Art Blakey Quintet A Night At Birdland, Volume One (1954)

• 1. Announcement By Pee Wee Marquette
• 2. Split Kick
• 3. Once In A While
• 4. Quicksilver
• 5. A Night In Tunisia
• 6. Mayreh
• 7. Wee-Dot (Alternate Take)
• 8. Blues (Improvisation)

Blue Note's Alfred Lion, in his unerring vision, decided to record Art Blakey's new band at Birdland in February 1954. He had rightly sensed that something new, something thrillingly new, was afoot. Though Charlie Parker was still a year from death, bop was demanding an invigorating lease of life to take it into a new dimension of expressiveness and vitality. The resulting transformation of the now hackneyed music into something raw, urgent and fizzing with energy was to be popularly called "hard bop", and was thrust into public consciousness on this record