Bouquets for the Living

[Guest Bill Barton]

The passing of Max Roach has hit me hard, as it has many on this board. When I started reflecting on the times I had the honor of hearing Mr. Roach in live performance - with his quartet, the double quartet and M'Boom - memories of the latter were particularly vivid.

One of the founding members of M'Boom is the remarkable percussionist Warren Smith. I had the pleasure of hearing him in a wide variety of musical contexts in the 1970s and early 1980s at Dartmouth College. He was a participant in Bill Cole's "Cycles" series and years later I was in the audience when Cole's Untempered Ensemble performed Seasoning the Greens at the Flynn Theatre Performance Space in Burlington, VT (recorded for Boxholder.)

The new CD Natural Cultural Forces with hornist Mark Taylor, tenor saxophonist Andrew Lamb and bassist Tom Abbs, is getting repeated spins as I write this.

It's a time-worn cliché that a musician in the jazz/creative improvised music world "deserves further recognition," but it's a cliché for good reason. Mr. Smith is a master. Let's appreciate his contributions to the music now, not later.

I'd be very interested in reactions, responses, personal remembrances, thoughts and opinions, particularly from percussionists and other musicians who have appreciated his many contributions and/or played with him.

Warren Smith on MySpace

All Music bio by Eugene Chadbourne

All About Jazz interview

Edited August 20, 2007 by Bill Barton

[Bright Moments]

i have this one and enjoy it:

[Alexander Hawkins]

Was listening to him on Hemphill's 'Flat-Out Jump Suite' earlier, and he's totally brilliant on that!