Music Monday: Some Max Roach, Some Steve Lacy and ØKSE

It class prep time and I’m racing to finish some projects before the end of the semester so I’ve had a chance to do some good listening to music.

I started this weekend with some Max Roach recognizing his 101st birthday. While I posted some of my favorite Roach album’s last year, I overlooked a couple that I very much appreciate. Check out Members Don’t Git Weary (1968) which features Charles Tolliver on trumpet, Gary Bartz on sax, Stanley Cowell on keys, and Jymie Merritt on bass.

I also enjoyed Roach’s 1971 date with the J.C. White Singers, Lift Every Voice and Sing which in addition to the J.C. White singers featured Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet, Billy Harper on sax, and George Cables on keys. 

Bridgewater goes on to be an important collaborator with Roach into the 1980s. I was excited to hear him play with Odean Pope on Roach’s 1982 album Pictures in a Frame.

Bridgewater also played on a contemporary Steve Lacy album. I have to admit that I don’t always love the soprano sax, but something about Steve Lacy and his 1982 collaboration with Roswell Rudd on Regeneration particularly compelling. Not only does Lacy play his usual repertoire of Thelonious Monk tracks, but adds in some Herbie Nichols tunes. On “Blue Chopsticks” Cecil Bridgewater joins the band: 

Finally, if you’re not in the mood for post-bop jazz from the long 1970s, check out  ØKSE’s self titled album. A friend recently asked me how I found new things to listen to. I mentioned that I often read the Free Jazz blog and they offered three records of the year. Since I liked the other two, [Ahmed]’s epic Giant Beauty and Darius Jones’s Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye), I decided to give the third a spin. ØKSE is good, post-everything, European jazz. I liked it and its worth a listen: