# New CD – 2026: Tyshawn Sorey – Members… Don’t! Review, Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2026/11/08/new-cd-2026-tyshawn-sorey-members-dont-review-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2026-11-08T04:00:30+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

#### A Powerful Contemporary Reimagining of Max Roach’s Legacy – Music as Resistance, Resilience, and Collective Expression!!!

There are moments in the history of jazz when music becomes something considerably
greater than an artistic statement. It becomes a declaration of identity, a reflection
of collective experience, an expression of resistance, and an affirmation of the
human spirit. It is within this profound tradition that drummer, composer, and visionary
musical thinker Tyshawn Sorey presents _Members… Don’t!_, an extraordinary recording
that reconnects the legacy of one of jazz’s most influential figures, Max Roach,
with the realities, uncertainties, and emotional tensions of our contemporary world.

Released by Pi Recordings on May 29, 2026, _Members… Don’t!_ is a bold and deeply
considered reinterpretation of Roach’s landmark 1968 album _Members, Don’t Git Weary_.
Yet the word reinterpretation hardly captures the artistic ambition of Sorey’s undertaking.
This is not a conventional tribute, nor is it an exercise in preserving familiar
arrangements. Instead, Sorey approaches the original compositions as living musical
material, opening them to new dimensions of expression, extending their structural
possibilities, and transforming their historical significance into an expansive 
contemporary statement.

The result is a magnificent musical undertaking: intellectually challenging, emotionally
charged, rhythmically adventurous, and deeply conscious of the relationship between
artistic freedom and social responsibility.

The historical connection is essential. Max Roach’s original _Members, Don’t Git
Weary_ emerged in 1968, a year marked by profound political upheaval, social unrest,
and the struggle for civil rights. Roach understood jazz as a language capable of
articulating experiences that extended far beyond the boundaries of entertainment.
His music carried an unmistakable sense of dignity, determination, and collective
consciousness.

Nearly six decades later, Sorey returns to that musical and philosophical territory,
recognizing that the questions underlying Roach’s work have not disappeared. The
historical circumstances have changed, but the need for solidarity, perseverance,
justice, and human understanding remains.

Sorey does not attempt to reproduce the sound of 1968. He creates a new musical 
environment in which the spirit of that period can speak with renewed urgency. His
arrangements enlarge the original material into an extended, interconnected suite,
allowing the compositions to breathe, develop, collide, and eventually arrive at
moments of extraordinary collective intensity.

This is music that requires patience and attentive listening. Its emotional rewards
are inseparable from the journey itself.

### The musical architecture: Tyshawn Sorey’s vision

Tyshawn Sorey is among the most remarkable and intellectually adventurous musicians
of his generation. His artistic identity exists at the intersection of composition,
improvisation, contemporary classical music, avant-garde exploration, and the deepest
traditions of jazz.

As a drummer, he possesses an exceptional command of rhythmic possibility. His approach
is not defined merely by speed, technical complexity, or spectacular physical energy.
Rather, he treats rhythm as an expressive environment, capable of creating tension,
suggesting movement, establishing silence, and changing the emotional temperature
of an entire performance.

On _Members… Don’t!_, his drumming becomes the foundation of an elaborate musical
architecture. He understands that the percussionist’s responsibility in an extended
composition is not simply to maintain momentum. Sometimes the music requires propulsion;
at other moments it needs restraint, spaciousness, uncertainty, or an almost orchestral
sense of dramatic development. Sorey moves between these dimensions with remarkable
sensitivity.

His arrangements are particularly important. Rather than presenting a succession
of independent interpretations, he establishes a continuous musical narrative. Themes
return in altered forms, instrumental voices enter into unexpected relationships,
and individual passages acquire new significance through their position within the
larger structure.

There is a sense of accumulated experience throughout the album, as though each 
composition contributes another chapter to a larger story.

