Europe Jazz Media Chart - August 2021

The American drummer Roy Brooks was on this planet from March 9,1938 to November 15, 2005. He was born in Detroit, and started playing drums as a child, and his earliest experiences of music came through his mother, who sang in church. He was a skilled basketball player in his teens and received a scholarship to attend the Detroit Institute of Technology, a study that lasted only three semesters, when instead of studying, he went on tour with Yusef Lateef. After a time with Lateef and Barry Harris, he played with the Beans Bowles and with the Four Tops in Las Vegas. He played with Horace Silver from 1959 to 1964, including on the album «Song for My Father», and in 1963 he released his first album as a leader. He then freelanced in New York City through the 60s and early 1970s, playing with Lateef again from 1967 to 70, Sonny Stitt, Lee Morgan, Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, Junior Cook, Blue Mitchell, Charles McPherson, Pharoah Sanders, Wes Montgomery, Dollar Brand, Jackie McLean, James Moody, Charles Mingus and Milt Jackson. On the recording «The Free Slave» from 1970 he collaborated with Cecil McBee and Woody Shaw, and later in 1970 he joined Max Roach band Boom, and in 1972 he started the ensemble The Artistic Truth.

Brooks concerts often featured unusual instruments such as saws and drums with vacuum tubes set up to adjust the pitch. He eventually gained a reputation for his often bizarre behavior on and off stage, and occasionally sought treatment to improve his mental illness. On «Understanding», we meet him with trumpeter Woody Shaw, saxophonist Carlos Garnett, pianist Harold Mabern and bassist Cecil McBee, in a live recording recorded by Kevin Gray and the Left Bank Jazz Society at The Famous Ballroom in Baltimore on November 1, 1970 released on 3 LPs on 180 gram vinyls and 2 CDs, with a comprehensive booklet with rare photos, and interviews with Carlos Garnett and Cecil McBee. In addition, we get a text from the journalist Herb Boyd, who was a good friend of Brooks, the alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, who grew up with Brooks, and drum colleague Louis Hayes and others. The project was created following a request from Reel to Real Recordings to make a positive contribution to Black Lives Matter. The idea was a celebration of the talent, courage and spirit of the black musicians who created a timeless and universal art, with the recognition that the injustices of 50 years ago are still with us. All proceeds from the sales album go directly to The Detroit Sound Conservancy.

It all starts with a short introduction, before it all «races» away with the song «Prelude to Understanding», which after just over 20 minutes turns into «Understanding», as you have previously heard on the album «The Free Slave» released in Brooks name in 1972, starring both Shaw and McBee. Here they take it down a bit, but at the same time the song is filled with energy from Brooks in the background, and it feels like being in the middle of a jamsession from the 60s or 70s with an extremely ongoing Woody Shaw in the «driver seat». And right from the start, Brooks is kicking Shaw to perform to the maximum. We get consistently long songs, where the shortest, closing track «The Theme» lasts just over four minutes, while the longest, «Taurus Woman» lasts just over half an hour.

I remember back in these times when a number of American musicians visited Scandinavia, and put the small clubs around to a boil. And this session is no exception. Here it's about playing the other musicians «off» the stage, and all five do what they can to make it happen. And none of the musicians settle for «a round or two» when they do solos. Here they take the whole journey, and it sounds like they do not give up until the brain clearly stops them. And at the back it boils all the way in Brooks drums, and he kicks and strikes in all directions, but never so much that the others fall off. Lovely and greedy tough! This has become one of the toughest club concerts I have ever heard on record, especially when it comes to energy discharges, which is on a par with some records and concert experiences I have had with, for example, the George Adams / Don Pullen Quartet. And the good thing about this live recording was that it is with some of the many musicians who also toured around small, remote jazz clubs in Northern Europe at that time. I think there were many who really discovered the good jazz at these concerts. And had this gang visited a club near where I was at the time, I would have gotten new favorites. But here we get them on 3 LPs (or 2 CDs), which will be played at volume 11.5 for a long time to come.

Daniel Herskedal plays one of the first rhythm instruments in the history of jazz: tuba. Daniel Herskedal's compositions are played on NYC based WQXR, one of the most listened and prestigious classical music radio stations in the world. Daniel Herskedal delves into the Scandinavian as well as the Middle East musical traditions. His trio on the Harbour album is remarkable; Eyolf Dale on piano and celesta with his subtle intrusions and Helge Andreas Norbakken on drums and marimba with his utmost care as if performing lullabies for children who prefer listening to the complementary rhythms until the end of the melodies and thus staying awake instead of going to sleep.

LJN reviewer Adam Sieff (LINK TO REVIEW) wrote that tenor saxophonist "Ruben Fox has made a highly entertaining calling card that displays his considerable strengths as a producer, arranger, songwriter and instrumentalist with skill, artistry, humour and emotion." This is a joyful album made in New York, and there are classy vocalists involved too, notably Samara Joy and South African Vuyo Sotashe. Album highlight is "So Much Joy", which is a good description of the whole album, which is released on Reuben James' Rufio label.