Album of the Week: Drums Unlimited

Damn, there's a lot going on today. It's Oscar night! And Selection Sunday! And the Philadelphia St. Patrick's Day Parade! I can't think of a reason why any Record Club alumni would be at any of those three events, but you never know. Maybe Duke Deuce will be at the parade. I'll be at home, watching, making a traditional Irish breakfast, and trying to find a playlist on Pam's Apple Music that doesn't feature Dropkick Murphy's "I'm Shipping Up to Boston." If you're seeing this in time, feel free to come over.

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WEEK 215 — March 12-18, 2023

Drums Unlimited

by Max Roach

LISTEN:

Spotify | YouTube | Bandcamp | Apple

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PICKED BY JOE

JOE'S COMMENTS: "I thought a fun way to give myself pleasure while simultaneously torturing others was to listen to as many drum solos as possible."

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ALBUM DETAILS

GENRE: Jazz, specifically hard bop

RELEASED: 1966, unknown exact date (but sometime after April 1966, since half of the album was recorded during that month)

LENGTH: 41:27

TRACKLIST:

1. The Drum Also Waltzes
2. Nommo
3. Drums Unlimited
4. St. Louis Blues
5. For Big Sid
6. In the Red (A Xmas Carol)

LYRICS: Doesn't look like there are any vocals!

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ARTIST DETAILS

PRONOUNS: he/him/his

ABOUT: Max Roach was born in 1924 in Pasquotank County, North Carolina (the exact date of his birth is "disputed" according to Wikipedia, and I'd love to know the nature of that dispute). He was drumming professionally by age eighteen, and continued drumming with all the greats that your typical Record Club member would and would not recognize (e.g. Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, etc. etc.) until his death in 2007. I found a ranking of Best Jazz Drummers, and he's #2 on that list.

DISCOGRAPHY: He's also #4 on the "most recorded drummers of all time" list. Just on Wikipedia, I'm counting over 100 albums listed, and those are just the ones he had a hand in shaping (as opposed to playing the drums on). For albums in which he was the leader of the band, the discography stretches from 1953 to 2002, and Drums Unlimited is around the median of those releases chronologically, at 1966.

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ADDITIONAL INFO

READING SOME SHIT: Jazzfuel has a nice bio on the artist.

WATCHING SOME SHIT: I searched on YouTube "max roach drum solo" and this is the first thing that popped up.

PREVIOUSLY ON RECORD CLUB: Tired: this is only the second certifiable "jazz" album we've done in Record Club, after Theon Cross's Fyah. Wired: this is the third North Carolinian artist so far, after Iron & Wine and Hopesfall. Inspired: this is the second time we've done a non-Christmas album with a Christmas song on it, after the great Corey Feldman and his tired/wired/inspired take on "Jingle Bell Rock."

Also: let's talk about Record Club artists who were dead before Record Club chose them to listen to, in remembrance of Max Roach. Here is the shortlist of artists whom I know for sure had passed away (so, not including Connie Converse, who could technically still be alive): Mongo Santamaria, John Campbell, Mahalia Jackson, Amadou Balaké, U-Roy, the frontmen for INXS and Fishmans and Thin Lizzy and T. Rex and Mischief Brew and Grateful Dead, plus one guy from Hot Chocolate, two guys from the Beach Boys, and the principal songwriter for Tinted Windows.

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Happy listening, RC family!
Have a great week!