Free For All
by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers bestography
Free For All is ranked 2nd 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 484 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 3,517.
(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).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Free For All rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 1 hour ago)
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Free For All 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 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 77 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/07/2026 02:23 | smithc4jc | 65 | 73/100 |
| ! | 03/06/2026 09:55 | Leginlists | 3,755 | 83/100 |
| ! | 01/14/2026 23:25 | Untitled | 1,762 | 77/100 |
| ! | 12/15/2025 06:53 | shanelovesyou111 | 718 | 71/100 |
| ! | 12/11/2025 00:42 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,435 | 70/100 |
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 3% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.1/100, a mean average of 77.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.8.
Free For All favourites
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Free For All comments
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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."
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