Roy Brooks Beat (Verve By Request Series) 180g LP

Recorded for Berry Gordy's short-lived Workshop Jazz imprint and recorded at the Hitsville USA studio, Roy Brooks (joined by fellow Detroit natives George Bohannon and Hugh Lawson, along with Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, and Eugene Taylor) injects a Motor City soul-jazz groove into the hard-bop root of this engaging 1964 album. Verve By Request Series features transfers from analog tapes, remastered on 180-gram vinyl, and pressed at Third Man in Detroit.

...Roy Brooks' simply but authoritatively titled Beat fuses the intellectual rigors of the modern idiom with the physical prowess of soul-jazz to create a record of uncommon scope and reach....Brooks channels influences spanning the breadth of the Motor City scene, resulting in a clutch of challenging but engaging performances with the unmistakable patina of the embryonic Motown sound. While their technical proficiency is stunning, Brooks' rhythms never lose sight of the almighty groove, and for its hard bop stridency, the record has the proverbial good beat and you can dance to it.

Drummer Roy Brooks didn't make many albums as a bandleader during his long life, preferring instead to remain the galvanizing force behind artists like Chet Baker, Shirley Scott and Yusef Lateef. But when he did step to the fore, Brooks was responsible for some formidable work. His first foray taking top billing, 1964's Beat has been a long overlooked pearl of jazz's bop years. Brooks worked with a trusted group of players, including pianist Hugh Lawson, trumpeter Blue Mitchell and saxophonist Junior Cook, to produce a temperamental collection of tunes with enough swing for the dancers, enough blues for the lonely set and enough complexity for students of the culture. Pay particular attention to 'Passin' The Buck,' the lone Brooks composition on this set. It plays out like a resting in a pool of water that is slowly increasing in temperature thanks to heated solos from the horn players and a bubbly melody that keeps joyously spilling over the edges.