⏚ Antoine Chambert-Loir28. Time
Same album as yesterday, Clifford Brown / Max Roach At Basin Street.
Same composer, Richie Powell.
Completely different mood, though.
A calm ballad.
The song of a trumpet that pulls away the tears out of our sadness.
Have a good night.
Time
29. Smoke Gets Into Your Eyes
Max Roach and Clifford Brown with strings. Arrangements by Neal Hefty. Recorded January 1955.
It's so sweet we want it to go on forever. But we can't.
Some people know the story already, but some don't, and I know it, and I can't manage to tell it right.
There are things that make you sad. It's about the passing of time, about people who go, and those tears, they're not caused by the smoke in the jazz club.
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes / Clifford Brown with Strings
30. Memories of You
25 June 1956. Clifford Brown and Richie Powell play at a jam session in Philadelphia, with local musicians. The night is supposed to have been memorable. Then they take their car towards Chicago, where they had to play with the quintet. The musicians need to rest, and Nancy Powell, Richie Powell's wife, drives. Alas, under a heavy rain, we suppose she lost control of the car which crashed of the road. All three died in the accident.
Nancy Powell was 19; Clifford Brown, 25; and Richie Powell, 24.
All we have, now, is “Memories of You”.
Clifford Brown - 1955 - With Strings - 08 Memories Of You
31. I Remember Clifford
In 1957, the saxophone player Benny Golson composed a song to the memory of Clifford Brown — “I remember Clifford”. There is an awsome version of it by Art Blakey's Jazz messengers (with Golson on saxophone), recorded at Paris Olympia in 1958.
The present version seems to be the only one which Max Roach recorded. That was in 1981, in the album *Chattahoochee Red*. But what I hear from this version is that 25 years later, Max Roach's wound hadn't healed.
Cecil Bridgewater is on trumpet, Odean Pope on saxophone, Calvin Hill on bass.
Max Roach Quartet - I Remember Clifford
32. Mr. X
Despite the tragic death of Clifford Brown and Richie Powell, Max Roach managed to run a quintet, with Kenny Dorham on trumpet and Ray Briant on piano.
Recorded in september 1956, the album *+4* features two compositions of the drummer, in particular this one, Mr. X, in the pure tradition of hard bop: short rhythmic phrases which are barely more than riffs, with a more lyrical bridge.
Around 3:20, it is very surprising to recognize Sonny Rollins playing Mr PC, a famous composition by John Coltrane which, however, would only be recorded in 1959. At that point, the musicians start trading in fours, with Max Roach playing every four other bars. After some time, he runs into a dense chorus, sustained with block chords on the piano that delineate the song's changes.
Mr. X
Update : According to Lewis Porter (mentioned by Wikipedia), Mr PC is based on a 1931 song, “Shadrack”, which Sonny Rollins had recorded in 1951. The first phrase is basically the same, except that Shadrack ends with the same note (F), that Rollins repeats three times (in the sung version, it just does “Shad-Rack”…), while Mr PC modulates (C, Bb, C).
33. Brilliant Corners
October 1956. Max Roach takes part in Thelonious Monk's quintet. The piece that gave the album its title is supposed to have been a nightmare to record, because of its complexity, so that the producer Orrin Keepnews built it from 25 takes. Sure, that piece is awkward, with its ABA form which is played once at a normal tempo, and the second time with a double time feel. On the other hand, it seems, by listening to Max Roach's chorus, that he so perfectly understood the composition he offers us a drum interpretation.
Brilliant Corners by Thelonious Monk from 'Brilliant Corners'
34. Love Letters
A 1957 recording from the Max Roach + 4 album. This Victor Young composition, “Love Letters” was very successful in 1945 — it just lost the Academy Award for the best song against “It might as well be spring”!
This version is interesting because it features a full range of atmospheres, as if it were a full movie — it starts with a melancholic introduction by Sonny Rollins, goes on to a joyful exposition of the melody by Kenny Dorham on trumpet, and turns to a wonderfully sad piano solo by Bill Wallace, after which it takes another look, swinging like life at its happiest (the saxophone and piano choruses, for example), to end in the beginning's mood. Max Roach doesn't put himself forward in this piece, but still, together with George Morrow, he's driving this piece resolutely.
Love Letters
35. 100 Proof
In April 1957, Max Roach participated in several sessions for J. J. Johnson's quartet, a trombone player he had already played with in the Benny Carter orchestra, already by 1944 ! Johnson was actually one of the first trombone player to engage in bebop. There is a beautiful recording with the other trombone player Kai Winding. In the 70s, Johnson would move to California and be also famous as a TV film composer, for example for Starsky & Hutch, or The Six Million Dollar Man!
