What a find! Here’s the Max Roach Quintet, complete with an interview, at the Alhambra in Paris in 1960. Note the emphasis Max places on “exclusive” as a way of defining his group’s originality and uniqueness, maybe a subtle way of saying, much as Ornette Coleman had with a contemporaneous album title, “This is our music.” It reminded me of the controversy that had flared the previous year when “Take Five” got so much attention as a groundbreaking work in 5/4 and overshadowed the innovative 5/4 work that Julian Priester and Tommy Turrentine had created with “As Long As You’re Living.” The song was premiered by Max in 1959 and recorded shortly thereafter by Abbey Lincoln with a powerful lyric written by Oscar Brown, Jr. So what a joy it is to discover (at 18:35) that it’s the second of the two group pieces heard here. The quintet features Tommy Turrentine on trumpet, Stanley Turrentine on tenor saxophone, Julian Priester on trombone, and Bobby Boswell on bass. I think this is the first time I’ve seen Boswell, who came of out Pittsburgh with the Turrentine’s. And while Max’s opening solo is truncated for an interview, it’s an excellent example of the compositional concept he brought to solo drum pieces. Thanks always, Max.
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