Jazz Messengers

Art Blakey, the kinetic, indomitable drummer and musical mentor who was the first to present such significant jazz talents as Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, Chuck Mangione and the brothers Marsalis, died Tuesday in a New York City hospital. He was 71 and lost a two-month struggle with lung cancer. Times jazz critic Leonard Feather said Blakey had returned from one of his many tours to Japan in August, thinking he had pneumonia. But his illness was diagnosed as cancer.

Underrated yet influential jazz pianist Mulgrew Miller died in Allentown, Pa., on Wednesday after suffering a stroke. He was 57. A member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the 1980s as well as a sideman to Tony Williams, Wallace Roney, Kenny Garrett and many others, Miller was featured on more than 400 recordings that included many sessions for which he was the leader, including an lushly rendered run of live albums over the last 10 years....

Just two years after Art Blakey's death on Oct. 16, 1990, a flood of reissues has arrived, celebrating his career as a protean drummer and his genius for grooming talent. The Jazz Messengers, usually a quintet or a sextet, continued almost without interruption from 1954 until their leader's demise.

MOVIES Open Projector Night The Sklar Brothers host an evening of short films (less than 10 minutes each) by novice auteurs in a wide range of genres and formats. Per the museum, filmmakers should think "showdown" rather than "showcase." Submissions accepted at 7 p.m.; screenings at 7:30 p.m. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Free. (310) 443-7000. hammer.ucla.edu. JAZZ Terence Blanchard The jazz composer scored many of Spike Lee's best films, but the hard bop artist first cut his teeth as a player with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

There is perhaps no more enduring or durable figure in all of jazz than drummer Art Blakey, who opened a four-night stand at Concerts by the Sea in Redondo Beach on Thursday night. At 66, he is into his fourth decade of leading the Jazz Messengers, a sextet whose casts of players have included more jazz greats than any other single unit in the history of the music.

When Art Blakey died in 1990, one of the better-known alumni of his Jazz Messengers ensemble, saxophonist Benny Golson, declared, "School is out." Through four decades, Blakey's ensemble had provided hands-on training for such important musicians as Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Cedar Walton, Wynton and Branford Marsalis and dozens of others. Using the Jazz Messengers name, Golson has assembled his own ensemble of Blakey veterans to keep the drummer-bandleader's memory alive.

Despite the fact that the late drummer Art Blakey never wrote a tune, you could say there's an "Art Blakey Songbook," comprised of classics composed by members of his Jazz Messengers. Tuesday night at Catalina in Hollywood, four ex-Messengers, who'll be performing through Sunday, dusted off some of those gems, delivering a zesty tribute to Blakey.

Ahhh, a new year and so many unknowns: Will Jay, Dave and Johnny be genetically spliced to produce the Ultimate Talk Show Host? Will the Yuppie-in-Chief name Stevie Nicks to run the NEA? Who will Sinead pick as her tag team partner against Madonna and the Pope? Will the activist group AWOE (Actresses With One Eyebrow) demand that one of them be chosen to play Frida Kahlo? Oh well, frivolity aside, one thing is certain: You'll be hearing these names and seeing these faces in the next 365.

Trumpeter Wallace Roney, the jazz front-runner in the stakes for stardom next year, had all the advantages of a complete musical education--first with private teachers, then as a student at such respected institutions as Boston's Berklee College of Music. Between studies at Berklee, he became a member of Art Blakey's legendary Jazz Messengers, developing new ideas that earned him a prominent role in 1987 with the band of Miles Davis' ex-drummer, Tony Williams. But his career reached a climactic point last summer when he was invited by Davis to join him in a historic horn duet at the jazz festival in Montreux, Switzerland.

MOVIES Open Projector Night The Sklar Brothers host an evening of short films (less than 10 minutes each) by novice auteurs in a wide range of genres and formats. Per the museum, filmmakers should think "showdown" rather than "showcase." Submissions accepted at 7 p.m.; screenings at 7:30 p.m. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Free. (310) 443-7000. hammer.ucla.edu. JAZZ Terence Blanchard The jazz composer scored many of Spike Lee's best films, but the hard bop artist first cut his teeth as a player with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

Theater The resigned restaurant owner, the hopeful waiter, the immigrant busboys, the ambitious young couple dining: People on the job and on the town are looking for--or giving up--their personal American dreams in the world premiere of Joe Hortua's seriocomic play "Making It," set in the kitchen and dining room of a Manhattan restaurant. Opens Friday at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. Right: Laura Hinsberger and JD Cullum.

Were the '50s and '60s really a seminal period for jazz? You bet. And the material in these attractive packages, the latest editions in Rhino's continuing work with the Atlantic jazz catalog, offer convincing evidence. Issued in thick cardboard sleeves with original liner notes as well as newly written program overviews, they provide jazz fans with another opportunity to hear some of the most innovative music of the period.

When Art Blakey died in 1990, one of the better-known alumni of his Jazz Messengers ensemble, saxophonist Benny Golson, declared, "School is out." Through four decades, Blakey's ensemble had provided hands-on training for such important musicians as Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Cedar Walton, Wynton and Branford Marsalis and dozens of others. Using the Jazz Messengers name, Golson has assembled his own ensemble of Blakey veterans to keep the drummer-bandleader's memory alive.

CEDAR WALTON, RON CARTER, BILLY HIGGINS "My Funny Valentine" Evidence * * * EASTERN REBELLION "Just One of Those. . . Nights at the Village Vanguard" Music Masters * * There are many similarities between these two live dates, recorded blocks apart in New York's Greenwich Village.

Ahhh, a new year and so many unknowns: Will Jay, Dave and Johnny be genetically spliced to produce the Ultimate Talk Show Host? Will the Yuppie-in-Chief name Stevie Nicks to run the NEA? Who will Sinead pick as her tag team partner against Madonna and the Pope? Will the activist group AWOE (Actresses With One Eyebrow) demand that one of them be chosen to play Frida Kahlo? Oh well, frivolity aside, one thing is certain: You'll be hearing these names and seeing these faces in the next 365.

Underrated yet influential jazz pianist Mulgrew Miller died in Allentown, Pa., on Wednesday after suffering a stroke. He was 57. A member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the 1980s as well as a sideman to Tony Williams, Wallace Roney, Kenny Garrett and many others, Miller was featured on more than 400 recordings that included many sessions for which he was the leader, including an lushly rendered run of live albums over the last 10 years....

CEDAR WALTON, RON CARTER, BILLY HIGGINS "My Funny Valentine" Evidence * * * EASTERN REBELLION "Just One of Those. . . Nights at the Village Vanguard" Music Masters * * There are many similarities between these two live dates, recorded blocks apart in New York's Greenwich Village.

Despite the fact that the late drummer Art Blakey never wrote a tune, you could say there's an "Art Blakey Songbook," comprised of classics composed by members of his Jazz Messengers. Tuesday night at Catalina in Hollywood, four ex-Messengers, who'll be performing through Sunday, dusted off some of those gems, delivering a zesty tribute to Blakey.

Just two years after Art Blakey's death on Oct. 16, 1990, a flood of reissues has arrived, celebrating his career as a protean drummer and his genius for grooming talent. The Jazz Messengers, usually a quintet or a sextet, continued almost without interruption from 1954 until their leader's demise.