Sorey’s understanding of the relationship between composed material and improvisation
gives the music its distinctive character. The musicians are not imprisoned by the
written arrangements, yet neither are they simply improvising without direction.
Their freedom exists within a carefully conceived framework, one that encourages
spontaneous interaction while maintaining the integrity of the overall composition.
This balance is one of the album’s greatest achievements.

### A remarkable ensemble of individual voices

The musicians assembled around Sorey bring together different generations, musical
personalities, and approaches to improvisation. Each contributes something essential
to the collective identity of the recording.

**Adam O’Farrill – trumpet and electronics**

Adam O’Farrill brings an imaginative and highly individual voice to the ensemble.
His trumpet playing combines lyrical sensitivity with an adventurous contemporary
vocabulary. He understands the expressive possibilities of space, color, articulation,
and silence, and his musical personality is particularly suited to Sorey’s expansive
arrangements.

His relationship with the electronics adds another dimension to the ensemble’s sonic
vocabulary. These elements allow the music to move beyond conventional acoustic 
jazz textures, introducing additional shades of atmosphere and contemporary expression.

O’Farrill’s trumpet becomes an important voice within the ensemble’s changing emotional
landscape, capable of asserting itself with intensity while also participating in
more delicate and contemplative exchanges.

**Mark Shim – tenor saxophone**

Mark Shim contributes a distinctive tenor saxophone presence, bringing depth, warmth,
and expressive determination to the musical conversation.

His instrument occupies an important position in the ensemble’s frontline. The relationship
between tenor saxophone and trumpet provides a rich field of possibilities, from
contrasting melodic statements to more closely intertwined passages.

Shim’s contribution is particularly valuable because the music demands an understanding
of both tradition and freedom. The tenor saxophone can carry the historical weight
of post-bop and modern jazz while simultaneously participating in an open-ended 
contemporary language. His musical presence helps establish the emotional and dramatic
continuity of the suite.

**Lex Korten – piano**

Lex Korten provides one of the ensemble’s essential harmonic and melodic foundations.
The piano is particularly important in Sorey’s musical architecture because it can
function simultaneously as a source of harmonic definition, rhythmic suggestion,
melodic development, and spontaneous commentary.

Korten’s role is not simply to accompany the horns. The piano participates in the
composition’s larger structural conversation, helping establish the relationship
between thematic material and improvisational freedom. His contribution is central
to the ensemble’s ability to move between densely organized musical passages and
more open, exploratory territories.

**Tyrone Allen II – bass**

Tyrone Allen II provides the music with its essential grounding and forward movement.
In a project of this scale, the bassist’s role is especially demanding. The music
requires a strong sense of pulse, but it also needs flexibility, responsiveness,
and an understanding of the larger compositional form.

Allen’s bass establishes a connection between Sorey’s rhythmic imagination and the
harmonic world created by Korten and the two horn players. The result is a rhythm
section that functions as a living organism rather than a conventional accompaniment
unit.

**Fay Victor – vocals**

The appearance of vocalist Fay Victor on the concluding title composition, “Members,
Don’t Git Weary,” is one of the album’s most significant artistic decisions. Her
presence introduces a different kind of expressive intensity. After the instrumental
journey through the preceding compositions, the human voice brings the album’s central
message into particularly direct focus.

Victor’s vocal contribution is not merely an additional color. It represents the
arrival of the work’s emotional and philosophical destination.

The voice carries something that instrumental expression alone cannot communicate
in quite the same way: the unmistakable presence of a human being addressing other
human beings. Her performance brings the historical and spiritual dimensions of 
Max Roach’s original into the contemporary musical world, creating a powerful moment
of collective affirmation.

### Seven compositions, one unfolding musical narrative

The album consists of seven extended performances, with a total duration of approximately
ninety-six minutes. Its sequence is carefully conceived, and the placement of the
title composition at the very end is especially meaningful.

**1. Abstrusions**

The opening composition establishes the intellectual and musical atmosphere of the
entire project. Written by Stanley Cowell, “Abstrusions” provides Sorey with an 
opportunity to introduce his approach to the original material. Rather than immediately
announcing the full intensity of the ensemble, the music opens a space for exploration.

