DEEDS, NOT WORDS

Personnel: Max Roach (drums); George Coleman (tenor saxophone); Booker Little (trumpet); Ray Draper (tuba); Art Davis, Oscar Pettiford (bass). Recorded Reeves Sound Studios, New York, New York, on September 4, 1958. Originally released on Riverside (1122). Includes liner notes by Orrin Keepnews. Digitally remastered by Phil De Lancie (1987, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California). Master jazz drummer Max Roach pretty much put the "be" in bebop, playing with practically every major figure in jazz, from Bird to Dizzy to Miles to Mingus and more. It's a tribute to his own musical vision that his numerous solo recordings are just as worthy as his famous sessions. Roach's first solo date for Riverside, 1958's DEEDS, NOT WORDS, nevertheless finds the drumming doyen in grand company. Listening to the fleet-fingered musical dialogue between Roach and saxophonist George Coleman on "It's You or No One," or the way trumpet demon Booker Little blows the roof off of "Jodie's Cha-Cha," it's immediately clear that a major part of Roach's genius lies in surrounding himself with jazz giants who can bend notes, beats, and phrases to their desires in just as seamless a manner as the man on the skins.