Art Blakey was a rhythmic volcano. “There were times when Art played with such fire he almost drummed you off the stage,” recalled his long-time companion Freddie Hubbard.

But when Blakey appeared with his Jazz Messengers at the Sängerhalle Untertürkheim on July 15, 1978 the volcano triggered a medium-scale earthquake. This is the band with which Blakey set neo bop on fire and gave a new lease of life to the triplet pulse of swing. Surrounded by musicians two generations younger than himself, the 55-year-old ignites a type of music that explodes with vitality and finds as much pleasure in grooving as it does in the intellect of swing.