Art Blakey was a legendary jazz drummer and band leader. His band was renowned as a finishing school for generations of iconic American jazz musicians: from Horace Silver to Wynton Marsalis and beyond, his personnel read like a rollcall of the most influential musicians in jazz history. He brought a fresh infusion of African rhythm to his style and this alongside the soulful compositions of his collaborators became the foundations of the Hard Bop style.
In this programme, a sextet of NYJO Emerging Professionals will be performing the music of Blakey, in a show that highlights just how contemporary his work feels to this day, and celebrates his contributions to the genre.