By Fotis Nikolakopoulos
Coming out during the turbulent 1968, Max Roach’s
Members, Don’t Git Weary
was an album of its time. Political (continuing Roach’s musical statements
that started with We Insist!), vocal and aggressive in its own
right. The acclaimed –and a favorite of mine- drummer Tyshawn Sorey offers
us here not a cover album, not even new interpretations of the songs, but, I
dare say, a brand new reimagining of the old material.
Recorded live at New York’s Jazz Gallery with a great band -consisting of
Adam o’ Farrill on trumpet, Mark Shim on tenor saxophone, Lex Korten on
piano, Tyrone Allen on double bass and Fay Victor on vocals- Sorey and his
comrades achieve something that only the quartet of [Ahmed] is doing right
now: taking musing of the past, through a current perspective, and making it
a product of the present. Really great Black music. Ancient to the future
indeed.
Sorey as, somewhat, a leader is a musician that even a listener, like me,
who prefers music as a means of collective expression, can trust. I use the
word trust as he seems eager to channel the Black tradition that he so
clearly has absorbed into a new entity that belong to the group of people
that are behind all the sounds.
Joining the dots, very fast and ecstatically, between the jazz tradition,
free jazz and the journey of transcendence that jazz, those days, offered to
everybody (as did Roach’s music too), the music on this release, over ninety
minutes long, is a joyous affair and a signature recording for a year, our
current situation, that sees the planet going towards chaos, imperialism and
fascism.
Music has no boundaries and sets free powers that can heal or, at least,
bring solace. Even for brief moments. I commented before about Sorey’s
leadership and that, obviously, brings in mind the solo players in jazz
history. But Sorey here –continuing my previous line of thoughts- assures
that this is a collective effort with the focus on how to act and react (the
interplay between the musicians) using the material as a basis to comment on
our dire situation right now. As did Max Roach’s music back then. This is an
urgent listening for sure .
Listen here:
@koultouranafigo