Max Roach recorded this 1958 studio date for Riverside with the same group that had just made Max Roach + 4 at Newport. And what a quintet it was, with the ill-fated trumpet genius Booker Little, soon to die at age 23; the rising tenor great George Coleman, in the years leading up to his brief but momentous Miles Davis tenure; tuba player Ray Draper, who worked with everyone from Archie Shepp to Dr. John, and whose composition “Filidé” enlivens the album with its modern minor-key Latin-to-swing flavor; and finally sought-after bassist and noted Coltrane associate Art Davis, locking in with Roach at every wide-ranging and consequential tempo. (Oscar Pettiford jumps in for an unadorned bass-drum duet with Roach on the bonus track “There Will Never Be Another You.”)
With three horns, including tuba, and no piano, this group cuts an unusual sonic profile but swings in an accessible way on the two standards, “You Stepped Out of a Dream” and “It’s You or No One.” Booker Little’s “Larry-Larue” brings out the fascinating polyphonic potential of the three-horn lineup, while two songs by bassist Bill Lee (father of filmmaker Spike Lee) mix things up with a bright tempo (“Jodie’s Cha-Cha”) and a contemplative ballad (“Deeds, Not Words”). “Conversation,” a four-minute solo drum showcase, finds Roach painting in rhythm, making his mark as one of the great drummer-bandleaders in jazz history.