Perhaps, when confronted in 1960 by yet another Art Blakey session at Birdland, Alfred Lion came up with .Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World in an effort to differentiate this effort from previous Blakey visits to that venerable NYC establishment. It still comes across as a little long-winded both as a title and in its new guise as a 2CD slim-line compilation of the previous two volumes. That it has been given the Van Gelder treatment seems a trifle odd, considering the less than ideal recording quality of the original masters (quite a lot of peak distortion across all the instruments). That can't really be altered, but the playing of Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter, Blakey's then-frontline, makes up for any deficiency elsewhere. Having Bobby Timmons at the keyboard is another plus, although none of his tunes get an airing here (funnily enough, we get three instead from previous Blakey tenorist Hank Mobley). Meanwhile, Blakey keeps marchin' on, thrashing and thundering and keeping the frontline sweating as well as the customers satisfied. Not the best Messengers date around, but good enough to reward the curious. --Keith Shadwick