Today's radicals have a way of becoming tomorrow's conservatives, which explains why many of the beboppers who were daring and cutting-edge in the 1940s took a very conservative turn in the '60s, and openly expressed hostility toward modal post-bop, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Attacking the likes of John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Albert Ayler, and Ornette Coleman, they sounded a lot like those who, back in 1946, had insisted that Charlie Parker was ruining jazz. But Max Roach was among the early beboppers who kept an open mind and continued to take chances. Even in the late '90s, the drummer was still open to challenges -- one of which came in 1998, when he formed the Beijing Trio with pianist Jon Jang and female erhu player Jiebing Chen (the erhu is a traditional two-stringed Chinese violin). The theme of this inside/outside CD (mostly inside) is jazz combined with traditional Chinese music, and Roach's drumming fits right in. In 1998, the idea of combining jazz with Asian music wasn't unprecedented -- artists ranging from Duke Ellington to McCoy Tyner had already explored the possibilities of Asian-flavored jazz -- but the CD does have a certain freshness that a lot of '90s jazz lacked. Although Chinese-flavored jazz wasn't a new idea in 1998, it was hardly one that has been run into the ground. Roach fans should make a point of finding this risk-taking CD. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi

1		Moon Over the Great Wall
2		Sweet Whisper of a Flower
3		Heart in a Different Place
4		Fallen Petals
5		Now's the Time
6		When the Blossoms Bloom
7		The Flowing Stream

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