This 1981 live show at Washington DC's famous Blues Alley features drummer extraordinaire Max Roach and his band. Filmed lovingly by filmmaker Gary Keys, this intimate portrait of Roach is stunning in it's simplicity. The music and interplay between the musicians is the main focus, almost like the camera is eavesdropping on a private jam session. The band sounds full and fierce, the film crisp and personal, every note a celebration.

Softpack Wallet- Remastered by Bernie Grundman. An avant-garde masterpiece, a vocal-instrumental suite, a work of collective improvisation, directly addressing the racial and political issues of it's day, We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite is one of the most important artistic statements of the Civil Rights Movement and one of the most groundbreaking jazz albums of all time. Roach vowed after it's release that he would never again play music that is not socially relevant and told Down Beat magazine, "We American jazz musicians of African descent have proved beyond all doubt that we're master musicians of our instruments. Now what we have to do is employ our skill to tell the dramatic story of our people and what we've been through. " The album inspired Roach to broaden his scope as a composer and collaborate with choreographers, filmmakers, and playwrights.

This Max Roach Riverside quintet date is notable features the young trumpeter Booker Little, with Ray Draper's tuba as a melody instrument; tenor saxophonist George Coleman and bassist Art Davis complete the group. Highlights include It's You or No One, You Stepped out of a Dream and Roach's unaccompanied drum piece Conversation.

180gm Tip-on Jacket Remastered by Bernie Grundman. Roach vowed after it's release that he would never again play music that is not socially relevant and told Down Beat magazine, "We American jazz musicians of African descent have proved beyond all doubt that we're master musicians of our instruments. Now what we have to do is employ our skill to tell the dramatic story of our people and what we've been through." The album inspired Roach to broaden his scope as a composer and collaborate with choreographers, filmmakers, and playwrights. The LP includes extraordinary liner notes written by Hentoff himself, giving a context and insight that adds to the experience of hearing these magnificent performances.

1960 - 1961 LIVE, RARE RECORDINGS VINYL HAS BEEN OUT OF PRINT & Completely UNAVAILABLE A PIONEER OF BEBOP DRUMMING Double LP set - OPAQUE GREEN & WHITE

Percussion Bitter Sweet, released in 1961 on Impulse! Records, is one of preeminent jazz drummer Max Roach's most politically charged and musically expansive recordings. Recorded over two days in September 1960 at Universal Studios in Chicago, the record reflects Roach's deepening engagement with themes of social justice and Pan-African identity. The ensemble features trumpeter Tommy Turrentine, tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan, and tuba innovator Ray Draper, alongside Roach's own commanding blend of cymbal textures, mallets, and explosive rhythmic detail. The inclusion of vocalist Abbey Lincoln - Roach's artistic and political partner at the time - adds urgency and emotional power to the project's most pointed statements. Elsewhere, "Mama" and "Praise for a Martyr" explore personal and collective grief through dynamic interplay and modal intensity. The Verve Vault series is always mastered from analog tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Limited edition of 750 numbered copies on translucent green coloured 180-gram audiophile vinyl. The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan is an album by American jazz drummer Max Roach with pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali, recorded in 1964 and released 1965. This is a classic of it's kind and it is fortunate that it was made, but it is a tragedy that Hasaan would not record again and that he would soon sink back into obscurity This is the only record where you can hear pianist Hasaan. We owe Max Roach this miraculous session where we can discover new pianistic sounds that lay somewhere between Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk, soon wishing we had a whole discography of this to explore. Making this is a rare gem. But beyond the historic nature of the session comes the music and for that the word "legendary energetic" seems more appropriate.

The Lenten season of 1679 was a cold, rainy, and dreary affair. The new Pope, Innocent XI, was no supporter of the increasingly permissive nature of Roman aristocracy, and he took measures to enforce edicts prohibiting staged performances before a paying public, as well as a general ban on the appearance of women on the stage. Reluctantly granted, however, was permission for private performances, and this concession led to the fortuitous circumstances that made the premiere of Scarlatti’s first opera possible—the ingenuity of the Bernini brothers who produced the work; a liberal interpretation of “private performance”; the support and attendance of Queen Christina of Sweden; and, certainly not least, the fact that Pope Innocent had left the city during the carnival, leaving the enforcement of his conservatism to some of the very cardinals who most enjoyed and supported public theatre! Founded in 2008 and led by tenor Bud Roach, the vocal quartet Capella Intima presents unique programming of mainly seventeenth-century repertoire, serving as the ensemble in residence for the HAMMER BAROQUE concert series in Hamilton, Ontario. Programmes such as The Poor Man’s Vespers(a hypothetical collection of small-scale psalm settings for churches of modest means), The Paradise of Travellers (Italian repertoire interspersed with the recollections of English travelers on the Grand Tour), and concert performances of Marco Da Gagliano’s La Dafne, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and Scarlatti’s youthful masterpiece presented here, have established the ensemble as a driving force on the Canadian early music scene.

An avant-garde masterpiece, a vocal-instrumental suite, a work of collective improvisation, directly addressing the racial and political issues of it's day, We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite is one of the most important artistic statements of Civil Rights Movement and one of the most groundbreaking jazz albums of all time. Max Roach was already almost a decade into his career as one of the most influential jazz drummers and composers when he teamed up with lyricist Oscar Brown Jr. To collaborate on a piece they planned to perform at the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963. Recorded just months after the February 1960 Greensboro sit-ins, the album stands as an early musical testament to the burgeoning rage, anger and passion that would take the Civil Rights Movement from it's early victory in Montgomery in 1955 into a future that would dramatically alter race relations in the United States. The second release from the newly launched New York City based jazz label Candid Records, and produced by label co-founder, famed music critic and social activist, Nat Hentoff, the album is a bold statement, focused on civil injustices in black history ranging from slavery to contemporary racial prejudices, and featuring some of the finest jazz musicians ever, including Abbey Lincoln, Coleman Hawkins, Eric Dolphy, Booker Little, and Michael Babatunde Olatunji. The five movements of the work are organized as a historical progression through African-American history, a shape similar to the one in Duke Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige. The Freedom Now Suite moves from slavery to Emancipation Day to the contemporary civil-rights struggle and African independence. The LP includes extraordinary liner notes written by Hentoff himself, giving a context and insight that adds to the experience of hearing these magnificent performances. 1. Driva' Man 5:14 2. Freedom Day 6:05 3. Triptych: Prayer / Protest / Peace 8:06 4. All Africa 8:03 5. Tears for Johannesburg 9:47

Vinyl LP pressing. Roach's solid group featuring Ray Bryant, Julian Priester, and Stanley and Tommy Turrentine are joined by the great Abbey Lincoln on vocals for two tracks, "Never Leave Me" and Cole Porter's "I Concentrate On You." A fantastic and often overlooked album, this is the first US reissue since the album's release in 1960. The Verve By Request Series features 180-gram vinyl, pressed at Third Man in Detroit.

Freddie Roach - "Good Move (Blue Note Tone Poet Series)" [180grAm Heavy LP] After appearing on Blue Note albums by Ike Quebec, Hammond B3 organist Freddie Roach made his own run of soul jazz classics for the label including the standout 1963 date Good Move. Featuring Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, Eddie Wright on guitar, and Clarence Johnston on drums. This Blue Note Tone Poet Series stereo edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.