Free For All
by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

Free For All by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
Year: 1965
Overall rank: 2,529th   
Average Rating: 
77/100 (from 77 votes)
     
Accolades:
Award Top 20 albums of 1965 (20th)
Award Top albums of the 1960s (230th)
Award Best albums of all time (2,529th)

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Availability

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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers Free For All / Cover Only / Early Stereo Decor
Condition: Used


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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers Free For All 1977 Stereo Press VG++ Blue Note
Condition: Used


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ART BLAKEY & THE JAZZ MESSENGERS Free For All BLUE NOTE LP MONO Plastylite P EAR
Condition: Used


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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers bestography

Free For All is ranked 2nd best out of 65 albums by Art Blakey on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Art Blakey is Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers which is ranked number 495 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 3,483.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers album bestography « Higher ranked (495th)
Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers
This album (2,529th)
Free For All
Lower ranked (4,968th) »
Mosaic

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Free For All track list

   The tracks on this album have an average rating of 83 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Track pick (860 - 28 votes)
Average Rating: 86 (28 votes)Comments: View 1
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Average Rating: 84 (21 votes)Comments: View 1
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Average Rating: 83 (21 votes)Comments: View 0
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Average Rating: 79 (18 votes)Comments: View 0
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Free For All rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 2,529th | 1960s rank: 230th | 1965 rank: 20th

Free For All collection

Free For All ratings

Average Rating: 
77/100 (from 77 votes)
   Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
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 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 77 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
80/100
 !
01/14/2026 23:25 Untitled   1,60977/100
 
50/100
 !
12/15/2025 06:53 shanelovesyou111   70774/100
 
80/100
 !
12/11/2025 00:42 Exist-en-ciel   6,99670/100
 
75/100
 !
09/29/2025 12:29 Tamthebam   22,89469/100
 
40/100
 !
09/04/2025 06:28 ejiniestac   57866/100

Rating metrics: Help 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 4% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 76.8/100, a mean average of 76.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.6.

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Free For All favourites

Showing all 9 members who have added this album as a favourite

Free For All comments

Showing all 1 comments |
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Rating:  
85/100
From 07/27/2020 03:30 | #256254
This album is mentioned as a prime example of "What Rudy Van Gelder Did 'Wrong'" in an article under that title at the Reverb com site, which is a gear trading site all musicians go to. I recommend doing a search for that title and checking out the article for a brief but excellent discussion of RVG (the superstar recording engineer for Blue Note records as I'm sure you know if you're here) and his recording techniques that he tried to keep secret, including comments from those who hate this kind of recording. On this album, the article says "Blakey’s drums are like a series of explosions, nearly blowing out the microphones and thoroughly drowning out Cedar Walton’s piano and Reggie Workman’s bass." It also says, and I agree, that this album is "some of the most visceral and exciting jazz you’ll ever hear in your life."
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Best Albums of 1965
1. Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan
2. Rubber Soul by The Beatles
3. A Love Supreme by John Coltrane
4. Bringing It All Back Home by Bob Dylan
5. Help! by The Beatles
6. Otis Blue / Otis Redding Sings Soul by Otis Redding
7. Pastel Blues by Nina Simone
8. My Generation by The Who
9. The Beach Boys Today! by The Beach Boys
10. A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi
11. Mr. Tambourine Man by The Byrds
12. Here Are The Sonics!!! by The Sonics
13. Out Of Our Heads by The Rolling Stones
14. Spiritual Unity by Albert Ayler Trio
15. Jackson C. Frank by Jackson C. Frank
16. I Put A Spell On You by Nina Simone
17. Live At The Regal by B.B. King
18. Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds
19. Bert Jansch by Bert Jansch
20. Free For All by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
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