This song, “100 Proof”, is a fast bop composition by Johnson himself, that features two long choruses that show his dexterity, separated by a piano chorus by Tommy Flanagan. For the second one, Roach switches sticks to brushes, which he keeps during the bass chorus which Paul Chambers plays on the bow. Then it's time for a melodic chorus by Roach, a last version of the theme, and quite an abrupt ending!
100 Proof
36. Don't Explain
1957 is also the year of Max Roach's first recording with the singer Abbey Lincoln. This album, *Abbey Lincoln with the Riverside Jazz Stars* (Kenny Dorham, Sonny Rollins, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Max Roach), will be the first of 10 years of creative music, mutual love, and, as we will see later in this series, of many battles for civil rights.
This song, “Don't Explain”, is a wonderful ballad written by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr. This interpretation is amazing in so that the musicians (especially Dorham and Rollins) manage to bring their own creativity into the playing without hindering Lincoln's moving interpretation.
Hush now, don't explain
You're my joy and pain
My life's yours, love
Don't explain
Don't Explain
37. Blues on down
It's incredible how many different projects Max Roach have joined in that year 1957. Tonight, we meet a team of musicians we've already heard, except for the leader of the session, the saxophone player Benny Golson. We also have J. J. Johnson on trombone, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and, of course, Max Roach on drums.
You may have noticed how the presence of a second horn allows for a subtle change in the mood, from be bop to hard bop. Here we have a third one, and there is a kind of west coast feeling in the arrangement, allowed by the three distinct pitch ranges of the trombone, the saxophone and the trumpet.
Blues on down is a Golson composition. The form is short, 12 bars, with a very common harmony. A good pretext for almost 12 minutes of improvisations. Every player does his own. Every chorus is perfect, and Roach's is unmistakable!
Blues On Down
38. The Freedom Suite
Recorded in February/March 1958, The Freedom Suite is a Sonny Rollins album in trio — with Oscar Pettiford on bass, and Max Roach on drums. (Apparently, Rollins had been fed up of piano players coming up late and he made several recordings without piano during the years 1957-1959.)
The main track is a long composition in many parts (hence the title “suite”) where the instruments are not reduced to their traditional role in jazz — all of them contribute to both melody and rhythm — and we can hear that something in the music is trying to gain freedom.
There is freedom in music, but the claim is of course political.
Allow me to copy verbatim Rollins's liner notes:
“America is deeply rooted in Negro culture: its colloquialisms; its humor; its music. How ironic that the Negro, who more than any other people can claim America’s culture as his own, is being persecuted and repressed; that the Negro, who has exemplified the humanities in his very existence, is being rewarded with inhumanity.”
The Freedom Suite
39. Love for sale
That's a 1930 song by Cole Porter (from the musical The New Yorkers) which is very nice to play, because of its AABA form, with an annoying subtlety that the AABA is played twice, and 8 bars are added, which you may forgot if you don't pay attention… The A part is in minor, the B part is in major, and nowadays, the A part is sometimes played with a latin feel, while the B part is played in swing style…
Tonight's version was recorded live at Newport in 1958, and it is very interesting to compare that version with other versions recorded the same year: In Cannonball Adderley's quintet (Something else; Art Blakey is on drums) or Miles Davis's sextet (it appears in recent editions of Kind of Blue, with Jimmy Cobb), or the next year's Dexter Gordon (GO, with Billy Higgins), not speaking of the vocal versions (Billie Holiday recorded a beautiful one in 1952).
You'll hear : Max Roach has already past the musical style he had contributed to shape since 1944 (be bop, and then hard bop). Surely the five musicians play that song (with Max Roach, there is Booker Little on trumpet, Ray Draper on tuba, George Coleman on tenor sax and Art Davis on bass), but most of the music sounds like a common improvisation, and the rhythmic support is much closer to what would become common in free jazz.
Love for Sale
40. Deeds, not Words
Same line up as yesterday, for an album recorded a few months later. The music is quieter, almost meditative, but the subtext is certainly not : Deeds, not Words, it says.
(And a few years later, Max Roach will insist!).
Except for the introduction and the ending, where the horns play a beautifully sad arrangement, most of the tune features only the bass, the drums and one of the horns. Listen how bass and drums play a kind of counterpoint to the improvisations.
Bill Lee, the composer, passed away last year. He was a bass player, recorded with Bob Dylan or Simon & Garfunkel, and composed several operas. The father of Spike Lee, he is also known for having written the music of some of his movies — in particular Do the right thing or Mo Better Blues.
Deeds, Not Words
41. Conversation
Same album as yesterday, but today is a solo piece.
Everything is built around a simple rhythmic figure (.♪♫) but where the offbeat note is slightly accentuated. Max Roach moves this figure everywhere on the instrument, and improvises around it, in a very structured way. (See these 3 sections of 16 bars which start with 4 bars of swing rhythm?)
