We insist! Freedom now suite (Clear)

Best known for his pioneering work in be-bop, drummer Max Roach was a hugely important figure who worked with countless jazz greats, including Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Park, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, and Thelonious Monk. We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite was created with then-wife Abbie Lincoln, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, the Nigerian percussionist Olatunji, and lyricist Oscar Brown Jr to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the unique landmark an intense, musically challenging masterwork of social relevance that was far ahead of its time.