Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers were widely known through the 40s to the 60s. Every Jazz musician played in his quintet from Sonny Rollins to Lee Morgan. I would recommend checking out Moanin and I remember Clifford on his album "Jazz in Paris". I'm not exactly sure which moanin came first, the Charles Mingus version, Art Blakey version, or the Sarah Vaughn version. Even though Sarah Vaughn Was the lyrics to moanin and Charles Mingus had two totally different versions one favoring brass and the other which is less common favoring the saxophones. He was more famous around the world rather than playing in a club every night. He was like Louis Armstrong with his fame in Europe and the U.S. Because the U.S. was a very segregated country at the time, so they would play were they were appreciated. He was one of those guys that always had a smile on his face and was relaxed on a bandstand. He was one of those guys who knew not to mixed up with drugs. A lot of quintets didn't have many drum solos but since he was one of the only drummers that were the leader in a band so he would always give himself a solo. The thing that made him different from everyone else was that he had every great jazz musician in his band at one time over the course of his era. A lot of people got their big break by playing with the Jazz messengers. One of the best alto saxophonists ever in my opinion is Charlie parker. He knew how to make a solo sound uncluttered even when he was playing thirty second notes through the solo. He died at a young age but before that he made beatiful tunes like Yardbird suite or Bloomdido. He played with many other great artists like Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong. If he lived longer I bet he would have had other sessions.
