Max Roach

The first of two boxes devoted to Max Roach on Black Saint and Soul Note, this set holds five albums recorded between 1978 and 1986, the double Historic Concerts taking two of its six discs. Only the last is a working band record. The drummer is heard in duo with Anthony Braxton and with Cecil Taylor, inside the percussion orchestra M'Boom, with a string quartet and finally with his Double Quartet.

Birth And Rebirth was taped at Ricordi Studios in Milan in September 1978. Braxton moves between alto, soprano and sopranino saxophones and clarinet across seven pieces from Birth to Rebirth, with Dance Griot and Spirit Possession on the way. Historic Concerts comes from the McMillin Theatre at Columbia University in New York on December 15, 1979: a short drum solo and piano solo, then two duets of about forty minutes each, followed by interviews with both men; Soul Note issued it in 1984. Collage, recorded in New York in October 1984, is M'Boom's record. Its ten percussionists include Joe Chambers, Warren Smith, Freddie Waits and Ray Mantilla playing marimbas, vibes, xylophone, steel drums, timpani and, on one track, Roy Brooks's musical saw. A few days later, on October 19 to 21, Roach made Survivors, his percussion joined on part of the album by a string quartet with violinists Donald Bauch and Guillermo Figueroa; the title piece runs past twenty-one minutes. Bright Moments, recorded in New York on October 1 and 2, 1986 and released in 1987, is the Double Quartet: trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, tenor saxophonist Odean Pope and bassist Tyrone Brown, with the string quartet of Diane Monroe, Lesa Terry, Maxine Roach and Zela Terry, closing on Tribute To Duke And Mingus and Double Delight.

The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note, CAM Jazz box BXS 1038 from 2015: six CDs remastered from the original master tapes, reissuing albums first released between 1978 and 1987.