Max Roach/Abdullah Ibrahim: Streams of Consciousness

The sum of the four tunes, witness the names given them, make up the breathtaking whole. The title tune runs just over 21 minutes, every one of which is a dynamic of exploration. Ibrahim sets up the mood in a virtuosic panoply of rich euphonic piano chording that Roach reinvents with a shifting timbral pulse. And then eloquence converges, the piano setting mood and pace and melody, the drums singing in tandem with the chromatic swells or chugging along and accenting rhythms that extend the constantly changing motifs. The flavor of “Inception” is subtle. Ibrahim probes and instils the spaces with a gradually evolving melodic thread. A jubilant, gospel air stirs “Acclamation” before it moves into the wont of Ibrahim, the happy land of an African melody, as spellbinding as it can be as he shapes varied patterns from the nucleus. If ever there was consanguinity between two musicians, this is proof positive.

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