CD Review: Roy Brooks - Understanding

Roy Brooks
Understanding

(Reel to Real) www.cellarlive.com

In an interview with Cecil McBee that appears in the Understanding booklet, the bassist says that the group on this album - much like the similar lineup on the 1972 release The Free Slave - was not a regular working band. It was a simply a group of musicians which drummer Roy Brooks assembled and rehearsed for specific gigs, in this case for Baltimore's Left Bank Jazz Society at the Famous Ballroom. This tidbit of information says a great deal about the music on these two discs because the quintet works like a well-established group that knows how to lift each other up at the right moments. 

Brooks might be best known as a consummate sidemen. He appeared most notably on several Horace Silver albums (including Song for My Father, where drumming duties were split between him and Pittsburgh's Roger Humphries), Yusef Lateef and Chet Baker, to name just a few. Sadly, his name came up in more recent years due to his bout with mental illness. He passed in 2005 at the age of 67.

Understanding serves as an appropriate title for this two-disc set (which was also a three-album set released on Record Store Day) since it provides a deeper appreciation of Brooks' creativity. Not only was he a powerhouse behind the drum kit, the set's myriad interviews with McBee, saxophonist Carlos Garnett and others talk about his various project around Detroit, which could be compared to multi-discipline events staged by AACM members in Chicago.

Then there is the music. Two discs contain just six tracks, in which Brooks, Garnett, trumpeter Woody Shaw and pianist Harold Mabern dig into the music, exploring all facets without worrying about how long they take to do that. It wasn't a recording session, where time was a consideration. (The fact that it was taped, not withstanding.) First and foremost, this was a gig for people who came to hear serious explorations. 

The performance took place in November 1970, a few months after The Free Slave was recorded at the same place, at a time when jazz was being pulled in different directions. For the most part, the Brooks quintet plays it straight, guided by chord changes, though there are moments when free fire also seeps into the music. This comes most notably from Garnett's tenor, which frequently explores some low register overtones, influenced by Coltrane but using the ideas in his own rhythmical way. The group stretches his "Taurus Woman" out the longest, delivering 32 minutes of passion. Built largely on a vamp, the tune has a turnaround straight out of hard bop that comes just frequently enough to give it a hook and the right amount of contrast. Like most of the set, Harold Mabern's driving piano work really pushes the band.

Woody Shaw, at the time a month shy of his 26th birthday, plays with astounding clarity and ideas throughout the set, His "Zoltan," previously recorded with organist Larry Young on Unity, is played with extra speed and aggression. The album's opening track "Prelude to Understanding" forgoes any opening theme. Instead the group (sans Garnett) explores a modal vamp. Another 21-miute track, 11 of them find Shaw holding the floor, whose his use of vast intervals and melodies is nothing short of jaw-dropping. 

McBee (whose name Brooks pronounces "MAC-bee" rather than "mick-BEE," by the way) is a bit low in the mix, but when some of his careening lines cut through, it indicates how memorable this evening must have been. (Further proving how rewarding "just another night" must have been when a group like this got together.) Brooks' accompaniment to the other soloist sounds exciting enough but he also gets plenty of room to stretch out once everyone else has said their pieces. 

As time goes on, more recordings from the Left Band Jazz Society are being released, and each one has the high level of quality, showing what was possible on a Sunday afternoon in Baltimore. In retrospect, it shows how important gatherings like this were too. This one also shines a much-needed light on an artist whose commitment as a band leader might not be as recognized as other parts of his life. Dig in.