Max Roach is said to have introduced the concept of melodic drumming. Maybe after having listened to this piece, that will not sound like an oxymoron to you!
Conversation
42. Tuba de Nod
A Max Roach composition in the style of hard bop, which I believe is really beautifully arranged, and where the tuba plays a big melodic part.
The drummer alternates between playing a straight rhythm, either on sticks or brushes, or playing counterpoint; the bass line during the drum solo is also very interesting.
Tuba de Nod
43. Let up
When will trouble let up?
This heartache is draggin' me down
Is where I'm bound
In 1959, Abbey Lincoln records Abbey is Blue with two different bands.
Among the 10 songs of this beautiful album, 4 are accompanied by Max Roach's sextet.
Tommy Turrentine is on trumpet, Stanley Turrentine on tenor saxophone, Julian Priester on trombone, Cedar Walton on piano, and Bob Boswell on bass.
One of these 4 songs is a composition of Lincoln : Let up.
When will trouble ease up?
How much can a body abide?
Who's on my side?
Let Up (Remastered)
44. Moon Faced and Starry Eyes
A Kurt Weill song, from a 1959 recording by Max Roach +4 (some tracks feature Abbey Lincoln).
But here we have a bass/drums/piano trio only : Ray Bryant and Bob Boswell.
That's a sweet song, and Bryant plays it quite bluesy.
Max Roach - Moon Faced, Starry Eyed
45. Praise for a Martyr
This is a composition by Max Roach, from his album “Percussion Bitter Sweet”, recorded in 1961. Booker Little is on trumpet, Julian Priester on trombone, Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone, Clifford Jordan on tenor saxophone, Mal Waldron on piano, and Art Davis on bass.
Let me copy the liner notes (by Margo Guryan) from the album:
“Praise for a martyr was composed in homage to all the men and women who have sacrificed their lives fighting for their individual and collective freedoms. There is, again, a pulling quality in the voicing of the chords which is both somber and respectful. As the improvisation section progresses, you begin to notice three repeated notes dwelled upon by the bass. This repetition gives one the feeling of a solid foundation being laid ; a feeling that the martyr has not died in vain, but that his struggle will be continued by those who remember him. The soloists are Clifford Jordan, Julian Priester, Booker Little and Mal Waldron.”
Tonight, France is honoring the memory of Missak and Mélinée Manouchian by laying their ashes in the Panthéon. Manouchian was the head of a group of communist, resistants, mostly Jews and of immigrant origin, who fought for freedom against the Nazi occupation and the collaborating French Vichy régime.
Manouchian was shot by the Nazis on this day, 80 years ago, together with 21 of his comrades.
Let this song honor their memory.
Praise For A Martyr
46. Mendacity
Same album as yesterday, with vocals by Abbey Lincoln.
The music is by Max Roach and the lyrics are by Chips Bayen, a lyricist, soprano saxophonist, and musician manager (of Charlie Parker in particular, and Elmo Hope wrote the song Chips), he was the son of the Ethiopia emporer Haïlé Selassié.
The song starts with a heartbreaking cry on the horns, accompanied by cymbals, and continues with the voice of Abbey Lincoln, simply accompanied by piano and bass. After the first verse comes the moment of choruses, first Eric Dolphy (I guess). It goes on with a drum solo (at 3:42), where Max Roach articulates short phrases, separated by noticeable silences, as if he speaked — there is anger, but it is as if it couldn't go out in full. (In her liner notes, Margo Guryan notes that as well, she adds: that “Max describes it as ‘taking a breath’, a technique often overlooked by many musicians.”) Then the piano/bass/drums trio resumes for the second verse, with a nice background horn accompaniment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kyhnNM1RRM
Now voting rights in this fair land
We know are not denied
But if I tried in certain states
From treetops I'd be tied
At an era of moral panics, it is good to remember that in 1960 (and already in 1900, and already in 1850, and already…) people had the sense that the power was confiscated in the benefit of a few.
Mendacity
47. Nica
Let's cool down a little bit after the two demanding tracks of the last days.
Recorded in March 1960, today's song is a Sonny Clark composition, recorded by his trio.
Sonny Clark is on piano, George Duvivier on bass, and Max Roach on drums.
This song, of course, is a homage to baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter whose house was a home for jazz musicians — Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk in particular.
Nica - The Sonny Clark Trio
48. Driva' Man
Two years after Rollins's Freedom Suite, Max Roach recorded his own political claim — Freedom Now Suite. It consists on five pieces, written for the centenary of the Emancipation proclamation (1963). The album was published in 1960 under the title *We insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite*, all written in huge block letters.
