This is a great article, but I take issue with the "character matters" section. Blakey was a notorious heroin addict and was known for introducing his young sidemen to the drug. A lot of the stories are here: https://www.organissimo.org/forum/topic/80777-whats-the-deal...
From the thread:
Jamil Nasser told me (re: Dan's interview and the junkie question); when the band went on the road, Blakey stocked up with dope ahead of time. So the typical situation was - they are in some town, middle of nowhere; everybody is strung out and desperate. So Blakey says, 'let me go out and see what I can find' - he comes back with the stuff he already had, marks it up about 10 times, says, 'well, this was all I could get but it's pretty expensive." He takes their "share" out of the gig money, they go home with nothing, he takes all the cash.
From the thread:
Jamil Nasser told me (re: Dan's interview and the junkie question); when the band went on the road, Blakey stocked up with dope ahead of time. So the typical situation was - they are in some town, middle of nowhere; everybody is strung out and desperate. So Blakey says, 'let me go out and see what I can find' - he comes back with the stuff he already had, marks it up about 10 times, says, 'well, this was all I could get but it's pretty expensive." He takes their "share" out of the gig money, they go home with nothing, he takes all the cash.