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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZAOUkU4luE

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqhmwRSmeyI

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGCt9U7gQFk

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK2OX0Jn2YQ

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7tKkdPRkHA

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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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci9zyYJwGW0

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9CfWuUIhvk

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pYqbRGZXxE

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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!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUpdz--0ojE

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEuByuaVT7k

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJVL5uRDTrM

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwUEsfsNtJA

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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.

https://youtu.be/9k2UUQx1eiQ?si=5KH547Zn8Q6N3CZC

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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.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhCBxfeVhh0

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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!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xora8AW22hw

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ3YVt-OZAw

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0z0eiil_rA

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2JNFHzRzzs

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARa55sjUFQ0&t=3060s

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t74vwgkmMOM

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NYG2-Woswc

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4FeXshTPGw&t=1261s

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCCA_FMS_dQ

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUfeqgWNsUs

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l5MpIPyE2s

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdgoPgbp9VU

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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”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzfdktgaoRU

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9xK0dEQ2H8

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjtbNrTir5I

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJQ5b1o5dRI

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V53wnyPgfc

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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.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WQR512n3eQ

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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?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxneNQUMcCc

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kntGMbEUi2c

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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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQLTuJXyo7s

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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.

https://youtu.be/ZEX7kr81g6w

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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)

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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?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEUs_9KVFc0

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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.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1S-uy3ehbU

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