Max Roach featuring Anthony Braxton, Birth and Rebirth (side A)

Max Roach contributed his amazing drumming to albums from seemingly every major jazz figure in the 1950s.  While he continued to record as a leader, his sideman work, and likely his profile, diminished through the 1960s and '70s.  1979's Birth and Rebirth is the first of several prominent collaborations with major avant-garde figures that helped tie Roach's prestige to a younger generation — another collaboration with Braxton, and one with Cecil Taylor, followed soon thereafter.  Birth and Rebirth focuses on Roach, as Braxton seems to purposely maintain a secondary role.  At times, they lock in rhythmically, and at times Braxton's melodic voice comes to the fore.  But most of the time, the star here is clearly Roach.  The drumming borrows from his roots in bop, and it reflects amazing technical precision, but it also feels incredibly contemporary.  The seven pieces, which rely heavily if not entirely on improvisation, move in a linear fashion, without reference to head / body traditions.  Braxton draws emphasis to the jarring quality of Roach's precision, without losing the fluidity and groove that more traditionally rhythmic pieces had emphasized on his early recordings.  There's even some amazing pitch-bending on toms that would be more at home on an FMP release than on a recording by such an early influential legend.  The recording is unfortunately a bit too modern, with each drum placed precisely in a wide stereo field, and not enough picture of the kit as a whole played by one person.  The nondescript cover photo and design fail to illustrate the beautiful cross-generational experiment contained within.