The first track is an evocation of the slaves working in cotton fields, under the brutal overseeing of “Driva' Man” — a personification of the white man.
Driva' man he made a life
But the Mamie ain't his wife
Choppin' cotton don't be slow
Better finish out your row
Keep a-movin' with that plow
Driva' man'll show ya how
The lyrics are sung — almost chanted — by Abbey Lincoln, simply accompanied by a tambourine. Coleman Hawkins then takes again the melody, backed up by the trumpet of Booker Little, the trombone of Julian Priester and the tenor saxophone of Walter Benton, together with James Schenck on bass. The song is a blues in 5/4, and — unusually for a jazz piece — the first beat of every bar is accentuated, already by the tambourine and then by a rim shot on the drums
Driva'man (Remastered)
49. Freedom Day
We continue the listening of *Freedom Now Suite — We insist!*. The second track, “Freedom Day”, has already been recorded a few months ago, in Paris, under the title “Liberté”, but without vocals.
It celebrates the 1865 Emancipation proclamation, and the lyrics, sung by Abbey Lincoln, depict the anxiety, the surprise, the disbelief that they could be free.
Whisper, listen, whisper, listen
Whisper, say we're free
Rumors flyin', must be lyin'
Can it really be?
And indeed, as the claim of the whole album recalls, with its cover picture from the 1960 North-Carolina sit-in movement, they still aren't fully free.
Freedom Day, it's Freedom Day
Free to vote and earn my pay
Dim my path and hide the way
But we've made it Freedom Day
This hiatus is rendered by the discrepancy between the rhythmic feelings imposed by the various players — the rhythm section plays very fast, while the melody is written around full notes.
Freedom Day (Remastered)
50 Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace
I am quite a fetishist about numbers, and I'm glad that this song gets this number 50.
In fact, there are 3 musical pieces that made me cry: Mozart's piano concerto No. 23 (when the clarinet comes in), Barbara's “Dis quand reviendras-tu ?”, and this tune — the first time I discovered it by surfing on YouTube.
This is a duet between Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, but there are no lyrics.
The title says it all; it starts like a prayer, violently erupts in protest, until it finally finds some peace.
Opinions vary about this piece which forms the central part of Max Roach's *Freedom Now Suite*. As for myself, I cannot not be moved by the “Protest” part, and without it, the album title *We insist!* wouldn't be as strong.
Triptych: Prayer / Protest / Peace (Remastered)
51. All Africa
The beat has a rich and magnificent history
Full of adventure, excitement, and mystery
Some of it bitter, and some of it sweet
But all of it part of the beat, the beat, the beat
They say it began with a chant and a hum
And a Black hand laid on a native drum
The last two tracks of Max Roach's *Freedom Now Suite* have a different flavour. “All Africa” is a percussion/voice song in which African and/or Afro-Cuban rhythms (played by Babatunde Olatunji on congas, and, for the second part of the track, by Raymond Mantillo and Tomas du Vall) respond to Abbey Lincoln's singing.
All Africa (Remastered)
52. Tears for Johannesburg
This final piece starts with a beautiful ostinato by James Schenck on bass (played in 5/4), accompanied by the congas of Olatunji and the voice of Abbey Lincoln. At some point, Max Roach's hi-hat enters the game, and the horns rejoin them by playing a simple melody. Everything sounds like a chant. Then come solos, by Booker Little on trumpet, Walter Benton on saxophone, and Julian Priester on trombone, with backups riffs by the other horns and percussive accompaniment on congas and drums. After a short drum chorus (with percussion), the bass ostinato starts again, and the horns play the main theme, together but in a free way, and the song ends quietly.
It is quite paradoxical that in 1948, at a time where America was starting to dismantle its long-existing segregation laws (that year, Truman published an executive order supposed to desegregate federal administration), South Africa installed its apartheid regime that would last until 1990.
Tears For Johannesburg (Remastered)
53. Lonesome Lover
After 5 days of a possibly extenuating music, driven by a clear political message, let's go to a music which borrows from different roots. In the album *It's Time*, recorded in February 1962, Roach gathers a classic sextet (Richard Williams, trumpet; Julian Priester, trombone; Clifford Jordan, tenor sax; Mal Waldron, piano; Art Davis, bass; with Abbey Lincoln on vocals) together with a 16-voice choir (directed by Coleridge Perkinson) he uses as an autonomous instrument.
The present song, “Lonesome Lover”, shows a nice interaction between Lincoln and the choir. It's a sad love song in a 3/4 tempo.
So long
I been needin'
Your love
Hear me pleadin'
Love, my
Heart is bleedin'
Take me back where I belong
Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln - Lonesome Lover
54. Money Jungle
An incredible album, where 3 jazz giants unite their forces to create a unique music.
