Bopworks Art Blakey Model drumstick review: his 1960s press-roll stick, recreated exactly

The Bopworks Art Blakey Model (SKU BDAB) is a hickory drumstick Bopworks says was "reproduced exactly from his 60's stick": 16 inches long, .530 inch diameter, a longer taper, and a triangle wood tip. It's one of Bopworks' named Signature Models, built specifically to recreate a jazz legend's own 1950s/60s stick rather than a shared catalog shape with a name printed on the barrel. Art Blakey led the Jazz Messengers from 1955 through his 1990 death and is one of hard-bop drumming's defining figures.

Arthur "Art" Blakey, born October 11, 1919, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, led the Jazz Messengers from 1955 until his death in October 1990. Across more than three decades of continuously rotating lineups, the band trained generations of jazz musicians, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis, and Branford Marsalis among them. His signature "press-roll into 1" shuffle and aggressive ride-cymbal drive defined the hard-bop pocket that Moanin' (1958) still stands as the canonical record of. Full profile at /drummers/art-blakey.

Both sticks exist for the same reason: a modern manufacturer recreating a specific bebop-and-hard-bop-era drummer's own stick rather than selling a generic jazz shape with a famous name on it. The Blakey model runs thinner and shorter, in line with Bopworks' broader catalog argument that most vintage jazz sticks were smaller than modern marketing assumes. Pick the Blakey stick if you want his documented spec; pick the Buddy Rich Signature for a slightly longer, heavier alternative from the same era.

• A thinner, faster hard-bop feel. At .530 inches, it's noticeably lighter than a standard 5A, built for quick, controlled ride-cymbal work rather than raw backbeat power.
• An honest recreation, not a marketing shape. Bopworks' own FAQ argues that modern "marketing departments" have redefined what counts as a "jazz" stick size; the Art Blakey Model is pitched to match Blakey's actual 1960s stick instead.
• A sale that funds an estate. A portion of every sale goes to the Blakey estate, per Bopworks' FAQ, an unusual detail for a small specialty manufacturer to publish and a signal this is a licensed recreation, not a lookalike.
• Not for players chasing a modern rock-stick diameter. Drummers who want a thicker, heavier 5B-family stick should look elsewhere; this is a deliberately light, historically-accurate jazz stick.

If you want the stick Art Blakey actually played, not a generic 5A with his name printed on the barrel, the Bopworks Art Blakey Model is the closest current, purchasable match: a thin, long-tapered hickory stick with a triangle tip, reproduced from his own 1960s stick. For a slightly heavier alternative from the same hard-bop and big-band era, see the Vic Firth Buddy Rich Signature.