Max Roach

Name	Max Roach
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	Maxwell Lemuel Roach
Born	January 10, 1924
Died	August 16, 2007
Origin	Township of Newland, North Carolina, United States
Instrument	DrumsPercussion
Genre	Jazz
Occupation	Musician, composer
Years active	1944–2002
Associated acts	M'Boom

Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.

A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history. He worked with many famous jazz musicians, including Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins and Clifford Brown.

Roach also led his own groups, and made numerous musical statements relating to the civil rights movement of African Americans.

Biography

Early life and career

Roach was born in the Township of Newland, Pasquotank County, North Carolina, which borders the southern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, to Alphonse and Cressie Roach. Many confuse this with Newland Town in Avery County. Although Roach's birth certificate lists his date of birth as January 10, 1924, Roach has been quoted by Phil Schaap as having stated that his family believed he was born on January 8, 1925. Roach's family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York when he was 4 years old. He grew up in a musical home, his mother being a gospel singer. He started to play bugle in parade orchestras at a young age. At the age of 10, he was already playing drums in some gospel bands. As an eighteen year-old fresh out of Boys' High School in Brooklyn, (1942) he was called to fill in for Sonny Greer, and play with the Duke Ellington Orchestra performing at the Paramount Theater.

In 1942, Roach started to go out in the jazz clubs of the 52nd Street and at 78th Street & Broadway for Georgie Jay's Taproom (playing with schoolmate Cecil Payne).

Roach's most significant innovations came in the 1940s, when he and jazz drummer Kenny Clarke devised a new concept of musical time. By playing the beat-by-beat pulse of standard 4/4 time on the "ride" cymbal instead of on the thudding bass drum, Roach and Clarke developed a flexible, flowing rhythmic pattern that allowed soloists to play freely. The new approach also left space for the drummer to insert dramatic accents on the snare drum, "crash" cymbal and other components of the trap set.

By matching his rhythmic attack with a tune's melody, Roach brought a newfound subtlety of expression to his instrument. He often shifted the dynamic emphasis from one part of his drum kit to another within a single phrase, creating a sense of tonal color and rhythmic surprise. The idea was to shatter musical conventions and take full advantage of the drummer's unique position. "In no other society", Roach once observed, "do they have one person play with all four limbs."

While that approach is common today, when Clarke and Roach introduced the new style in the 1940s it was a revolutionary musical advance. "When Max Roach's first records with Charlie Parker were released by Savoy in 1945," jazz historian Burt Korall wrote in the Oxford Companion to Jazz, "drummers experienced awe and puzzlement and even fear." One of those awed drummers, Stan Levey, summed up Roach's importance: "I came to realize that, because of him, drumming no longer was just time, it was music."

In 1954, he formed a quintet featuring trumpeter Clifford Brown, tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Richie Powell (brother of Bud Powell), and bassist George Morrow, though Land left the following year and Sonny Rollins soon replaced him. The group was a prime example of the hard bop style also played by Art Blakey and Horace Silver. Tragically, this group was to be short-lived; Brown and Powell were killed in a car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in June 1956. The first album Roach recorded after their deaths was Max Roach + 4. After Brown and Powell's deaths, Roach continued leading a similarly configured group, with Kenny Dorham (and later the short-lived Booker Little) on trumpet, George Coleman on tenor and pianist Ray Bryant. Roach expanded the standard form of hard-bop using 3/4 waltz rhythms and modality in 1957 with his album Jazz in 3/4 time. During this period, Roach recorded a series of other albums for the EmArcy label featuring the brothers Stanley and Tommy Turrentine.

In 1955, he was the drummer for vocalist Dinah Washington at several live appearances and recordings. Appearing at the Newport Jazz Festival with her in 1958 which was filmed and the 1954 live studio audience recording of Dinah Jams, considered to be one of the best and most overlooked vocal jazz albums of its genre.

1960s-1970s

In 1960 he composed the We Insist! - Freedom Now suite with lyrics by Oscar Brown Jr., after being invited to contribute to commemorations of the hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Using his musical abilities to comment on the African-American experience would be a significant part of his career. Unfortunately, Roach suffered from being blacklisted by the American recording industry for a period in the 1960s.

