Art Blakey experts please ... ?

I'm a big fan of "A Night at Birdland," Vols. 1 and 2...

"A Night At Birdland" is Art Blakey's most famous album with "old school" fans. It includes Pee Wee Marquette's famous introduction which is remembered by all "old school" fans. Pee Wee was a little guy with a big voice, he was Birdland's emcee.

This album was made while Clifford Brown was still around. He could play Be Bop, Hard Bop, and ballads; his tone was unforgettable. Horace Silver was also in that group. This was when jazz was "definitive", there was no confusing "jazz" with any other music.

"Inna, this one may not be for you". Inna likes jazz, but not "Old school" jazz. Him and many others prefer the music after it became "amorphous"; but jazz, like everything else, has evolved. "Old school, new school, future school; when you add the word "jazz", it all sounds good to me.

Orpheus - indeed, I do treasure it for the glimpses at the early days of Clifford and Horace too! I wish I could have been introduced to a crowd by Pee Wee Marquette...

Hi all! Just joined this forum to post a question, as it's clear there are a lot of Blakey/Shorter experts on here. I'm trying to find information related to the woman "Joelle" was inspired by. She was a french girl living in NYC during the 1950s, at around 1958 was serving as Blakey's nanny. She took care of his daughter, Sakeena. Does anyone know anything else about her? I think she served as a kind of muse for multiple people, including Wayne Shorter who, of course, collaborated on that song. Any tips would be much appreciated! Thanks.

Art  Blakey is known for creating his signature signal of rapping the rim of his drum to signal to a member it's time to end their improvisation. He was known as Volcano Eruptis among his peers