Drummer Roy Brooks may be known first and foremost for his work as a sideman with legends such as Horace Silver, Yusef Lateef and Charles Mingus but he also recorded a series of highly prized albums as leader, such as 1972's The Free Slave. This newly-unearthed live session from the Famous Ballroom, a venue that was pivotal on the Baltimore jazz scene, is a timely reminder of Brooks' place in the history of black music. With faultless timing and inexhaustible energy, he fuel-injects a powerhouse quintet that is one of the best adverts imaginable for the school of hard bop, even though the concert took place as fusion was in fashion and many groups wanted to sing the body electric. Along with double bassist Cecil McBee, Brooks produces a captivating rhythmic throb, on which pianist Harold Mabern, tenor saxophonist Carlos Garnett and trumpeter Woody Shaw positively thrive. The hard swung momentum of the 42 minute opener ‘Understanding’ is irresistible. While the cohesion of the ensemble reminds us of the magic of the lionised ‘small group’, it is the epic and explosive solos that make the performance so special, almost as if the musicians were playing for their lives to a highly responsive crowd that is hanging on every single note. The improvisation taken by Brooks in the first half of the gig, in which he breaks the beat down to a furious Afro-Latin cowbell concerto, is right off the charts in every which way imaginable. A life-enhancing document of jazz as a form of music that can be created in the present and survive well into a distant future.