Gheorghe

One thing I would like to tell you or ask you about Max Roach: I´ve been listening to his art since I was a kid (first on records, later live of course), and what I´ve observed is his very very straight manner or workout of his ideas, both in ensemble and while soloing. With Max, I aways felt a very strict and precise manner of playing, sometimes almost metronomic (not in a negative sense of it !). His drumwork almost gave and gives me an impression that I´d compare to very organized ensemble-ballett dancing, like a line of chorus girls, sheer perfection. Other drummers that were active during the same time and maybe played with the same or similar artists, like Klook, Philly J.J., Roy Haynes, Elvin, .....how should I say it....it "flows" more, it doesn´t sound so "organized"..... Sometimes it´s almost that I could think about Max´drummin (at least on straight ahead 4/4 time) like a further developement or next step compared to something that someone like Buddy Rich may have started. It would be very very interesting for me to get your impressions about it, how you "hear" what Max plays. But I must admit I´m not a drummer, but very aware of what the drummer plays.

I´m a huge fan of Max Roach and I´ll never forget the first time I saw him live. It was that great group with Cecil Bridgewater, Billy Harper and Reggie Workman, in 1978. Still remember very well Harper´s composition "Call of Wild, Peaceful Heart" and an excellent version of Round Midnite. During that time, the only record under his own name, that I could purchase from my dealer was "Speak Brother Speak" , the one you mention in this thread. It´s a great little album. I love it. Recently I purchased some other albums from the early 80´s on the Soulnote Label I think. "In the Light" is very good, and "Pictures in a Frame", those with Odeon Pope (I saw the group in 1980 but maybe I liked the group with Harper and Workman more). Also got an LP "In Amsterdam" with that original group and very similar to what I saw life. Another good set is "In Berlin 1984". I didn´t purchase "To the Max". I think one of the last tours he did was with some chinese trio. Didn´t see it, but it got bad reviews. Recently I saw the DVD "Dizzy´s Dream Band" from the early 80´s with Max playing on some of the tracks (Hot House and Tin Tin Deo I think). Max seems to like very much what John Lewis does on piano, because you see Max with a big big smile to Mr. Lewis while he´s soloing.......

Happy Birthday, Marcello !

When I was a BN collector I got to get anything that´s round and as a hole in the middle. Now if I look back, I don´t listen to many of those numerous Organ-Guitar things from the 60´s . I bought them, listened once or twice to them and that was it..... If I want to get into that groove, I still play "Let ´em Roll", or the nice "I wanna hold your hand" with Green, Larry Young and Hank Mobley. Maybe 2 or 3 more of that kind, but that´s enough for me....

had the same problem once: First, one particular CD didn´t play, then more followed. It was the laser light from the CD player. Got another CD Player and there was no problem any more.

well amazon, often third party sellers. I really miss them groovy record shops. That was part of my youth and part of the scene. Usually, the jazz oriented record dealers had small and fancy shops where you could sit down, have a coffee and smoke (yes indeed) , listen to records, talk to other guys, make connections, check out who´s playin that particular night, who´s in town, and all that nice neighbourhood things. I must admit, the records I listen to most often even after 35 and more years, are the ones I purchased then, or at least stuff that´s built on my listening habits during that time.

Yeah, this is from august 1964 at Edenville France, with Johnny Griffin on some tracks. Bud is great on Straight No Chaser, Wee and Hot House with Griffin and on "Bean ´n the Boys" . Only the rhythm section I think they just were some music lovers, picked up on occasion. I got some sides of unissued material from that date too, with a much longer version of Hot House about 17 minutes long, and a very long versions of "Disorder at the Border" too. Actually, on Bud´s birthday I listened to recordings he made at Birdland a month later, after he had returned to the States. Here he really plays great on some fast versions of "Hallelujah", "Get Happy" and "Just One of Those Things" and there is a tape recording of his birthday celebration with some friends where he is urged to "say something about his birthday" and says "I apreciate your efforts to make my birthday glad".....

I love the album, especially the long track Healing Song, with is Side 1 The Memories of J.W. Coltrane must be shorter, about 12 minutes, and there is another shorter track I dont remember the title. But can someone recommend to me similar albums from about that time, I mean after "Karma" and maybe with the same or similar personnel like "Life at the East"?

What can I say, my idol ! Needless to say I´ll listen to a lot of his recordings this evening. Also got a tape with Happy Birthday Celebrations from 29.9.64, when he celebrated his 40th Birthday with some friends on Fire Islands during his Birdland stay in september/october 1964.

I heard him only once it 1985, so that was four years later. I loved that concert and still remember it very well, and he had a fantastic trio with George Mraz and Art Taylor.

I must admit I´m not a Taylor expert. And it seems to be the same problem in Austria. The big festivals are to much into cross-over acts and the others maybe can´t afford him, I´ll never know. But I´d like to get some opinions about his two BN-record. I first got "Unit Structures" wich I dig, but I find it´s easier to listen to this than to "Conquistador". Can it be possible, that "Unic Structures" is more accessible than "Conquistador" ?

by the way: two days ago I did a jam session at some club and a young guy and a young lady (never saw them before) , both playing alto came on stage callin´out "Bouncing with Bud" which we did. Anyway it´s one of my favourites..... I was so glad young people dig his music and play it, never thought it might happen. Really inspired me to stretch out on that, always had in mind the "Paris Jam".

