SPARX Fly, Swingin’ To The Max!!! – A Max Roach Centennial

Jazz Buddies,

This past weekend, January 12-14, 2024, which cosmically coincided with ‘drum major for justice’ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 95th birthday, the great Baltimore-based all-star sextet, SPARX, commemorated the 100th birthday of the late, great pioneer of bebop, drummer Max Roach, at Todd Barkan’s Keystone Korner in Baltimore. 

As fate would have it, Roach and his quartet appeared at impresario Barkan’s Keystone Korner in San Francisco (1972-83) eight different times, including a weeklong Drum Summit in April 1980 that featured both The Elvin Jones Jazz Machine and The Max Roach Quartet, during which Max and Elvin played historic drum duets every night! Wow!!!

Max Roach worked with many famous Jazz musicians, including Clifford Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Abbey Lincoln, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, and Booker Little, just to name a few.

As Drummerworld magazine describes him, “Max Roach instigated a revolution in jazz drumming that persisted for decades; instead of the swing approach of spelling out the pulse with the bass drum, Roach shifted the emphasis to the ride cymbal.  The result was a lighter, far more flexible texture, giving drummers more freedom to explore the possibilities of their drum kits and drop random “bombs” on the snare drum, while allowing bop virtuosos on the front lines to play at faster speeds.”

Besides being one of the greatest Jazz drummer who ever lived, Max Roach was also civil rights pioneer.  In the 1960s, he found himself at the forefront of the convergence of Jazz and the civil rights movement, and the music he made on albums such as The Freedom Now Suite (1961)would reflect his outspoken activism on behalf of liberation causes both at home in America and abroad in Africa.  Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Roach continued to break new ground.

SPARX, the brainchild of bassist Obasi Akoto, is comprised of Sean Jones (trumpet), Tim Green (alto saxophone), Warren Wolf (vibraphone), Janelle Gill (piano), Eric Kennedy (drums), and Akoto.  All of these musicians, who are either Baltimore natives or who now call Baltimore home, are bandleaders in their own right and are among the very best on their respective instruments.

On Sunday, SPARX’s final night, both outstanding, hard-swingin’ sets comprised of tunes written by, or associated with, Max Roach and his groups during his long tenure behind the drum kit.  (My all-time personal favorite was his mid-1950s quintet co-lead by Clifford Brown (tr), with Richie Powell (p), Harold Land (ts), and George Morrow (b)).  Akoto, augmented both sets with outstanding new compositions of his own, many with complex meters and harmonics.

As appropriate, the great drummer Eric Kennedy, opened the first set with a thunderous, take-no-prisoners drum solo, reminiscent of Roach’s solo on his 1966 Drums Unlimited (1999) album.  Yep, it was on!!!  And even though this was NOT a ‘cutting session’ per se, to our listening pleasure, each front-line member (including the pianist), while taking solos, tried his/her level best not be outdone by the previous soloist.  A ballad, mid-tempo, or burner, it made no difference!  The second set was just as memorable as the first set.

The set lists:

1st set

  • For Big Sid (Max Roach)
  • Joy Spring (Clifford Brown)
  • Nommo (Jymie Merritt)
  • Wicked Grin (Obasi Akoto)
  • Freedom Day (Max Roach)
  • Assiniboine (Obasi Akoto)

2nd set

  • Parisian Thoroughfare (Bud Powell)
  • Curious George (Obasi Akoto)
  • Speck of Dust (Obasi Akoto)
  • Health Sciences Hypertension Clinic (Obasi Akoto)
  • Daahoud (Clifford Brown)
  • So What (Miles Davis)

Anna-Lisa Kirby lent her wonderful vocal talents to “Freedom Day” and “Parisian Thoroughfare” in the vein of Roach’s long-time collaborator and second wife (1962-70), Abbey Lincoln.  And as the second set came to a close, Akoto invited the great NYC-based pianist/organist Mike LeDonne to sit for the Jazz classics, “Daahood” and “So What”.

Overall, a great concert and a wonderful tribute to one of the greatest of all time – Max Roach!!!

Kenneth