The Wonderful World of Music

Jazz drummer and black nationalist Max Roach's civil rights/protest jazz album, We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite, may be my current favorite jazz album. Featuring Roach's future wife Abbey Lincoln as vocalist, Sun Ra's Arkestra member Julian Priester on trombone, Coleman Hawkins on tenor for the first track and other jazz greats, the album effectively combines traditional and progressive trends in jazz music in 1960. The previous year, Ornette Coleman's revolutionary The Shape of Jazz to Come introduced free jazz and the beginning of the atonal avant-garde period in jazz. 
While initiating the "new thing" in jazz, Coleman's music remained suffused with the blues. Similarly, Max Roach's album (the music composed by Roach himself on melodica) retains strong blues influences, especially on the first track, "Driva Man", a song about slave drivers. The song begins with blues-inflected vocals by Abbey Lincoln who accompanies herself on the tambourine and awesome tenor sax playing from Coleman Hawkins, who represented the swing tradition in jazz history. 
The next track, Freedom Day, progresses in African-American history to the Emancipation Proclamation and Reconstruction. Entitled "Freedom Day," Lincoln's vocals are featured along with an interesting horn arrangement. The music itself does not move me nearly as much as Lincoln's voice. Like bebop, this song features very fast horn playing and improvisation at a fast tempo. Though an important period in African-American history, this song does not move me nearly as much as Driva' Man. 
"Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace," an extended piece featuring only Max Roach on drums and Abbey Lincoln is interesting for embracing aspects of free jazz and wordless vocals. It starts like a spiritual, with Lincoln wordlessly singing the melody, then switches to screaming. Apparently Roach convinced Lincoln to start screaming at this point to represent the pain and suffering of African-descended people in the United States. Roach really shows off his drumming abilities as someone capable of adding "texture" to the extended piece.
The next piece, "All Africa" takes us to Africa and connects the anti-colonial struggles there with the Civil Rights Movement. It begins with Lincoln singing the names of African ethnic groups or "tribes" while accompanied by the Yoruba drummer Babatunde Olatunji. Olatunji sings a Yoruba prayer simultaneously and then the song shifts into an African drum circle with Roach, Olatunji, and additional percussionists. This part of the song symbolizes the connections between African American and African music and the persistence of African rhythms in African-influenced music. 
The final piece, "Tears for Johannesburg," is a memorial to the victims of the Sharpeville Massacres in apartheid South Africa. Blacks protesting against the apartheid state's laws were killed by the government in 1960. Directly linking the Civil Rights Movement with apartheid in South Africa led to the album being banned in South Africa.
The piece is also interesting for the use of congas and a simple vamp which is improvised over by the musicians. Julian Priester's trombone also brings to mind the music of Sun Ra, which in his early years, featured a lot of exotica/world/Latin/African-inspired influences. Lincoln's wordless singing introduces the melody of the piece which is only heard later and there are moments of collective improvisation near the end. This song is undoubtedly my favorite of the album and really demonstrates the global-consciousness present in Black America. Since the 19th century African-Americans have demonstrated this racial consciousness that transcended national borders but it was only in the 20th century with Marcus Garvey and the black nationalist movements of the Civil Rights era when black Americans broadened their struggle to that of colonized Africa. In addition, Roach was a firm believer in Malcolm X's views rather than Martin Luther King, though he performed this album live for the NAACP and other integrationist groups. 
Thus, this album has strong political and social messages that celebrate African-American history while criticizing imperialism and racism. In my humble opinion, this album is one of the most celebrated jazz albums because of its blend of social consciousness and the fusion of old and new musical traditions, such as blues, spirituals, free jazz, and hard bop. Roach's gifts as a composer are also highlighted for the first time. Anyone interested in the music of this legendary drummer who played for so many other jazz legends such as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Bud Powell, and Duke Ellington must hear this LP. It truly is off the hook!