The interplay between piano and trumpet, supported by the rhythmic flexibility of
the bass and drums, establishes a musical environment in which ideas can emerge 
gradually.

There is a fascinating relationship between structure and unpredictability. The 
composition provides a point of departure, while the musicians investigate its possibilities
through individual interpretation and collective interaction. It is an invitation
into a musical world that refuses to reveal everything at once.

**2. Effi**

Stanley Cowell’s “Effi” extends the album’s exploratory character into a considerably
broader musical territory. Its eighteen-minute duration gives the ensemble room 
to develop ideas with patience, allowing the thematic material to become part of
an evolving dramatic structure.

Sorey’s arrangement emphasizes the possibilities of extended form. Instead of treating
improvisation as an isolated soloistic event, he incorporates it into the larger
development of the composition.

The ensemble’s musical identities become increasingly interconnected. The trumpet
and tenor saxophone contribute contrasting perspectives, the piano introduces harmonic
possibilities, and the rhythm section maintains an atmosphere of constant responsiveness.

This is an example of jazz as collective thinking: several musicians developing 
one musical idea through different individual voices.

**3. Absolutions**

With “Absolutions,” composed by bassist Jymie Merritt, the album continues its exploration
of the original musical world.

The title itself suggests questions of reflection, release, and transformation, 
ideas that resonate with the broader philosophical direction of the project.

Sorey’s arrangement gives the composition a place within the developing dramatic
narrative. The ensemble moves through the material with a sense of purpose, allowing
the original musical identity to coexist with new interpretative possibilities.

The bass assumes particular conceptual importance here, given Merritt’s historical
contribution as a composer and bassist. Through this music, the legacy of the original
creative community becomes part of the contemporary ensemble’s collective voice.

**4. Equipoise (Part 1)**

Stanley Cowell’s “Equipoise” is presented in two parts, an arrangement decision 
that reinforces the album’s larger architectural ambition.

The first part establishes a new stage in the musical journey. The idea of equipoise—
balance, equilibrium, and the relationship between opposing forces — is particularly
appropriate for an ensemble whose artistic language depends upon the interaction
of discipline and freedom.

Sorey creates an environment in which musical tension and release become essential
elements of the narrative. The musicians are encouraged to explore the spaces between
contrasting ideas: stability and movement, precision and spontaneity, individual
expression and collective responsibility.

**5. Equipoise (Part 2)**

The second part continues the development of Cowell’s composition, extending its
possibilities and bringing the larger musical structure into sharper focus.

The division into two substantial sections gives the work a symphonic dimension.
Themes and gestures acquire greater meaning through their return, transformation,
and relationship to the surrounding material.

The ensemble’s interplay becomes part of an extended conversation in which no single
instrument exists in isolation. Sorey’s drums are particularly important to this
process. His rhythmic language can intensify the movement, create unexpected interruptions,
or allow the music to settle into a more spacious atmosphere. The two parts of “
Equipoise” form one of the album’s most substantial structural achievements.

**6. Libra**

Written by Gary Bartz, “Libra” brings another important compositional voice from
the original album into Sorey’s contemporary vision. Its position immediately before
the title composition is significant. The music becomes part of the transition toward
the emotional culmination of the entire project.

The ensemble’s expressive vocabulary has by this point been established through 
the extended development of the preceding pieces. The accumulated musical energy
gives “Libra” an important role in preparing the listener for what follows. There
is a powerful sense of forward movement, of an ensemble gathering its collective
strength before arriving at the final declaration.

**7. Members, Don’t Git Weary**

The concluding composition is the emotional and philosophical heart of the album.
Max Roach’s original message of perseverance acquires renewed significance through
Sorey’s arrangement and the participation of Fay Victor.

The decision to place this composition at the end rather than reproduce the original
album’s sequence is central to the new work’s artistic identity. Sorey has described
it as the apex of the project, the destination toward which everything else leads.

