Drummer
Max Roach met up with the intense avant-garde pianist
Cecil Taylor for a 1979 concert that resulted in this double CD. After
Roach and
Taylor play separate five-minute solos (
Taylor's is surprisingly melodic and bluesy), they interact during a two-part 78-minute encounter that finds
Roach not shy of occasionally taking control. The passionate music is quite atonal but coherent, with
Taylor displaying an impressive amount of energy and the two masters (who had not rehearsed or ever played together before) communicating pretty well. This set is weakened a bit by a 17-minute radio interview that includes excerpts from the concert one just heard, although some of the anecdotes are interesting. No revelations really occur in the music, but it certainly holds one's interest. ~ Scott Yanow