Detroit native Roy Brooks may be one of the most under appreciated drummers in jazz, but if there’s any justice in the world, this album reissue should change that. The Free Slave is the record of an incendiary live set by Brooks’ stellar New York quintet on a Sunday evening in Baltimore in April 1970. On only his second recording as a leader, Brooks is joined by trumpeter Woody Shaw, tenor saxophonist George Coleman, pianist Hugh Lawson and bassist Cecil McBee — and a boisterous and attentive all-ages audience at the ballroom of the Left Bank Jazz Society.
The album is being released in a collector’s vinyl edition among the first batch of recordings from Zev Feldman’s new archival label Time Traveler Recordings they’re calling the Muse Master Edition Series: a run of masterpiece reissues from the historic Muse Records catalog.
Masterpiece is in no way an overstatement regarding this album. It’s a master class in hard bop by some of the best musicians of their generation, working to bring jazz back to the people and communities where it came from, at quality venues like this one in Baltimore. It has just two tracks per side, all four of them averaging about 11 minutes in length, allowing these fellows lots of room to stretch out and do their thing. They’re all originals, three by Brooks and one by bassist McBee.
It kicks off with the title track, the joyful noise of the funky, soulful “The Free Slave,” its head melody payed in unison by Coleman and Shaw driven by the deep groove laid down by the rhythm section and the crowd is immediately electrified. Coleman, Shaw and Lawson lay down a series of riveting improvisations (I picked up the influence of Freddie Hubbard on Woody Shaw’s style even before I read the liner notes but it’s very apparent on the intro.)
Next they ease into the laid back, tuneful hard bop of “Understanding,” where I’m particularly enthralled by McBee’s perceptive and mesmerizing bass lines — he turns in a great solo, too, just before the reprise of the head. This one might put you in mind of Horace Silver, with whom Brooks worked quite a bit.
On the second side we find McBee’s uptempo and “structurally demanding” “Will Pan’s Walk,” full of shifting bar lengths built around a standard 12 bar blues. All the soloists shine here but it’s McBee and Brooks who keep this train on the rails — just barely. This one will get your pulse going, during Brooks’s astonishing solo in particular. The audience loved this one!
“Come on, Roy, do your thing, man!” shouts one person among many in the crowd clamoring for more as Brooks launches into “Five For Max,” the drummer’s hat tip to one of his mentors, Max Roach. It’s a sweet samba in a fast five beat rhythm, and Brooks plays up the Brazilian sound with lots of rim clicks and ticks plus liberal use of various cymbals.
For the most part I like the sound of this record, which really captures the vibrancy and energy of the band, crowd and venue. The sole exception is the fidelity of Lawson’s piano, which gets short shrift in terms of both volume and richness of tone. It comes through best on “Five For Max,” where he plays one of his most engaging solo turns. (And speaking of solos, Brooks takes a long one on this track, to the delight of the crowd.) But that’s a minor quibble. Lawson’s verve and vision come through loud and clear, as does the transcendent artistry of each of these players and the ensemble as a whole.
Lovers of solid straight ahead jazz will definitely want this one. This is what live jazz is all about. With restored original artwork, original liner notes by Gary Giddins and reissue notes by Shannon J. Effinger.
(Time Traveler Recordings, 2025; Muse, 1972)
