Max Roach: Plus Four Sessions: Complete 1958 - 1959 auf 3 CDs

Mit Booker Little und George Coleman. Diese 3-CD Box enthält ein 36-seitiges Booklet sowie alle Aufnahmen dieser Band von Juni 1958 bis Jannuar 1959. Als Bonus Tracks sind 3 Alternativ-Takes ausgewählt worden, die in Mono-Versionen für ihre erste LP aufgenommen worden sind. Im Original wurden die Songs dieser Box als 7 LPs veröffentlicht:
Max on the Chicago Scene (EmArcy), Max Roach + 4 At Newport (Mercury), Deeds, Not Words (Riverside), Award-Winning Drummer (Time), The Many Sides of Max (Mercury), Sessions, Live (Calliope), and The Defiant Ones (United Artists).

Product Information

In 1958 Max Roach “one of the most outstanding and innovative drummers of his time, and a significant figure in the history of jazz” decided to create a new quintet with young jazz musicians. The front line featured two outstanding new players from Memphis, Tennessee: 23-year-old tenor sax George Coleman (who joined Miles Davis’ group in 1963) and 19-year-old trumpet player Booker Little (who, unfortunately, would die in 1961 of uremia). Ray Draper, an 18-year-old tuba player from New York, also joined the quintet soon after its inception; and Art Davis, double-bassist, 24, from Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) were the last components of what became one of the most powerful hard-bop quintets in history, the Max Roach Plus Four.

The group is basically the same in all the sessions, except for the use of piano (by Eddie Baker or Tommy Flanagan) in two dates, and trombone (by Julian Priester) in another.

This 3-CD set gathers all the American recordings the group made between June 1958 and January 1959, and showcases one of the most overlooked periods in Roach’s remarkable jazz career. As bonus tracks we have included three alternate takes recorded exclusively for the mono version of the first LP, and the only performance made by the group on one well-nown TV show. (freshsoundrecords. com)