evolved, developing from and reacting against its earlier incarnations. The mid-1940s saw bebop reinvent jazz as an artist's genre, distinct from the swing style that was the popular music throughout the 1930s and '40s. Bebop was music for listening, not dancing, and the emphasis became virtuosic improvised solos instead of memorable tunes and arrangements. However, the advent of bebop itself led to further reactions and developments within jazz during the 1950s. The newer genre ...

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Album Review

Lee Morgan: The Cooker

Read "The Cooker" reviewed by Samuel Chell


Although Lee Morgan had already made a handful of albums at the age of 19, The Cooker (1957) represents his throwing down the gauntlet as successor to Clifford Brown's vacated throne. It's close to being a pure bebop session, suggestive of a date like For Musicians Only (Verve, 1956), on which Gillespie, Stitt and Getz set some sort of record for NPS (notes per second). At the same time, the precocious trumpeter, already brimming with confidence, is not about to ...

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Recording

Backgrounder: Bobby Timmons - Soul Time

Backgrounder: Bobby Timmons - Soul Time

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Pianist Bobby Timmons's Soul Time is an early soul-jazz classic. Recorded for Riverside over two days in August 1960 while Timmons was a member of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, the album's line-up of musicians assembled by Timmons was ingenious. Since it was Timmons's record date, he knew he'd get a good chunk of the vinyl time and get to record four originals—Soul Time, So Tired, Stella B. and One Mo'. The artists he chose were a sensational soul-jazz ...

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Recording

Timmons/Patterson: Holiday Soul

Timmons/Patterson: Holiday Soul

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Each year, for the past eight years, I've chosen a  jazz or pop album for induction into my JazzWax Vintage Holiday Album Hall of Fame. To qualify, the album has to be a sleeper of sorts, usually from the 1950s or '60s. It also has to swing.  This year, I'm welcoming two albums with the same title: Bobby Timmons' and Don Patterson's Holiday Soul. Both trio albums were recorded for Prestige in Nov. 1964—the former on the 24th and the ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

First Flight to...

Blue Note Records
2021

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Just Coolin'

Blue Note Records
2020

buy

Sweet And Soulful...

Riverside Records
2012

buy

The Cooker

Blue Note Records
2007

buy

The Best Of

Riverside
2004

buy

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