In 1966, with his album Drums Unlimited (which includes several tracks that are entirely drums solos) he demonstrated that drums can be a solo instrument able to play theme, variations, rhythmically cohesive phrases. He described his approach to music as "the creation of organized sound."

During the 1970s, Roach formed a musical organization—"M'Boom"—a percussion orchestra. Each member of this unit composed for it and performed on many percussion instruments. Personnel included Fred King, Joe Chambers, Warren Smith, Freddie Waits, Roy Brooks, Omar Clay, Ray Mantilla, Francisco Mora, and Eli Fountain.

Not content to expand on the musical territory he had already become known for, Roach spent the decades of the 1980s and 1990s continually finding new forms of musical expression and presentation. Though he ventured into new territory during a lifetime of innovation, he kept his contact with his musical point of origin. He performed with the Beijing Trio, with pianist Jon Jang and erhu player Jeibing Chen. His last recording, Friendship, was with trumpet master Clark Terry, the two long-standing friends in duet and quartet. His last performance was at the 50th anniversary celebration of the original Massey Hall concert, in Toronto, where he performed solo on the hi-hat.

In 1994, Roach also appeared on Rush drummer Neil Peart's performing "The Drum Also Waltzes", Part 1 and 2 on of the series during the 1994 All-Star recording sessions.

Death

Max Roach died in the early morning on August 16, 2007 in Manhattan. He was survived by five children: sons Daryl and Raoul, and daughters Maxine, Ayo and Dara. Over 1,900 people attended his funeral at Riverside Church in Manhattan, New York City on August 24, 2007. Max Roach was interred at the Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY.

In a funeral tribute to the Roach, then-Lieutenant Governor of New York David Paterson compared the musician's courage to that of Paul Robeson, Harriet Tubman and Malcolm X, saying that "No one ever wrote a bad thing about Max Roach's music or his aura until 1960, when he and Charlie Mingus protested the practices of the Newport Jazz Festival."

Personal life

Two children, son Daryl Keith and daughter Maxine, were born from his first marriage with Mildred Roach. In 1956 he met singer Barbara Jai (Johnson) and had another son, Raoul Jordu. He continued to play as a freelance while studying composition at the Manhattan School of Music. He graduated in 1952. During the period 1962–1970, Roach was married to the singer Abbey Lincoln, who had performed on several of Roach's albums. Twin daughters, Ayodele Nieyela and Dara Rashida, were later born to Roach and his third wife, Janus Adams Roach. He has four grandchildren, Kyle Maxwell Roach, Kadar Elijah Roach, Maxe Samiko Hinds and Skye Sophia Sheffield. Long involved in jazz education, in 1972 he joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In the early 2000s, Roach became less active from the onset of hydrocephalus-related complications.

From the 1970s through the mid-1990s Roach taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Honors

He was given a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant in 1988, cited as a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France (1989), twice awarded the French Grand Prix du Disque, elected to the International Percussive Art Society's Hall of Fame and the Downbeat Magazine Hall of Fame, awarded Harvard Jazz Master, celebrated by Aaron Davis Hall, given eight honorary doctorate degrees, including degrees awarded by Medgar Evers College, CUNY, the University of Bologna, Italy and Columbia University. While spending the later years of his life at the Mill Basin Sunrise assisted living home, in Brooklyn, Max was honored with a proclamation honoring his musical achievements by Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz.

In 1986 the London borough of Lambeth named a park in Brixton after him. - Roach was able to officially open it when he visited the UK that year.

Discography

As leader

1953 : Max Roach Quartet (Fantasy)

1953 : Max Roach and his Sextet (Debut)

1953 : Max Roach Quartet featuring Hank Mobley (Debut)

1956 : Max Roach + 4 (EmArcy)

1957 : Jazz in ¾ Time

1958 : Max Roach/Art Blakey (with Art Blakey)

1958 : Max Roach Plus Four on the Chicago Scene (Mercury)

1958 : Max Roach Plus Four at Newport (Mercury)

1958 : Max Roach with the Boston Percussion Ensemble (EmArcy)

1958 : Deeds not Words (aka Conversation) (Riverside)

1958 : Max Roach/Bud Shank - Sessions (with Bud Shank)

1958 : The Defiant Ones (with Booker Little)

1958 : Deeds, Not Words (with all new cast Ray Draper, Booker Little, George Coleman)''

1959 : Rich Versus Roach (with Buddy Rich)

1961 : Percussion Bitter Sweet (Impulse! Records)(with Mal Waldron)

1962 : Speak, Brother, Speak!