One of the great piano players ! About Mabern with Lee Morgan, I´d also recommend the double CD "Night of the Cookers" with Freddie Hubbard + Lee Morgan and Harold Mabern on piano. Though the sound quality is not the best, it has it´s great moments and Mabern really stretches out on those long tracks. Really, the first listening experience with Mabern I had a long time ago, I think it was some Wes Montgomery from Europe, Paris I think from 1965 with Harold Mabern on it. I still remember he was especially strong on "Impressions".

I remember well the Epic LP and have the Fontana CD (japanese edition). It´s a must for Bud Powell fans, since Bud really is in top form, his solos on Dance of the Infidels and Bouncing with Bud are at least as exiting as the original versions from 1949. And dig the second side with the regular Messengers playing "The Midget" and "Nite in Tunisia". One of the great live albums of Americans in Europe, together with the 1960 Essen Festival with Hawk and Bud, and the 1963 "Americans in Europe" for Impulse! with Don Byas, Idrees Sulieman, Bud, Kenny, Lou Bennett etc. ....

yeah , thought the same when I read that book. I was a bit disappointed. Like the Hank Mobley book from about the same time.

anyway, that was a great time, the late 70´s . There was an increasing interest in acoustic jazz again, Dexter and Griffin came back, Max Roach was on top, Mingus was still active, Dizzy was Dizzy and everybody was waitin´ for Miles. It was a beautiful time, live jazz everywhere and most young people, students etc. attended shows and festivals, it was somehow "hip" to go see Dex or Griff or all the great musicians who had survived.....

very sad news. One of the really great pianists.

In Ira Gitler´s book "Jazz Masters from the 40´s " is an extended story where Jackie McLean tells, how he was introduced to Bud through his brother Richie, who during that time didn´t play but started later. I find a lot of Bud´s influence in Richies playing especially on the Mercury LP "At Basin Street" (Brown/Roach). On the faster tracks he comes very near to Bud´s groove, but not as good as Bud. As was told here, Richie had interesting voicings of his own and he could have been a very good composer, had he lived longer. He´s originals on the mentioned Brown/Roach album are very very nice tunes....

he´s still alive? To bad I missed him many years ago when he played at Jazzland in Viena. Anyway, I don´t know much more about him that the tune "The Street Beat", and heard the original version much later. First I knew it only from the 1950 date Bird with Bud and Fats......

Yes, that´s some thing you never give away. Anyway, it was a special day for me when I finally had that 3 LP. I´d say it changed my whole musical live, opened up my mind. Imangine, I heard Mingus before I heard Parker. Got to buy Parker records because I dug that "Parkeriana" so much and said, if that´s the guy who taught Mingus that stuff, he must be a gas, got to get all his records. And it made me open to the New Thing. From Mingus with Dolphy to Free Jazz, and back to bop. So, this 3 LP set was the "center" of everything I would listen to afterwards......

Yes I know about it, the Newport Rebels. And I know the foto, always was quit amused there are more dogs in the background than "audience" or "fans", or did the dogs dig what they heard, maybe ! But now that I´m reading the Mingus Book "Mingus Speaks", he stated that he was not pleased with OC on stage and that he sounded poor when he tried to play a standard. Well I know the version of Ornette Coleman of Parker´s "Klaktoveesedsteene" with Paul Bley. Ornette isn´t that bad, plays some fresh stuff on it, but I think after one chorus he lost the form or wasn´t interested anymore in the form. Well, maybe Max Roach later changed his mind, maybe when he himself started to go more "far out", and.....last not least, didn´t Max record with Cecil Taylor......and compared to Cecil Taylor, OC is almost traditional..... And the stuff Max did around 1985 with just a string quartet, (not the double quartet, only drums and a classical stringquartet): Sounds like the stuff Ornette Coleman would do with strings with Denardo on drums, it sounds very similar to that.....

Actually, the 3 LP set on the America Label was one of my first jazz albums. The french America Label was the best way to purchase Mingus stuff during that time in Europe. Yes, it sounds much better than the CD, and my CD has another version of "So long Eric", without Johnny Coles. On the 3 LP set it´s mistitled "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" and is the only number on which Johnny Coles plays (he collapsed on stage). I never understood, how the tune could be mistitled that way, because "So Long Eric" and "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" don´t have nothing in common.

he really did? To me, he always looked and behaved very gentleman-like, very intellectual. And as open and free much of his outputs were (starting with his 1962 "Speak Brother Speak", it seems strange to me he hated OC´s music. I have thought, he is one of the bop fathers, who made the transition, the way how he opened his music to more avantgarde stuff and political messages.

He really was a great musician, and so flexibel. Could play anything. He was also very good on some live recordings he did with Dexter Gordon, where he plays some really exiting piano. I also love his contributions on those marathon sessions "Montreux Summit" 1977, where he shared keyboards (electric and acoustic) with Bob James and does everything from bop to electric.

Besides the interview for Taylor´s book "Notes and Tones", there´s lot inside information about Max Roach in an old german book from the late 70´s done by Gudrun Endress, with a long and very interesting interview with Max Roach. Others, about all from let´s say 1976-1978 were done with Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, Ornette Coleman, and many many others...... I´d also be glad to read a full bio about Max Roach. He is one of my idols, one of the musicians I love most. Was lucky to see him live on several occasions, always great, I´ll never forget that as long as I live.