Buddy Rich and Max Roach - Rich Versus Roach (1964 Japanese Mercury Vinyl LP)

Buddy Rich and Max Roach - Rich Versus Roach | Vinyl LP, 1964 Japanese Mercury (SM-7156, Victor Company of Japan)

• Two quintets, one in each stereo channel: Rich’s band (Phil Woods, Willie Dennis, John Bunch, Phil Leshin) in the left, Roach’s band (Tommy Turrentine, Julian Priester, Stanley Turrentine, Bobby Boswell) in the right, playing Gigi Gryce’s arrangements simultaneously
• Eight tracks including a Charlie Parker composition (“Big Foot”), a co-written drum feature (“Figure Eights”) and the Louis Prima anthem “Sing, Sing, Sing”, all arranged to pit swing-era virtuosity against bebop innovation
• 1964 Japanese stereo pressing manufactured by Victor Company of Japan, with liner notes by Kiyoshi Koyama (児山紀芳)

The premise is simple and the execution is specific. Buddy Rich and Max Roach each brought a quintet into Fine Recording in New York in April 1959. Gigi Gryce wrote arrangements for both groups. The stereo mix places Rich’s band entirely in the left channel and Roach’s entirely in the right, so any listener with a balance control can isolate either quintet, compare the two side by side, or hear them simultaneously. The result is not just a drum showdown but a comparison of two complete musical worlds: Rich’s quintet has Phil Woods’s alto saxophone, Willie Dennis’s trombone, John Bunch’s piano and Phil Leshin’s bass; Roach’s has Tommy Turrentine’s trumpet, Julian Priester’s trombone, Stanley Turrentine’s tenor saxophone and Bobby Boswell’s bass. No piano on Roach’s side, no trumpet on Rich’s. The instrumental voicings are deliberately different, and the soloists are matched by instrument across channels: trombone against trombone, drums against drums.

Rich came from swing. He was a prodigy who had been playing professionally since childhood, and his technique was explosive: fast, precise, built for spectacle. Roach came from bebop. He had played with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, co-led a quintet with Clifford Brown, and developed an approach to the drums that was melodic and compositionally structured in ways swing drumming rarely attempted. “Figure Eights”, the only jointly composed piece, is where they interact most directly. “Big Foot” is a Charlie Parker composition that plays to Roach’s bebop roots. “Sing, Sing, Sing” is the Louis Prima anthem associated with Gene Krupa’s famous 1937 recording, which plays to Rich’s swing background. Gryce’s arrangement of “Yesterdays” (Jerome Kern) and “The Casbah” (Gryce’s own composition) give both bands material that sits between the two idioms. This 1964 Japanese pressing is manufactured by Victor Company of Japan. Flipback sleeve with Japanese liner notes by Kiyoshi Koyama. Catalogue number SM-7156 (original US Mercury catalogue: SR-60133).