Max Roach — It's Time

[Late]

I've owned this album for about ten years (— not that long, I know). I used to think it was "interesting" and of "historical importance," which really means that I wasn't listening close enough. I've listened, this week, at least twelve times to this album. Now I'm starting to think it's a great album. I still have a few reservations, but they'll probably diminish with closer listening. Some questions/points of discussion to start:

• First off, what do you think? Do you think, in total, it works? What about the choice of soloists? (I think Clifford Jordan is near perfect here.)

• Bob Thiele didn't use Rudy for this record — maybe because of the size of the choir? Less than a year later, however, Rudy seemed equipped to handle the band + choir for Donald Byrd's A New Perspective, so maybe not?

• Thiele used George Piros as the recording engineer. Piros's work was, at the time, largely in the classical world, namely for Mercury. It makes sense that Thiele would look to an engineer with experience with large groups, but — when you listen to the record — it doesn't sound like Piros knew exactly what to do with Roach's kit. It's often recessed, which gives it that "hall" sound typical of large orchestral recordings. But maybe that was what Roach wanted. It certainly wasn't Rudy's approach.

• In the liner notes, Rudy Van Gelder is listed as "re-recording" and "remastering" engineer. Maybe some of you in the sound engineering business can enlighten me. Why would Van Gelder have to re-record? What does that even mean? And why the 1962 remastering? Was Thiele not happy with Piros's work, or was this standard procedure?

• Cuscuna, in the original U.S. compact disc notes, mentions that this session was difficult, which I'm reading as "expensive." Here's what Cuscuna writes:

"Max Roach's experiment, using writing for trained voices and thoroughly integrating their parts into a jazz ensemble, was a unique and difficult project. "Living Room" and "It's Time" were attempted at three unsuccessful sessions (Jan. 25, Jan. 31, and Feb. 1, 1962) before this album was recorded at three more sessions (Feb. 15, Feb. 26, and Feb. 27, 1962). Incidentally, a seventh piece — "Prelude" — was done at the final date, but no tape of that master has survived."

• So, SIX sessions were needed for this project to become an actual record. I can't imagine that Thiele was thrilled with that. I also have to wonder — could this be why Roach stopped recording for Impulse? In the liner notes, the photo of Thiele and Roach together — well, neither look particularly happy (but maybe they're just concentrating on the playback).

• Coleridge Perkinson. More needs to be said/written about this guy. Please post what you know.

For 1962, this album seems fairly ahead of its time. Maybe the time for "It's Time" is now, as perhaps it wasn't then.

Share your thoughts/observations!

[soulpope]

• Coleridge Perkinson. More needs to be said/written about this guy. Please post what you know.

He took a course for conductors in Mozarteum/Salzburg Austria in 1960 and was furthermore studying in the Netherlands in the early 60`s (inter alias taking classes with Franco Ferrara) ........

Edited March 19, 2015 by soulpope

[king ubu]

some previous stuff on Perkinson:

thought there was more, but this is all that a google search brings up (all, other than some mentions in passing)

[AllenLowe]

I like the album, but I find Clifford Jordan to be one of those competent jazz players almost completely lacking in spirit or inspiration. A little bit like Jimmy Heath in this respect; can play, knows his business, but dead at the core.

[Late]

... I find Clifford Jordan to be one of those competent jazz players almost completely lacking in spirit or inspiration ...

Who would you like to hear on this session instead?

[Late]

Thanks for those links, Ubu. I should have done the leg work! Here's a quote on Perkinson from one of your links:

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson was born in New York in 1932. After graduating from New York's High School for Music and Art he studied composition at the Manhattan School of Music, receiving his bachelor's degree in music in 1953 and a master's degree in composition in 1954. He later studied conducting at the Berkshire Music Center, at the Salzburg Mozarteum, and with Franco Ferrara and Dean Dixon. From 1965 to 1970, he was co-founder and associate conductor for the Symphony of the New World and served as its acting music director during the 1972-73 season. At various times in his career he also served as music director or composer-in-residence for the Negro Ensemble Company, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, and for productions at the American Theatre Lab, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and the Goodman Theatre. At the time of his death he was also composer-in-residence for the Ritz Chamber Players of Jacksonville, Florida.

