The Big Beat
by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers bestography
The Big Beat is ranked 6th best out of 66 albums by Art Blakey on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Art Blakey is Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers which is ranked number 479 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 3,537.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to The Big Beat on YouTube
The Big Beat track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Big Beat rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 5 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Exist-en-ciel | Top 30 Music Albums of 1960 | 9/30 | 4 |
| 2026 | PurpleHazel | Top 31 Music Albums of 1960 | 9/31 | 4 |
| 2026 |  baystateoftheart | Top 28 Music Albums of 1960 | 7/28 | 4 |
| 2026 | byuzak | Top 36 Music Albums of 1960 | 2/36 | 5 |
| 2026 | matterhornrider | Top 22 Music Albums of 1960 | 11/22 | 3 |
| 2026 |  Hayden | Top 74 Music Albums of 1960 | 8/74 | 5 |
| 2026 | Skerns | Top 16 Music Albums of 1960 | 12/16 | 2 |
| 2026 | panapsal | Top 99 Music Albums of 1960 | 19/99 | 4 |
| 2026 | shanelovesyou1111 | Top 51 Music Albums of 1960 | 3/51 | 5 |
| 2026 |  RockyRaccoon | Jazz #201-300 | 20/100 | - |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 62 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 215 | |||
The Big Beat collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 21 members
The Big Beat ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 67 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 02/05/2026 19:58 | RockyRaccoon | 7,233 | 84/100 |
| ! | 12/21/2025 05:05 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,927 | 70/100 |
| ! | 12/15/2025 06:54 | shanelovesyou111 | 721 | 71/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 7% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 75.2/100, a mean average of 74.6/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 75.7/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.0.
The Big Beat favourites
Showing all 5 members who have added this album as a favourite
The Big Beat forum mentions
baystateoftheart 08/02/2024 14:45 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
Romanelli 02/19/2023 19:35 in Instrumental ThreadThe Big Beat comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
The awesome power of the fully operational Messengers on display on this killer album. Lee Morgan had become an uncontainable monster by this point and is just ridiculously good here. The songwriting of Shorter and Timmons makes this one of the best Messengers albums to my ears; the tempos and the energy, the whole album is just right in the pocket.
Jboy56 04/07/2022 18:07 | #283902 | TOP COMMENT
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Belongs to the Jazz Canon. Excellent balance. sound and song constructions.
Really excellent, should be ranked way higher
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