We have Max Roach on drums, Charles Mingus on bass and Duke Ellington on piano. While Mingus and Roach are of the be bop generation, Ellington was more than 30 years older, and started playing music at the ragtime era.
It's kind of an old lion and two young cats. For this recording, which the musicians recorded without any previous rehearsal, the pieces were all composed by Ellington — however, Roach and Mingus were only given a bare sketch of the tunes (harmony, structure) together with some visual indications : “crawling around on the streets are serpents who have their heads up; these are agents and people who have exploited artists. Play that along with the music.”
This track, “Money Jungle”, gave the album its name. It's a blues form, but the way it is played makes it sound much modern.
Money Jungle (Remastered)
55. Three-Four vs. Six-Eight Four-Four Ways
This is a not so famous trio recording by Max Roach, with Art Davis on bass and “the Legendary Hasaan” on piano. Hasaan Ibn Ali (1931-1980) was a pianist whose skills and avant-garde gave him some influence among musicians from Philadelphia, up to John Coltrane.
I don't know well this album, except for this tune whose rhythmic structure is indicated by its title: within a 90 bpm pulse, the tempo is decomposed in various ways, to let you feel a 3/4 tempo, then a 6/8 one, and finally a more classic swing-like in 4/4. The piano chorus keeps the 4/4 rhythmic pulse. There are then an interesting passage where the musicians trade in fours — with a small chorus at the bass.
Three-Four vs. Six-Eight Four-Four Ways
56. St Louis Blues
We had started this journey in the discovery of Max Roach's music by a solo drum piece. From that same album, a sextet version of the classic W. C. Handy tune, “St Louis Blues”.
Freedie Hubbard is on trumpet, Roland Alexander on soprano sax, James Spaulding on alto sax, Ronnie Mathews o piano and Jymie Merrit on bass.
You'll maybe feel at once that there is a twist with this song: the melody is played in 3/4! However, when the choruses start at 2:25, the musicians go back to the classic 4/4 rhythm, but at a very very fast pace!
St. Louis Blues
57. Drums Unlimited
That's a solo piece that gave Max Roach's album it's name.
Compared to the one that opened this musical thread, where the playing was essentially on the snare drum, there's more hi-hat cymbal playing. The hi-hat is a two parts cymbal which can be open and closed by a foot pedal, and you can also hit the top cymbal with your sticks. When you hit it opened, it resonates, otherwise it doesn't, and a good coordination allows nice effects. In particular, the first part of the song shows a remarkable virtuosity — maybe it doesn't sound difficult, but the consistency of the sound, the delicacy of the dynamics are difficult to achieve.
Drums Unlimited
58. Equipoise [for @ferrydanini]
Small step forward, to 1968. Max Roach has formed a new quintet, with Charles Tolliver on trumpet, Gary Bartz on alto sax, Stanley Cowell on piano and electric piano and Jymie Merritt on electric bass.
The sound is more modern, and Roach's drumming has lost part of his be bop feel.
In this track, a composition by Stanley Cowell, the drums do not play purely the role of setting a pulse, it is as if Roach is improvising all the time, playing counterpoint over the melody, or between the silences, and sometimes playing something like a “drum line” that fits well with the bass.
Equipoise
59. Motherless Child
Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child
A long way from home
A long way from my home
Believe me, Believe me, Believe me,
In 1971, Max Roach recorded an album with a gospel group led by J. C. White.
This is the first track of that album, *Lift Every Voice And Sing!*
The gospel band has the energy to sing both in front and behind a fierce group of musicians with Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet, Billy Harper on tenor saxophone, George Cables on piano, Eddie Mathias on electric bass.
This track is for y'all, who too often feel like a motherless child, with a special thought for you if that makes you angry.
Motherless Child
60. Joshua
That version of the famous spiritual has it all, the soul to heal the pain and the force to crumble down the walls that surround us.
The free jazz vibe is not far, nor is the spirit of John Coltrane who had passed away two years before that 1971 recording, still the gospel remains central.
Joshua
61. Onomatopeia
In 1970, Max Roach founded a band of percussionists : Roy Brooks, Joe Chambers, Omar Clay, Richard Pablo Landrum, Warren Smith and Freddie Waits to play pure percussion music. There is marimba, vibraphone, a musical saw, bells and congs, congas, and, of course, Roach's drumkit.
This tune, from a live 1973 recording, is a composition by Omar Clay.
To quote a NYT review of a 1986 concert, “The arrangements revealed what percussionists already know - that rhythmic instruments, even such ‘unpitched’ percussion as snare drums and tambourines, have a melodic side, and that there are thousands of ways to be percussive.”