1962 : It's Time (Impulse! Records)(with Mal Waldron)

1964 : Live in Europe: Freedom Now Suite (with Abbey Lincoln)

1964 : The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan (with Hasaan ibn Ali)

1966 : Drums Unlimited (Atlantic) (Leader, with James Spaulding, Freddie Hubbard, Ronnie Mathews, Jymie Merritt, Roland Alexander)

1968 : Sound as Roach (Atlantic)

1968 : Members, Don't Git Weary (Atlantic)

1971 : Lift Every Voice and Sing (with J.C. White Singers)

1976 : Force: Sweet Mao-Suid Afrika '76 (duo with Archie Shepp)

1976 : Nommo (Victor)

1977 : Max Roach Quartet Live in Tokyo (Denon)

1977 : The Loudstar (Horo)

1977 : Max Roach Quartet Live In Amsterdam - It's Time (Baystate)

1977 : Solos (Baystate)

1977 : Streams of Consciousness - duo with Dollar Brand

1978 : Confirmation (Fluid)

1978 : Birth and Rebirth - duo with Anthony Braxton (Black Saint)

1979 : The Long March - duo with Archie Shepp (Hathut)

1979 : Historic Concerts - duo with Cecil Taylor (Black Saint)

1979 : One in Two - Two in One - duo with Anthony Braxton (Hathut)

1979 : Pictures in a Frame (Soul Note)

1980 : Chattahoochee Red (Columbia)

1982 : Swish - duo with Connie Crothers (New Artists)

1982 : In the Light (Soul Note)

1983 : Live at Vielharmonie (Soul Note)

1984 : Scott Free (Soul Note)

1984 : It's Christmas Again (Soul Note)

1984 : Survivors (Soul Note)

1985 : Easy Winners (Soul Note)

1986 : Bright Moments (Soul Note)

1989 : - duo with Dizzy Gillespie (A&M;)

1989 : Homage to Charlie Parker (A&M;)

1991 : To the Max! (Enja)

1995 : Max Roach With The New Orchestra Of Boston And The So What Brass Quintet (Blue Note)

1999 : Beijing Trio (Asian Improv)

2002 : Friendship - with Clark Terry) (Columbia)

With Clifford Brown

1954 : Brown And Roach Incorporated

1954 : Clifford Brown and Max Roach

1954 : Study in Brown

1954 : More Study in Brown

1955 : Clifford Brown with Strings

1956 : Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street

1957 : Clifford Brown with Strings

1979 : Live at the Bee Hive (Columbia Records)

With M'Boom

1973 : (Strata-East Records)

1979 : M'Boom (Columbia)

1984 : Collage (Soul Note)

1992 : Live at S.O.B.'s New York (Blue Moon Records)

As sideman

1944 : Rainbow Mist (with Coleman Hawkins)

1944 : Coleman Hawkins and His All Stars (with Coleman Hawkins)

1945 : Town Hall, New York, June 22, 1945 (with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker)

1945 - 1948: The Complete Savoy Studio Recordings (with Charlie Parker)

1946 : Mad Be Bop (with J.J. Johnson)

1946 : Opus BeBop (with Stan Getz)

1946 : Savoy Jam Party (Don Byas Quartet)

1946 : The Hawk Flies (with Coleman Hawkins)

1947 : The Bud Powell Trip (with Bud Powell)

1947 : Lullaby in Rhythm (with Charlie Parker)

1947 : Charlie Parker on Dial (with Charlie Parker)

1948 : The Band that Never Was (with Charlie Parker)

1948 : Bird on 52nd Street (with Charlie Parker)

1948 : Bird at the Roost (with Charlie Parker)

1949 : Birth of the Cool (with Miles Davis)

