Roy Brooks – The Free Slave

The Free Slave is a live album by drummer Roy Brooks, recorded in 1970 at the Left Bank Jazz Society in Baltimore and released in 1972 on Muse Records. The performance features Woody Shaw on trumpet, George Coleman on tenor sax, Hugh Lawson on piano and Cecil McBee on bass. The set includes extended versions of The Free Slave, Understanding, Will Pan’s Walk and Five for Max, showcasing both fiery energy and lyrical interplay.

The album captures Brooks driving the group with rhythmic intensity while also exploring new ground, such as his “breath-a-tone” technique that bends drum pitches during solos. Shaw and Coleman’s horn work is bold and searching, Lawson and McBee provide a deep and responsive foundation, and together the quintet move seamlessly between hard bop, soul jazz and freer impulses. It stands as one of Brooks’ strongest recordings and a celebrated document of early 1970s live jazz.

Reviews

“The opening bars on Detroit drummer Roy Brooks’ swinging live date … it’s soon apparent on the album’s title track ‘The Free Slave’ that … Brooks’ rhythm opens up the terrain for Woody Shaw’s stretched-out trumpet and, when George Coleman joins, Brooks has shifted up another gear.” — ukvibe

“This record, though, is not cacophonous. The players are all-stars and the compositions sit somewhere between avant-garde and more soulful, lyrical jazz.” — The Vinyl Press