My Favourite Records
Where does anyone start when compiling a list of favourites? What is the criteria for 'favourite'? Our tastes evolve constantly and we move through different emotional states throughout our lives, all of which re-define what we listen and respond to.
Where does anyone start when compiling a list of favourites? What is the criteria? Our tastes evolve constantly and we move through different emotional states throughout our lives, all of which re-define what we listen and respond to.
I've been thinking over the last few weeks about the recording which have been significant to me in one way or another, either because they gave me the inspiration I needed at a particular point in time, or they struck a nerve which complimented what I was feeling, or they just kicked my ass.
Here are those recordings. Funny thing is that I listen to all of them from time to time still, as I'm from a generation which played a record from start to finish, scoured the artwork and tried to imagine what it was like to be a fly-on-the-wall for the performance.
In no particular order:
Live Recordings
1. Live at the Regal B.B. King (1964)
2. Live at the Five Spot Eric Dolphy (1961)
3. Live at the Lightouse Lee Morgan (1972)
4. No Cover No Minimum Billy Ecstine (1960)
5. One Night Stand! Live At the Harlem Square Club Sam Cooke (1963)
6. Swiss Movement Les McCann and Eddie Harris (1969)
7. Live at the Fillmore West Aretha Franklin/King Curtis (1971)
8. Live at the Sex Machine Kool and the Gang (1971)
9. Doin’ the Thing Horace Silver Quintet (1961)
10. All the World’s a Stage Rush (1977)
11. Live at the Blackhawk Shelly Manne and His Men (1959)
12. Sunday at the Village Vanguard/Waltz for Debbie Bill Evans Trio (1961)
13. Four and More/My Funny Valentine Miles Davis (1964)
14. Live! Lou Rawls (1966)
15. In Concert Peter, Paul & Mary (1966)
Studio Recordings
1. Winelight Grover Washington Jr. (1982)
2. Backlash Freddie Hubbard (1966)
3. Free to Be Donald Harrison (1998)
4. Black Codes from the Underground Wynton Marsalis (1982)
5. Far East Suite Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn (1967)
6. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band The Beatles (1967)
7. Just In Time Larry Willis (1989)
8. A Love Supreme John Coltrane (1965)
9. Workin’, Steamin’, Cookin’ and Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet (4 albums in 2 1956 sessions)
10. The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Charles Mingus (1963)
11. Ellington Uptown Duke Ellington (1951)
12. Clifford Brown & Max Roach Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet (1954)
13. Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley (1961)
14. Someday My Prince Will Come Wynton Kelly (1961)
15. Roll Call Hank Mobley (1960)
16. With the Tenors of Our Time Roy Hargrove (1995)
17. John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (1963)
18. Live at The Senator Brian Dickinson (1995)
19. Stardust Willie Nelson (1978)
20. Voodoo D’Angello (2000)
21. Nefertiti Miles Davis (1968)
22. Blue Soul Blue Mitchell (1959)
23. Wanton Spirit Kenny Baron, Roy Haynes, Charlie Haden (1994)
24. Getz/Gilberto Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto (1964)
25. To My Queen Walt Dickerson (1962)
26. Blue Serge Serge Chaloff (1956)
27. The Vibe Roy Hargrove (1992)
Max Roach...and Roy Brooks
The Max Roach quartet was playing at the State Theatre in Detroit. I think it's called the Fillmore now. It was finally my chance to see the great Max Roach in person.
The Max Roach quartet was playing at the State Theatre in Detroit. I think it's called the Fillmore now. It was finally my chance to see the great Max Roach in person. At the time, (early 1996) I'd been listening and transcribing whatever I could find. I would head to Liberty Records in Ann Arbor and buy pretty much anything with Max on it.
I was relatively early-on in my jazz studies and had only been playing the music for a couple of years, but I'd honed in on Max, Art Blakey and Philly Joe as the architects and pioneers of the music, at least as far as the drums were concerned.
I left very early to make sure any delays at the border wouldn't cause me to be late or miss the show. Everything went smoothly and I was at the theatre about an hour early.
I walked up to the theatre thinking I would spend my time at the bar until the door opened. as I walked into the theatre I saw a red-carpeted stairway. I couldn't see past the door at the end, but intrigued I climbed the old, seemingly vertical stairway. When I reached the top I saw what was obviously a pre-show party. I recognised a few people from the Detroit music scene, Ed Love the great jazz DJ, and I remember seeing Larry Nozero and Kirk Lightsey having a drink in the corner bar. Then, I looked to my immediate right and I see the great Max Roach standing with a friend, not 5 feet away. I calmly walked up to him, mumbled something about being a huge fan, blah blah, and handed him my program and the sharpie I had stashed in my coat pocket. He looked at his friend and smiled a gentle smile, and autographed my program complete with a semi-abstract drawing of a drum set.
I'm pretty good at not overstaying my welcome, so I thanked Mr. Roach, shook his hand, nervously shook his friends hand (I suppose to apologise for the intrusion) and left down the same steep stairway.
By that time the bar had opened so I adjourned myself to savour my good luck and study every stroke of my newly acquired autograph.
It's funny how the mind works. I opened my program and looked at the artwork. Then I thought to myself 'Shit. That was Roy Brooks standing there with Max Roach'. I had happened upon two of the great drummers of our time, Roy Brooks being one of the most fertile creative minds of the Detroit/American scene, a great, almost unsung hero, and I had virtually ignored his presence while I fanned over Max Roach. You idiot. It wasn't missing a moment to bag 2 legendary autographs that made me feel so terrible. It's the fact that Roy Brooks was/is a legend, and hasn't had an easy time of it. Although he'd played with greats like Woody Shaw, Yousef Lateef, Horace Silver and Charles Mingus, and made some of the most adventurous music I've ever heard, he'd never rreally achieved the level of notoriety of his contemporaries, and struggled for years with mental illness, ending his life in poverty and imprisonment. I somehow felt my inadvertent snub, no matter how innocent in some way reflected, to him, the lack of wide-spread recognition that had been afforded the likes of Max Roach. It's bothered my ever since, and I've thought about that evening many times over the years.
The next day was a Saturday, if I remember. I drove to Ann Arbor Michigan to Borders Books and Music, which at the time had the best-curated jazz section in Detroit, and I bought 5 or 6 Roy Brooks records, including:
The Free Slave (on vinyl)
The Golden Flute (Yousef Lateef)
M'Boom (with Max Roach, again on vinyl)
I can't remember the others, but these 4 have stayed with me to today, and The Free Slave is one of the great records of all time, featuring a young Woody Shaw, with Cecil McBee, George Coleman and I think Hugh Lawson on piano. Damn, I wish I had been more in the moment and recognised the great Roy Brooks.
Check out this terrific interview with Roy Brooks, and an article/obituary in the Guardian.