M'Boom - Onamotapoeia 1973
62. Groovin' High
For two nights of May 1975, a band of giants joyfully convened at wonderful “Bop session” to play the music they had contributed to create more than 30 years before.
Dizzy Gillespie leads the band on trumpet, Sonny Stitt is on saxophone, Percy Heath on bass (super-amplified, it seems…), Hank Jones and John Lewis share the piano, and Max Roach on drums.
This track is a composition of Dizzie Gillespie. Its title is well deserved!
Groovin' High
63. Heaven Sent
Each track of the 1973 M'Boom's recording has been composed by a different musician. This one is a Roy Brooks composition which features Omar Clay on saw and Joe Chambers on xylophone. Max Roach is on timpani.
M'Boom - Heaven Sent 1973
64. Lover Man
A quiet ballad from *The Bop Session* recorded in 1975.
Sonny Stitt has a beautifully sugary sound and Dizzy Gillespie fills in some counterpoint.
Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be)
65. Confirmation
Charlie Parker died on this day, 1955, so why not listening to Max Roach and Parker who had played together since 1945.
This version of Confirmation, a composition by Parker, was recorded in July 1953. With Parker on alto saxophone and Max Roach on drus, we have Al Haig on piano, and Percy Heath on bass.
The precision of the syncopation when Parker plays the melody is stunning.
Confirmation
66. Suid Afrika 76
This tune is taken from a duet recording with saxophonist Archie Shepp.
The album's title, Force, indicates the political position of the musicians. The longest track is an evocation of Chinese communist leader Mao, the other one protests agains the South African apartheid regime that discriminated black people. The album was recorded during the summer, so presumably after the 16th June uprising where 20,000 black students protested and 1,500 were killed by the police repression.
Max Roach, Archie Shepp "Force - Sweet Mao - Suid Afrika 76" [FULL ALBUM] ☆☆☆☆☆
67. Round Midnight
At the end of the 70s, Max Roach shared his work between many duo projects and a new quartet, with Reggie Workman on bass, Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet and Billy Harper on saxophone.
Tonight, we listen to a live recording by this quartet of a classic Thelonious Monk tune.
Especially since its versions by the Miles Davis quintets, this song is often thought of as a ballad, but that was not the way it was initially conceived, and you'll hear that this version isn't at all a ballad, but a fiercely driven bop tune.
The first exposition of the melody has nice arrangements between trumpet and saxophone, marked with the quarter-notes riff that started the tune. Bridgewater's chorus goes on with the bebop style, while Harper's own chorus has more free jazz influences. Workman's chorus is stunningly beautiful, with an alternance of abstract passages and reminiscences of the melody. After that, Roach takes his own chorus, in a quite abrupt way, and concludes his dense playing with the classic rhythmic riff that indicates the other musicians to retake the melody.
Max Roach Quartet - Round Midnight
68. Mr Papa Jo
Same concert as yesterday, but a solo piece on the hi-hat. I had already indicated in several occasions how Roach used the hi-hat — this two parts cymbal which is activated on the foot — as an autonomous instrument, and not only a time keeper that would sound on beats 2 and 4, and that's it.
The only concert of him I attended was around 1994, and as he used to do for all of his concerts, he concluded it with a hi-hat solo. That means he took his hi-hat and his chair, put them on the front stage, and started playing.
This tune is a homage to “Papa” Jo Jones, the drummer of Count Basie's big band who would start developing the hi-hat as an instrument whose timbre would not be confined to a kind of mute cymbal, expanding at the same time its rhythmic range.
Max Roach Quartet - Mr. Papa Jo
69. Inception
An album in duet with South-African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim with a beautiful title, Streams of consciousness. The compositions are attributed to both Ibrahim and Roach. I have no information about how this recording was done, it hears as being improvised on the spot. However, one can recognize patters which are typical from the composition of both musicians. The challenge was to make them fit together.
The tracks of the album are quite long, with the extension of this short piece which starts with a solo by Roach. When the drummer starts playing a systematic groove, the piano enters and adds syncopated chords which slowly turn into a calypso song.
Max Roach and Abdullah Ibrahim - Streams of Consciousness (Full Album)
70. Sunday afternoon
Well, it's already Sunday night here in Europe, but it's still time to listen to that composition of Max Roach that was recorded in Paris, June 1978. Contrary to the version proposed in It's Time, a few years before, with musicians and choir, this one is extremely sober. We just have a bass/drums duet. Calvin Hill starts playing the melody on the bass, Roach accompanies him on brushes, and Hill goes on with an improvisation on bass; both trade four, until Hill plays the melody and concludes. Sometimes jazz music projects forward, but this time we are offered a beautifully held back version.
Max Roach - Sunday Afternoon
71. Birth
Yet another duet, in a duet album with Anthony Braxton.
