Blakey, Art

later Abdullah Ibn Buhaina

(born Oct. 11, 1919, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.—died Oct. 16, 1990, New York, N.Y.) U.S. jazz drummer and bandleader. He worked with Fletcher Henderson's big band before joining Billy Eckstine's forward-looking ensemble (1944–47). Blakey's prodigious technique and thunderous attack assured his role as one of the principal drum stylists in modern jazz. With Horace Silver, Blakey formed the Jazz Messengers in 1954, and the group, with its aggressive blues-inflected approach, became the archetypal hard-bop unit (see bebop).

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