Willie Jones III

• DIGIPAK EDITION

Drummer Willie Jones III has put together a very idiosyncratic songbook to honor the seminal bop artist and activist Max Roach. Only two of the seven compositions are Roach originals. Just one track, Cole Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You,” can be traced back to Roach’s transcendent, if short-lived, partnership with trumpeter Clifford Brown. And there are no songs that were originally recorded by Roach after 1968, an omission of decades and dozens of albums.

But Jones’ intentions are honorable and well executed. He has created a program that favors the incendiary, baton-passing beauty of hard bop at mostly breakneck tempos, and spotlights the timekeeping musicality pioneered by Roach in that context. He recorded live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and allowed plenty of room for solos: Four of the seven songs are over 10 minutes and none is shorter than 7:37. He assembled an impressive sextet with folks like trumpeter Jeremy Pelt and pianist Eric Reed, seasoned bandleaders who tear into this material with the joy of revisiting their hard-bop and postbop roots.

PERSONNEL:

• Willie Jones III - drums
• Jeremy Pelt - trumpet
• Stacy Dillard - tenor sax
• Steve Davis - trombone
• Eric Reed - piano
• Dezron Douglas - bass

Recorded live at Jazz Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Coca-Cola, January 19, 2012

TRACKS:

• 01. Ezz-Thetic
• 02. Libra
• 03. Equipoise
• 04. Freedom Day
• 05. Mr. X
• 06. To Lady
• 07. I Get a Kick Out of You / Shirley