best of / down Beatrice Street


BOB SZAJNER
"the best of TRIAD" 1978
Bob Szajner - piano
Ray McKinney- bass
Roy Brooks- drums
The Best of Triad
Review by Veronica Timpanelli
This disc Features the late Roy Brooks on drums and Ray McKinney on bass. The collection contains a combination of earlier released albums: The Bob Szajner Triad, a 3-record set, originally on RMS Records, released individually as Jazz Opus 20/40, Sound Ideas, and Afterthoughts.
This is unrehearsed, live jazz played without retakes. It results in a highly improvised, spontaneous, but still very cohesive musical undertaking. Very enjoyable if you can do without fancy sound engineering and other audio enhancements. This CD is straight up acoustic jazz with arrangements and Roy Brooks and Ray McKinney are two musicians not only worth mentioning, but celebrated for their contributions to jazz music.

"the best of TRIAD"
TRACK NAME
#1) MEETING COMPETITION 3:38
#2) SEPTEMBER SUNDAY 4:29
#3) FIVE FLATS UP 4:25
#4) WHAT'S THE MATTER 5:55
#5) THE PARSON 4:34
#6) REMINISCENCE 5:56
#7) THAT'S PRETTY 4:46
#8) BLACK MONK 4:12
#9) SIDE STREET 7:13
#10) STRANGE CHANGE 5:01
#11) SANDBAGS ON RYE 3:48
#12) EXTRA LIGHT 4:20
#13) BLUES IN E# 2:56
#14) AT MY LEISURE 3:39
#15) ROGER AND OUT 3:18

BOB SZAJNER
down Beatrice Street 2011
Bob Szajner - piano
Ray McKinney - bass
Roy Brooks - drums
down Beatrice Street
Consider this recording a prequel to Bob Szajner’s (b.Sept 12, 1938, Detroit,
MI) Live at Detroit Montreux Jazz Festival 1981 (Cadence Jazz Records 1215).
On this CD Ray McKinney is the bassist and Roy Brooks is the drummer.
The program is different but similar in that all the selections reflect the jaunty
compositional qualities of their composer, Bob Szajner.
On the piano man's 18Th wedding anniversary, a unique session was
being developed. Three well-versed jazz musicians congregated at a ranch
house basement recording studio on Beatrice Street in Livonia Michigan to
document all of the piano man's original tunes (all at that time) by
performing them without rehearsals, without second takes, without any
audio enhancements, and improvising solos based on the feelings created
in the moment.
With the exception of the piano man/composer (Bob Szajner), neither the
bass man (Ray McKinney), nor the drummer (Roy Brooks), ever saw or heard
the compositions before. the tape rolled and the arrangements,
improvisations, ensemble performances, and variations were all created at
the exact time of pickup by microphone on analog tape.
What transpired next was a marathon of the performance and
documentation of 27 original selections with various moods, tempos, and
formats --all done in the span of 6+ hours.
“down Beatrice Street” consists of 15 new digitally re-mastered tracks from
this archived session. They include exceptional performances by Ray
McKinney (formerly with Roland Hanna, Dorothy Ashby, Max Roach, Red
Garland, Yusef Lateef et al.) on bass; and Roy Brooks (formerly with Horace
Silver, Sonny Stitt, Lee Morgan, Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker et al.) on drums.


down Beatrice Street
TRACK NAME 
#1) FIVE FLATS UP 4:25
#2) WHAT'S THE MATTER 5:55
#3) MEETING COMPETITION 3:38
#4) 136.5 4:31
#5) BLACK MONK 4:12
#6) SIDE STREET 7:13
#7) SEPTEMBER SUNDAY 4:29
#8) FLYING HORACE 3:35
#9) AT MY LEISURE 3:39
#10) REMINISCENCE 5:56
#11) THE PARSON 4:34
#12) THAT'S PRETTY 2 4:46
#13) STRANGE CHANGE 5:01 
#14) EXTRA LIGHT 4:20 
#15) ROYAL OUTHOUSE BLUES 3:51


CONTACT INFORMATION:
RMS TRIAD PRODUCTIONS
POTOMAC TOWNE II
6267 POTOMAC CIRCLE
WEST BLOOMFIELD, MICHIGAN  48322
(248) 661-5167

rmstriad@sbcglobal.net
www.rmstriad.blogspot.com