Max Roach The Drums Also Walzes

This 4CD collection of original LPs on which Max Roach led or co-led brings together the finest work he ever performed in the company of other jazz greats. Featuring masterful albums made with such luminaries as Clifford Brown, Duke Ellington, Hank Mobley, Charles Mingus, Buddy Rich and a host of others, this collection includes 8 collaborative records, digitally remastered for the finest quality.

The Charles Mingus Quintet & Max Roach is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded at the Café Bohemia in December 1955 and released in 1964. Further recordings from the concert were released under the title Mingus at the Bohemia. The Mingus/Roach/Mal Waldron dialogs overcome the ordinary stylings of Eddie Bert and George Barrow.

Other than a trio set with the legendary pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali, this set was Max Roach's only recording as a leader during 1963-67. Three of the six numbers ("Nommo," "St. Louis Blues" and "In the Red") find Roach heading a group that includes trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, altoist James Spaulding, pianist Ronnie Mathews, bassist Jymie Merritt and, on "St. Louis Blues," Roland Alexander on soprano. Their music is essentially advanced hard-bop with a generous amount of space taken up by Roach's drum solos. The other three selections ("The Drum Also Waltzes," "Drums Unlimited" and "For Big Sid") are unaccompanied features for Max Roach and because of the melodic and logically-planned nature of his improvisations, they continually hold on to one's attention.

This seven-CD box set features 95 tracks from legendary drummer Max Roach's small group, consisting of the 1956-1960 recordings for Emarcy and Mercury Records, as these noteworthy sessions also represent the drummer's post Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet output. In 1956 the jazz world witnessed the tragic and untimely deaths of the great trumpeter Clifford Brown and pianist Ritchie Powell. Within these seven CDs, we find Roach maintaining his assault on jazz along with trumpeter Kenny Dorham, pianist Ray Bryant, and the drummer's bandmates from the Clifford Brown years, tenor saxophone giant Sonny Rollins and bassist George Morrow.