Great Jazz Drummer Passes On
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Max Roach
With a legacy of work covering more than six decades, current day jazz students are thankful that many of the early works by Roach have been re-mastered. Jazz in 3/4 time was re-mastered and released in 2005.
Max Roach once said that the American drummer is a one-man percussion orchestra. That he was.
Born January 10, 1924 in North Carolina, Roach passed on August 15, 2007 at the age of 73.
Many would agree that Roach was one of the greatest of modern jazz drummers. He was there for the famous Massey Hall concert and made his mark as a bebop musician. At that 1953 concert in Toronto Max Roach played with Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, Bud Powell on piano, Charlie Mingus on bass and Charlie Parker on alto saxophone.
Beyond what some called the greatest jazz concert in history, collaborations were many for Roach including recordings with saxophonist Sonny Rollins, trumpeter Clifford Brown and singer Abbey Lincoln, to whom Roach was married from 1962-1970. Roach was known for his experimentation with unusual time signatures, but was also described as having a melodic approach. He explored the scope of solo performance in Percussion Unlimited in 1966 and later delved into multi-ethnic drumming with an ensemble called M’Boom in the 1970’s.
Seminal drummer in bebop explored and taught far more
Roach was celebrated as a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Master in 1984 and in 2005 he was inducted into the Nesuhi Eretegun Jazz Hall of Fame. The NEA biograpahy for Roach said that he “remained one of the leading drummers, band leaders, and sages in jazz from the 1940s and throughout his life. His often biting political commentary and no-nonsense intellect, not to mention his ever-expanding rhythmic pallet, kept him at the vanguard of jazz for over 50 years.”
Roach was also seen as highly influential on musicians like drummer Paul Motian and pianist Andrew Hill among others young and old.
The IAJE concluded their biography of Roach by saying, A broad-based percussionist who was a pioneer in establishing a fixed pulse on the ride cymbal instead of the bass drum, Max Roach also collaborated with voice, string, and brass ensembles, lectured on college campuses extensively, and composed music for dance, theater, film, and television.