1949 - 1953: Charlie Parker – Complete Sessions on Verve (with Charlie Parker)

1949 : Charlie Parker in France (with Charlie Parker)

1949 : Genesis (with Sonny Stitt)

1949 : The Stars of Modern Jazz at Carnegie Hall

1950 : The McGhee-Navarro Sextet (with Howard McGhee)

1951 : The Amazing Bud Powell (with Bud Powell)

1951 : The George Wallington Trip and Septet (with George Wallington)

1951 : Conception (with Miles Davis)

1952 : New Faces, New Sounds (with Gil Melle)

1952 : The Complete Genius (with Thelonious Monk)

1952 : Live at Rockland Palace (with Charlie Parker)

1953 : Jazz at Massey Hall (with Charlie Parker)

1953 : Mambo Jazz (with Joe Holiday)

1953 : Yardbird: DC-53 (with Charlie Parker)

1953 : Cohn's Tones (with Al Cohn)

1953 : Diz and Getz (with Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz)

1954 : Daahoud (Mainstream Records)

1954 : Dinah Jams Featuring Dinah Washington

1955 : Relaxed Piano Moods (with Hazel Scott)

1955 : Introducing Jimmy Cleveland And His All Stars (EmArcy)

1955 : New Piano Expressions (with John Dennis)

1955 : Herbie Nichols Trio (with Herbie Nichols)

1955 : Work Time (with Sonny Rollins)

1955 : The Charles Mingus Quartet plus Max Roach (with Charles Mingus)

1956 : Sonny Rollins Plus 4 (with Sonny Rollins)

1956 : Introducing Johnny Griffin (with Johnny Griffin)

1956 : The Magnificent Thad Jones (with Thad Jones)

1956 : Brilliant Corners (with Thelonious Monk)

1956 : Tour de Force (with Sonny Rollins)

1956 : The Music of George Gershwin: I Sing of Thee (with Joe Wilder)

1956 : Rollins Plays For Bird (Sonny Rollins Quintet)

1956 : Saxophone Colossus (with Sonny Rollins)

1957 : First Place (with J.J. Johnson)

1957 : Sonny Clark Trio

1957 : Jazz Contrasts (with Kenny Dorham)

1958 : Freedom Suite (with Sonny Rollins)

1958 : Shadow Waltz (with Sonny Rollins)

1958 : Award-Winning Drummer (Time T)

1959 : A Little Sweet (aka. The Many Sides of Max )(Mercury)

1959 : Moon-Faced and Starry-Eyed (Mercury)

1960 : Quiet as it's Kept (Mercury)

1960 : Tommy Turrentine (with Tommy Turrentine)

1960 : Stan 'The Man' Turrentine

1960 : Again! (Affinity)

1960 : Parisian Sketches (Mercury)

1960 : We Insist! - Freedom Now (Candid)

1960 : Long as You're Living (Enja)

1960 : Uhuru Afrika (with Randy Weston)

1960 : Sonny Clark Trio (with Sonny Clark)

1961 : Straight Ahead (with Abbey Lincoln)

1961 : Out Front (with Booker Little)

1961 : Paris Blues (with Duke Ellington)

1962 : Money Jungle (with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus)

1962 : Drum Suite (with Slide Hampton)

1966 : Stuttgart 1963 Concert (with Sonny Rollins

1972 : Newport in New York ‘72 (Roach on 2 tracks only)

1975 : The Bop Session (with Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, John Lewis, Hank Jones and Percy Heath)

References

External links

Max Roach 1924-2007: Thousands Pay Tribute to the Legendary Jazz Drummer, Educator, Activist

Max Roach at the Hard Bop Homepage

Discography at Discogs

Discography and Sessionography

New York Times obituary

New York Sun Obituary

Obituary and Public Tributes

Slate Magazine Article

Max Roach Multimedia Directory

Category:American jazz drummers Category:Bebop drummers Category:Hard bop drummers Category:Post-bop drummers Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Manhattan School of Music alumni Category:African American drummers Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:1924 births Category:2007 deaths Category:People from Pasquotank County, North Carolina Category:Candid Records artists Category:EmArcy Records artists Category:Verve Records artists Category:Capitol Records artists