Art Blakey’s Legacy Lives in Cedar Walton Sextet

It may be the music of Art Blakey, but the real appeal of this tribute album is the playing of the individual soloists and, especially, of pianist Cedar Walton.

Recorded live at Manhattan’s Sweet Basil club in 1993, the session produced several Blakey classics--notably Benny Golson’s “Blues March” and “Along Came Betty”--along with Curtis Fuller’s “Arabia,” J.J. Johnson’s blues “Wee Dot,” and the standard “If I Had You.”

the performance of the tunes, despite the enthusiasm of Walton’s six-piece ensemble, takes a somewhat different path from Blakey’s exuberant hard bop style. For one thing, the presence of Billy Higgins (who was at the time in poor health) on drums brings a less effusive but more subtly driving flow to the performances. And the soloists--trumpeter Philip Harper, tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson and trombonist Steve Turre --move beyond the hard bop arena with a set of intriguing choruses, heightened by Harper’s especially thoughtful and articulate lines.

Walton plays, however, the game is taken up several levels. Elegantly expressive, he makes each improvised solo into a beautifully conceived instant composition. Moving from two-handed block chords to smoothly flowing, boppish right hand lines, he alternates pensive lyricism with explosive bursts of sheer musical power.

As an added bonus, the veteran bop alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson guest stars on two tracks. Although his tone tends to quaver in spots, he nonetheless delivers a full panoply of hard-driving bop licks that provide the strongest connection to the Blakey legacy.

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