Perkinson's composing career began in high school, when his composition "And Behold" won the High School for Music and Art choral competition in 1948. His career demonstrates his versatility as a composer of classical music, popular music, theater and film music, and jazz. He composed and arranged for a variety of jazz and popular artists including Harry Belafonte, Donald Byrd, and Marvin Gaye (for whom he arranged Gaye's first platinum album, I Want You, issued in 1976 on the Motown label). He served as pianist for the Max Roach Jazz Quartet in 1964-65. He composed and conducted scores for a number of award-winning theatrical, television, and documentary and feature films, including A Warm December, starring Sidney Poitier (1972). He also served as guest conductor for numerous orchestras all over the world. His classical compositions have been recorded by the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, flutist Harold Jones, pianists John Cheek and Karen Walwyn, and cellist Anthony Elliott.

At the Center for Black Music Research, Perkinson was artistic advisor to Ensemble Stop-Time, the Center's grant-funded ensemble formed to explore the commonalities between the various black vernacular music forms, including jazz and gospel. In 1999, he began his tenure as conductor and music director of the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble, a group of musicians dedicated to performing a spectrum of music by black composers, from popular music and jazz to concert music. The Ensemble staged a successful series of thirty-four concerts in Chicago, at the South Shore Cultural Center, Buntrock Hall of Symphony Center, and other venues. The Ensemble also performed for members of congress in Washington DC and in New York City. In 2001, he conducted the Ensemble's world-premiere concert performance of Doxology: The Doxy Canticles, an opera with libretto by Paul Carter Harrison and music by Wendell Logan.

[AllenLowe]

instead of Jordan? Stanley Turrentine, Max's prior tenor, would have been great, for one.

[B. Clugston]

I really enjoyed this when I first picked it up. I don't have the same enthusiasm for it any more, but it's still a good date. Highlights for me are Richard Williams and Julian Priester. I'm fine with Clifford Jordan on this one, but I get Allen's point.

Re: the multiple sessions. There's some tricky choral parts and I imagine it would have taken a while to get band and choir in synch.

[uli]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BD8Ixr3w48

[JSngry]

Clifford Jordan seemed to have hit kind of a "dead spot" in the mid-70s, at least on recordings, but otherwise, jeez, that guy's tone alone has got all the life anybody should expect. He's got that preachy edge and those signifyin' inflections, the guy was forreal TUFF, ok?

As for the album under discussion, I have never really "warmed" to it, in spite of recognizing the significance of its accomplishment. Just doesn't feel "relaxed" (which with Max is always a relative term...). I'll chalk that up to the size of the ensemble, a probable lack of meaningfully extended rehearsal opportunities, and the ongoing logistics during the recording process, which were probably pretty intense.

But - the title tune became a mainstay in Max's book (there's an absolutely S^EA_RI^NG version with Billy Harper on the first Denon Tokyo side. And "Living Room" resurfaced on Abbey Lincoln's People In Me album, with a totally different vibe, one which I prefer to Max's version.

Me myself, I'm one of those hardcore type who thinks that Max Roach never made an insignificant record. Even the latter of the Soul Notes. Institutionalize-y, yes. But not insignificant. Ever. Speak, Brother, Speak this is not, but about that type of thing is not something which I will not worry.

[soulpope]

But - the title tune became a mainstay in Max's book (there's an absolutely S^EA_RI^NG version with Billy Harper on the first Denon Tokyo side. And "Living Room" resurfaced on Abbey Lincoln's People In Me album, with a totally different vibe, one which I prefer to Max's version.

The Denon Tokyo sides are excellent indeed...as are platters released on Baystate, Horo......

[clifford_thornton]

haven't dug out those Denons in a long time. They are good.

[JSngry]