The tune starts with a completely open improvisation by the two musicians, no tempo nor melody seems ascribed. After some time, Roach launches a dense and fast groove and Braxton follows him. Hearing that, I remain puzzled because it is not obvious which musician is guiding the other one, it is as if the two were playing independently, but if you pay attention, you see that they interact.
The drum solo that ends the piece is stunning: there are actual melodies beneath the fast pace of drum rolls.
Birth
72. Dance Griot
Let's continue to listen to that album with Anthony Braxton ! Tonight's tune is quite different, you'll see. Roach starts by a short introduction, in which one recognizes classic “roachian” drum patterns (that ta-dada-dadum, ta-dada-dadum, ta-dada-dum…) but he does not fall into them and Braxton starts improvising in an almost bebop style, with a classic bebop drum accompaniment by Roach — a systematic swing pattern on the ride cymbal, and a syncopated counterpoint on the snare drum and the bass drum. At some point, Braxton steps back, the two play more rhythmically than melodically, and Roach ends the track by a solo part.
Dance Griot
73. Epistrophy
This is a composition by Thelonious Monk, revisited by the percussion collective M'Boom in 1979. Quite a challenge when most of the instruments they play are anharmonic. Thanks to Joe Chambers on the vibraphone, and Fred King and Freddie Waits on marimba, we have a melody, but I would like to send a big up to the timpani guys (Warren Smith and Omar Clay) who play with the tension of the skin and produce wonderful effects (the kind of woo-woo tabla players are fond of).
Kenyatta Abdur-Rahman is on bells and Ray Mantilla on triangle.
Epistrophy
74. U-Jaa-Ma
After their 1976 studio recording, Max Roach and Archie Shepp toured in several festivals.
Tonight's track is taken from a 1979 concert in Austria that was published under the title *The Long March*. The album contains solo pieces, either by Max Roach or by Archie Shepp, and duet pieces. “The Long March” is one of them, but it is… long, and not really easy listening. This one, “U-Jaa-Ma”, is a composition of Archie Shepp that starts with a powerful syncopated riff using only beats 4 and 1.
The word Ujamaa is Swahili for “fraternity”. According to Wikipedia, it was also the name of a socialist ideology that formed the basis of anti-colonial activist Julius Nyerere's social and economic development policies in Tanzania after it gained independence from Britain in 1961.
On the recording of a 1975 concert (in Massy, close to my living place), Shepp translates this word as “Unity”.
You'll hear what these two musical forces can build out of this political project of “unity” and “fraternity”.
U-Jaa-Ma
75. South Africa Goddamn
From the same album as yesterday, another duet tune featuring Max Roach and Archie Shepp, bringing a definitely different atmosphere.
The tune starts with the drums only. At some point Shepp enters and brings in a melancholic melody, that sometimes turns into sad shrieks, which Roach sustains with an infectious groove that superposes a rapid flow of non-resonant sixteenth notes using rim shots, a regular hi-hat on beats 2 and 4, and (basically) quarter notes on tom-toms in descending pitches on beats 1, 2 and 3. When Shepp finishes his chorus and lets Roach plays solo, he continues playing the same groove only varying the intensity of the sound, a part I found really beautiful.
There is rage, of course, but there is hope.
South Africa Goddamn
76. China's Waltz
Let's listen to Max Roach quartet, still with Odean Pope on flute, Calvin Hill on bass, and Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet.
Taken from the 1979 album *Pictures in a Frame*, this is a simple waltz, which the musicians play with simplicity. The melody is played by the trumpet, with a beautiful second voice on the flute, and a third one on bass.
China's Waltz
77. Ode From Black Picture Show
It's a solo piece, by Max Roach only.
A piece he composed and sings and plays at the piano.
The lyrics are taken from an anonymous nursery rhyme, “There was a man of double deed”, which seems to be simultaneously well known and mysterious — nothing makes sense, except for our final death…
Roach turns it into a torchy lament.
Ode From Black Picture Show
A link to the lyrics
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56374/the-man-of-double-deed
(On the bottom of that page, you'll find an interesting essay by Robert Pinsky, *Freedom in Poetry*.)
78. The Martyr, Pt 1.
This is a very long track, more than 30 minutes, composed by Max Roach, recorded in quartet in 1977.
Reggie Workman at the bass starts with a great riff and Billy Harper (tenor sax) and Cecil Bridgewater (trumpet) share the joy of improvising on this melody, while Roach pushes the band with a forceful energy.
