We Insist! | ||||
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Studio album by Max Roach | ||||
Released | 1960 | |||
Recorded | August 31 and September 6, 1960 | |||
Studio | Nola Penthouse Sound Studio in New York | |||
Genre | Avant-garde jazz | |||
Length | 37:17 | |||
Label | Candid | |||
Producer | Nat Hentoff | |||
Max Roach chronology | ||||
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We Insist! (subtitled Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite) is a jazz album released on Candid Records in 1960. It contains a suite which composer and drummer Max Roach and lyricist Oscar Brown had begun to develop in 1959, with a view to its performance in 1963 on the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. The cover references the sit-in movement of the Civil Rights Movement. The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded the album one of its rare crown accolades, in addition to featuring it as part of its Core Collection.
The music consists of five selections concerning the Emancipation Proclamation and the growing African independence movements of the 1950s. Only Roach and vocalist Abbey Lincoln perform on all five tracks, and one track features a guest appearance by saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.
We Insist! is an avant-garde jazz album and a vocal-instrumental suite on themes related to the Civil Rights Movement. It incorporates aspects of avant-garde trends during the 1960s, including the use of a pianoless ensemble, screaming vocals on "Protest", and moments of collective improvisation, such as at the end of "Tears from Johannesburg". Max Roach collaborated with lyricist Oscar Brown Jr. on the album and wrote songs that played variations on the theme of the struggle for African Americans to achieve equality in the United States. Abbey Lincoln, a frequent collaborator and subsequent wife of Roach's, performed vocals on the album. While Brown's lyrics were verbal, Lincoln sang worldess vocals on her parts.