(via Max Roach & Anthony Braxton – “Spirit Possession”)

Year: 1979

Album: Birth and Rebirth

Drummer Max Roach and multireedist Anthony Braxton recorded themselves jamming together in 1978 and released it as an album. They would do it again in the same year with One in Two – Two in One, but Birth and Rebirth is my favorite of the two recordings. It’s avant-garde using not so avant-garde instruments. It’s all in the presentation and performance. It’s freewheelin’ but economical; Both musicians are mindful that most jamming is indulgent and boring to the listener. Roach channels Ghanaian drumming in accordance to Braxton’s timid reed playing and both are good enough musicians to turn any sort of indulgence into engaging recording art.