Understanding

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Ultimately, Understanding is an essential and revelatory piece of jazz history. — AllMusic, July 2021, 4 and a half out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 23rd Jul 2021
Catalogue No: RTRCD007
Label: Reel-to-Real
Length: 2 hours 3 minutes

AllMusic

Editor's Choice

July 2021
Jazzwise

Recommended Reissue/Archive

September 2021

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R. Brooks: Introduction

Work length0:25

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Roy Brooks, Woody Shaw

R. Brooks: Prelude to Understanding

Work length21:34

Album only

Roy Brooks, Woody Shaw

R. Brooks: Understanding

Work length20:10

Album only

Roy Brooks, Woody Shaw

C. Parker: Billie's Bounce

Work length21:06

Album only

Roy Brooks, Woody Shaw

W. Shaw: Zoltan

Work length23:18

Album only

Roy Brooks, Woody Shaw

C. Garnett: Taurus Woman

Work length32:25

Album only

Roy Brooks, Woody Shaw

Davis, M: The Theme

Work length4:31

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Roy Brooks, Woody Shaw

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Understanding is a previously unreleased recording of drummer Roy Brooks captured live by the Left Bank Jazz Society at The Famous Ballroom in Baltimore, MD on November 1, 1970. Featuring a stellar band with trumpeter Woody Shaw, saxophonist Carlos Garnett, pianist Harold Mabern and bassist Cecil McBee, Understanding was recorded 5 months after the classic live album The Free Slave (also recorded by the Left Bank Jazz Society).

This recording features a full performance by great musicians at their peak, providing a "you are there" experience of the excitement of great music and an appreciative crowd. Mastered from the original tape reels by Kevin Gray, the 2CD set includes an extensive booklet with rare photos, plus interviews with Carlos Garnett and Cecil McBee.

Award winning arts journalist and critic Mark Stryker contributes the main essay as well as remembrances by American journalist, educator, author, activist and friend of Roy Brooks, Herb Boyd, alto saxophone legend Charles McPherson who grew up with Roy Brooks, Louis Hayes who got Roy the gig with Horace Silver and more.

This project came about as a desire by Reel to Real Recordings to make a positive contribution to Black Lives Matter. Understanding is their celebration of the talent, courage and spirit of the Black musicians who created a timeless and universal work of art, with the recognition that the injustices of 50 years ago are still with us. All proceeds from album sales will go directly to The Detroit Sound Conservancy. Understanding is produced with the cooperation of Cecil McBee and Carlos Garnett and the estates of Roy Brooks, Harold Mabern and Woody Shaw.

Reviews

July 2021

Ultimately, Understanding is an essential and revelatory piece of jazz history.

September 2021

With faultless timing and inexhaustible energy, [Brooks] fuel-injects a powerhouse quinet that is one of the best adverts imaginable for the school of hard bop, even though the concert took place as fusion was in fashion and many groups wanted to sing the body electric.

September 2021

Did you hear the George Coleman disc that dropped last December? A feisty 1971 live hit from Charm City that found the saxophonist’s band truly peaking. Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society presented the show, and Reel To Real put it out — as did both concerns with this new Roy Brooks document, a pick-up quintet date from the fall of ’70. This one isn’t merely feisty, though. This one’s pure fire. Let me repeat that in case you don’t read this review any further: pure futhermuckin’ fire.

Understanding

2 CDs

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