Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers - El Toro

/ : 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 to be replaced by a young 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 final recording by this edition of The Jazz Messengers (featuring trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Jymie Merritt and drummer/leader Art Blakey) finds the group consolidating their year-and-a-half of experience into yet another exciting document. Blakey's unaccompanied drum feature on "The Freedom Rider" is full of drama while the rest of the program (two compositions apiece by Morgan and Shorter) makes this last chapter for this particular band quite memorable.
Art Blakey - drums
Lee Morgan - trumpet
Wayne Shorter - tenor saxophone
Bobby Timmons - piano
Jymie Merritt - double bass