MAX ROACH — Scott Free (review)

MAX ROACH — Scott Free album cover Album · 1985 · Post Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Steve Wyzard
MORE COMPLEX - NOT FOR BEGINNERS

One of the main reasons for writing this review is to correct an egregious error that appears in multiple editions of the Penguin Guide. To wit: "Scott Free is a hefty two-part suite dedicated to the brilliant young bassist Scott LaFaro, who died in a motor accident in 1961." Of course, with super-percussionist Max Roach, the truth is just a little more complicated than that. If one were to read the actual liner notes for this amazing album, one would find: "Scott Free was inspired, in part, by the case of the Scottsboro Boys, who, in 1931, were convicted (with evidence that can, at best, be called nonexistent) of the rape of two white girls aboard a train in Alabama. Although they were later exonerated, some of the Scottsboro Boys were in prison for over 15 years". There is no mention of Scott LaFaro.

Now that's taken care of, what of the actual music, recorded in May 1984 for the Soul Note label. Max's compatriots on this album are Cecil Bridgewater, trumpet & flugelhorn, Odean Pope, playing a snarly tenor sax, and Tyrone Brown on the electric upright bass. Composed by Bridgewater, this two-part suite (19:58 / 20:17), while not quite "blowing up a monsoon of music" (as the liner notes claim) gives ample opportunity for these phenomenally virtuosic players to truly strut their stuff. Part One opens with a quartet fanfare statement before launching into solos: Bridgewater, Pope, Brown, and Roach in that order. Part Two jumps immediately into the four soloists (in the same order) before closing with a repeat of the opening fanfare statement.

According to Bridgewater himself: "Basically it's a simple piece that just becomes more complex by the way everyone solos." So yes, this album would definitely qualify under that time-honored epithet "blowing session". Yet we're also told that there was some definite rehearsal (including a 90-minute version) before recording, so this is not an entirely improvised album. While categorized as Post Bop, Scott Free thankfully has no vocals and occasionally will push across boundaries into Avant-Garde free playing. Whether you like it or not will depend on how you already feel about the individual styles of the four extraordinary players, who shine like the stars they should be.

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