Max Bill

In 2019, following their joint tour of Japan, guitarist Robben Ford and saxophonist/keyboardist Bill Evans recruited jazz bassist James Genus and Steely Dan drummer Keith Carlock to cut The Sun Room in a Nashville studio. The group is back with Rolling Stones' bassist Darryl Jones in the bass chair. Recorded in the same studio, this set's focus relies heavily on a more rockist jazz-funk and blues. Common Ground was co-produced by the saxophonist and Clifford Carter, and its nine tracks clock in at just under an hour. The session gets unruly early on with "Ever Ready Sunday," a mean, funky, jazz-rocker. Kicked off with a power chord vamp by Ford, Jones rumbles behind Carlock's snare and hi-hat breaks. Evans solos on soprano and Ford follows with a meandering meld of jazzy arpeggios and blues licks.

Max Roach's post-Clifford Brown ensembles became more experimental down the road, but this 1960 band, with the brothers Tommy and Stanley Turrentine, and Julian Priester, was short-lived, very satisfying, and one of the most memorable combos the drummer led. Continuing to concentrate on hard bop themes, the band is hardly quiet as the title would suggest. ~ AllMusic