Artist: Roy Brooks
Album: Understanding
Genre: Avant-Garde Jazz, Hard Bop
Label: Reel to Real
Released: 2021
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- CD 1:
- Introduction - 0:26
- Prelude to Understanding (Brooks) - 21:34
- Understanding (Brooks) - 20:11
- Billie's Bounce (Parker) - 21:07
- CD 2:
- Zoltan (Shaw) - 23:18
- Taurus Woman (Garnett) - 32:26
- The Theme (Davis) - 4:32
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- Personnel:
- Roy Brooks - drums
- Woody Shaw - trumpet
- Carlos Garnett - tenor saxophone
- Harold Mabern - piano
- Cecil McBee - bass
The previously unreleased Understanding was recorded on November 1, 1970 at Baltimore's Famous Ballroom, just six months after a slightly different Roy Brooks Quintet played a concert at the same venue that resulted in his iconic The Free Slave. The lineup for Understanding includes the drummer leading saxophonist Carlos Garnett, pianist Harold Mabern, trumpeter Woody Shaw, and bassist Cecil McBee in a symbiotic riot of music making. Understanding is loose, raw, free-flowing, and often molten in its intensity. The band plays just six tunes in two hours. Their sound reflects the terrain between the exploratory hard bop of Miles Davis' second quintet and John Coltrane's modal adventures.
Brooks' M.O. is established early on in the sprawling "Prelude to Understanding" and the title track -- totaling over 40 minutes. Introduced with a brief flourish from Brooks' percussion instruments and drum kit, Shaw enters with swagger. McBee creates a tension between trumpeter and rhythm section as Mabern underscores with modal inquiries and spacious vamps and Garnett lays out on this jam. Led by Shaw, the group crosses blues and hard bop, free jazz, and Eastern modes without a central melody. After Mabern and McBee solo, Brooks pulls out his musical saw for a short interlude at 18 minutes. He and McBee propel "Understanding" forward with a Latin tinge. Shaw's barbed lyricism is balanced by Mabern's fat, soulful chords; Brooks double-times the band, carving space for Garnett's roaming solo. Charlie Parker's "Billie's Bounce" begins as furiously paced bebop with the frontline sprinting through the head. McBee, Mabern, and Brooks swing like mad in support. Garnett charges out with a freely wrought solo statement. Mabern adds punchy accents and funky vamps before a delivering a solo full of ostinatos. Shaw's "Zoltan" (originally recorded with Larry Young in 1965) drops its lyric theme for a knotty cadence and blazing tempo. The trumpeter wails through the harmonic theme with such exertion and athleticism that the crowd roars its approval. The saxophonist gets his turn with the spiritual soul-jazz that is "Taurus Woman." Over half-an-hour long, its syncopated, sometimes strangely funky group interplay is guided by Brooks' unshakeable rhythmic invention, which weds Afro-Latin, bop, R&B, and free jazz sources. Garnett's solo is incendiary, fluid, bursting with ideas to the delight of the crowd. To close, Brooks introduces Miles Davis' "The Theme" at an insane tempo; its players exchange fiery solos before jointly quoting from "I Got Rhythm" in conclusion.
The sound on Understanding isn't pristine. Chris Gestrin did an exemplary job of restoration, but it remains somewhat hot (and in places a tad distorted); its impact, however, is undiminished. The booklet includes photos, an essay by author/critic Mark Stryker, and remarks from producers Zev Feldman and Cory Weeds (who also conducted an included interview with McBee). There are short pieces from author Herb Boyd -- a lifelong friend of Brooks -- and an appreciation by Michelle McKinney of the Detroit Sound Conservancy. Proceeds from this release benefit that institution's efforts. Ultimately, Understanding is an essential and revelatory piece of jazz history.
Review by Thom Jurek