After 8 minutes, the mood changes for a bass chorus that lasts 7 minutes, with rare interventions by the trumpet. The drum chorus that follows a second exposition of the theme is full of energy, yet melodic. As often with this quartet, the sax chorus escapes (so it seems, at least) the melody which it recalls occasionally. A new drum chorus in a different style, using drum rolls to provide long sounds, and toms to infer melodies. The rhythmic structure of the theme can be felt all along, and it's as if Roach is never bored, nor tired of playing this incredible melody. A last bar, a rim shot, and the musicians give a final version of the theme.
The Martyr - Max Roach Quartet
79. Six Bits Blues
The same album as yesterday, The Loadstar, features this beautiful, heart-rending, slow blues, also composed by Roach, which is so slow that the triplet decomposition of the beat gives a 3/4 feel. As for yesterday, the musicians take the opportunity of playing the tune live to expand it to a long 20 minute piece, so I felt more natural, and maybe more indulging to you, to suggest the 1981 version, in Chattahoochee Red, which lasts only 4 minutes. (Of course, that means you'll be deprived of a beautiful bass chorus.)
Six Bits Blues - Max Roach Quartet
80. The Dream / It's Time
The album Chattahoochee Red contains pieces of all kinds, and the one that opens the volume is a drum improvisation by Max Roach on top or Martin Luther King Jr's 1963 speech at the Lincoln memorial, “I Have A Dream”.
After the final “Free At Last”, the quartet goes on with Max Roach's composition “It's Time”.
Is there anything more to say?
Max Roach Chattahoochee red 01 The Dream It's Time
81. Symbols
A free improvisation duet with Connie Crothers, on piano, recorded in NYC, 1982.
Born in 1941, Connie Crothers was an American pianist, a student of Lennie Tristano. She recorded a twentieth of albums in the years 1980 up to her death in 2016.
Of course, since this is free improvisation, there's no apparent melody, no systematic groove. Despite Roach's constant engagement in avant-garde music, it seems he didn't involve in that musical form except for that recording. I find interesting that he doesn't impose his traditional licks, but simply tries to cooperate with Crothers. Discovering that album as I prepare this post, I'll definitely spend some time listening to her music.
Max Roach & Connie Crothers - Swish (1982) [FULL ALBUM]
82. Ruby My Dear
A Thelonious Monk ballad, here played by Max Roach Quartet, from the 1983 *In the light* album.
Anyway, it is essentially Cecil Bridgewater (trumpet) that we hear, with a light drumming on brushes and, especially when the chorus starts, a bass line by Calvin Hill, and to conclude, a second line on saxophone by Odean Pope.
That's a very humble and melancholic version. Ruby was Monk's first love.
Max Roach Quartet "Ruby My Dear"
83. Straight No Chaser
From the same album as yesterday, let's listen to a second composition by Thelonious Monk, that time, a fast be bop.
The exposition of the theme is played in relatively classic way, but the choruses definitely take their inspiration elsewhere, already on trumpet and even more on saxophone. Still, Max Roach's chorus is rigorously built on the structure of the melody, a 12 bar blues, the changes of the melody and its rhythmic patterns.
Max Roach Quartet "Straight No Chaser"
84. Perdido
A *Live in Berlin* album by the same quartet, recorded in 1984. The song is a bop classic, a composition of Juan Tizol, the famous trombone player in Duke Ellington's band, and also a composer of great songs, of that one, as well as of Caravan.
Nevertheless, the style in which the musicians explore the song is definitely different from the early be bop era. While bass (Tyrone Brown) and drums (Max Roach) provide a consistent and regular groove, trumpet (Cecil Bridgewater) and saxophone (Odean Pope — but the cover says Odeon…) propose kind of a deconstructed version of the classic theme. The second lines are not just here as an ornament, but more as if there were two voices, sometimes in par, sometimes dissonant.
The bass solo is excellent, and when it's time for a drum solo, it is amazing how Roach uses silence to create expectation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNEeBZ8B4x4 (edit: wrong YT link)
Perdido
85. Mr Seven
One more piece by M'Boom, from their third album *Collage*.
It is called Mr Seven because it is based on an infectious 7/8 groove—the composer is Warren Smith.
Max Roach plays vibraphone, Kenyatte Abdur-Rahman is on bass drum and xylophone,
Eddie Allen on bell tree, cabasa, cymbal, Eli Fountain on bells, drum and snare, Ray Mantilla on bells, Joe Chambers on marimba, Fred King on timpani, Roy Brooks on tom tom, Freddie Waits and Warren Smith play “various percussion”!
Will you dance?
Mr. Seven
86. Survivors
Recorded in 1984, this surprising album “with string quartet” — Christopher Finckel on cello, Louise Schulman on viola, Guillermo Figueroa and Donald Bauch on violin — is a kind of duet for the string quartet seems to sing with one voice, the other being Max Roach's drums. (The other tracks from that album are solo pieces.)
Survivors
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