Ping Pong

The title earns its name immediately: there's a back-and-forth percussive energy from the jump, a rhythmic volley that sets up the entire piece as a kind of athletic exchange. Blakey is at his most overtly playful here, the kit less like a foundation and more like an argument being had in real time, his hands and feet answering one another with the quick delight of someone who has just thought of a good comeback. The horns play with matching energy — quick, jabbing phrases that set up returns — and the whole ensemble sounds like people genuinely enjoying one another's company in the moment of making something. There's a lightness in the piece that contrasts with the more spiritually weighted moments elsewhere in the Messengers catalog, a sense that the musicians have given themselves permission to grin. The production (this is hard bop recorded with the close-miked immediacy of Blue Note in its prime) means you can hear breath, the slight pop of attack, the room between the instruments. It belongs to the same impulse that makes jazz a fundamentally social music — this piece is almost impossible to hear alone without feeling the absence of people to share it with. Best experienced loud enough to fill a room, ideally with someone who will catch your eye during a particularly sharp exchange between the drum and trumpet.