Art Blakey happens to be one of the few older jazz musicians whom I sought out. Early on, my Pops exposed me to most of the jazz greats, but he kinda had this thing against Blakey. If there was a Mount Rushmore for jazz drumming, Blakey – along with Max Roach, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette and Elvin Jones – would be on it. You’d think Pops would have introduced me to Blakey’s music the same way he did these other legends. But during a recent discussion, Pops revealed that he always felt Blakey drummed “old”. By the time Pops was a teen, drummers like Williams, DeJohnette, Elvin, Billy Cobham and other kats had come through and reinvented jazz drumming. If you let Pops tell it, they left Blakey behind. I figured, however, that I’d see for myself; so when I began my personal jazz collection some years ago, I made it an immediate mission to kop the bulk of Blakey’s discography. My verdict was much different than Pops’.

It’s important to note that Blakey had almost as profound...