7. Max RoachWe Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite
I was listening to a lot of Abbey Lincoln when I moved to New York after college, and then I knew of Max Roach because of drummer friends from Berklee and stuff like that. And then I found these live black and white videos of them performing this album, and it just blew my mind. And I watched and listened to that album on YouTube a lot. It was just really, really powerful, and really beautiful. It was just unbelievable what I was looking at, from the saxophone player, the bass player, Max, Abbey Lincoln – I’ve never experienced or felt anything so strongly like that before. And it’s effortless in a way, both in the message and in the music. So, it’s definitely way up there as one of my favourite records.