The preceding ninety minutes have prepared the ground. The musical ideas, the tensions,
the improvisational exchanges, and the accumulated energy now find their collective
destination. Fay Victor’s voice brings the message into direct human focus. The 
performance becomes more than an interpretation of a historical composition: it 
is an affirmation of endurance, dignity, and the necessity of continuing despite
adversity.

There is something deeply moving about the way the album arrives at this moment.
It does not offer an easy resolution or a comforting conclusion. Instead, it leaves
the listener with a message of determination.  The work is not finished. The struggle
continues. The music must continue, too.

## A dialogue between jazz history and the present

One of the most compelling aspects of _Members… Don’t!_ is its understanding of 
jazz history as something alive. Max Roach was not simply an extraordinary drummer.
He was a composer, bandleader, innovator, and artist whose work consistently challenged
the boundaries between music and social consciousness. His original album belonged
to a particular historical moment, but its message was never limited to that moment.

Sorey understands this distinction. He does not attempt to recreate the political
and cultural circumstances of 1968. Instead, he recognizes the continuing relevance
of the questions that informed Roach’s music.

This is why the album feels so contemporary. Its modernity does not depend upon 
fashionable production techniques or the pursuit of novelty. It emerges from the
musicians’ willingness to reconsider the meaning of an established musical statement
and to discover what it can communicate today.

There is also an important generational dimension. Sorey and his collaborators are
not approaching the jazz tradition as something that must be preserved behind glass.
They treat it as a continuing conversation between artists, experiences, and historical
moments.

The music is respectful without becoming nostalgic, adventurous without abandoning
its roots, and intellectually sophisticated without losing its emotional purpose.

### An exceptional artistic statement

Members … Don’t! is a major achievement in Tyshawn Sorey’s continuing development
as a composer, arranger, and bandleader.

It demonstrates an extraordinary understanding of extended musical form and the 
relationship between composition and improvisation. It also confirms his ability
to assemble musicians whose individual artistic identities contribute to a unified
and deeply expressive collective vision.

The album’s almost ninety-six-minute duration is not an indulgence. Its length is
part of its artistic argument. Sorey asks the listener to enter the music, remain
with it, experience its gradual transformations, and recognize the significance 
of its eventual destination.

This is an album that rewards concentration. It is music for listeners who appreciate
the intellectual dimensions of jazz but also understand that its greatest achievements
are often emotional, spiritual, and human.

The historical connection to Max Roach gives the project its foundation, but Sorey’s
achievement belongs entirely to the present. His arrangements, his rhythmic imagination,
and the remarkable contributions of Adam O’Farrill, Mark Shim, Lex Korten, Tyrone
Allen II, and Fay Victor create an artistic statement with its own identity and 
significance. Ultimately, Members… Don’t! is about perseverance.

It is about the responsibility of musicians to remain engaged with the world around
them. It is about the capacity of art to preserve memory while imagining new possibilities.
And it is about the power of collective expression in a world that continues to 
demand courage, solidarity, and determination.

Jazz has always been capable of carrying such messages. In the hands of Tyshawn 
Sorey, that tradition receives a powerful contemporary voice. Members… Don’t! is
not simply a conversation with the past. It is a declaration addressed to the present
and the future.

A remarkable work of contemporary jazz, a deeply thoughtful reinterpretation of 
Max Roach’s legacy, and an album whose artistic and human significance extends far
beyond its extraordinary musical dimensions.

Jazz as memory. Jazz as resistance. Jazz as collective strength. Jazz as the determination
to carry on. And, above all, a reminder that we must not grow weary.

Album information: Members… Don’t! was released on May 29, 2026. The seven-track,
95:49-minute recording was captured live at New York’s Jazz Gallery on June 14, 
2025. The arrangements draw on compositions by Stanley Cowell, Jymie Merritt, Gary
Bartz, and Max Roach.

**By Olivia Lomberd**

[**Buy from here – New CD**](https://tyshawn-sorey.bandcamp.com/album/members-dont)

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