1. Quiet As It's Kept
2. To Lady
3. Lotus Blossom
4. As Long As You're Living
5. The More I See You
6. Juliano
Max Roach - Drums
Tommy Turrentine - Trumpet
Julian Priester - Trombone
Stanley Turrentine - Tenor sax
Bob Boswell - Bass
In the annals of jazz drumming, there are only a few seminal figures.
One of them is Max Roach. From his earliest days in the mid-40's on
52nd Street with Dizzy Gillespie; as the regular drummer with the
classic Charlie Parker Quintet including the celebrated 1953 recording
at Massey Hall, Toronto; and as co-leader of the ground-breaking Clifford
Brown/Max Roach Quintet, Roach maintained his reputation as one of
the most influential drummers in jazz.
Following the tragic and untimely deaths of Clifford Brown and Richie
Powell in a car accident in 1956 (both of whom were original members
of the previously noted quintet), Roach struggled with the past and
was ambivalent about the future direction of his music. Nevertheless
he brought together this short-lived piano-less quintet which continued
to concentrate on hard bop themes. In addition to Roach, the members
were the Turrentine brothers, Tommy on trumpet and Stanley on tenor
sax, along with trombonist Julian Priester and an unknown bass player,
Bob Boswell.
The material for the most part is original pieces with the exception
of The More I See You, which features Stanley Turrentine's
wide-open tenor sound, and Kenny Dorham's Lotus Blossom which
has some interesting drum work by Roach. The other entries all feature
the blistering trumpet work of Tommy Turrentine, the mellow trombone
of Julian Priester, the soulful tenor of Stanley Turrentine and ultimately
the cohesive superior sound of this under-recorded transition band.
The remastering on this true stereo disc is excellent but, coming
in at a meagre 33 minutes, this CD is not a value-for-money play,
but an opportunity to have a long out-of-print record from a unique
group.
Pierre Giroux
CD Reviews
Mercury SR 60170
