Drummer Max Roach was one of the pioneers of bebop. As a leading figure in the subsequent cross-breeding of jazz with other musical idioms, he earned himself eminence as a formidable creative artist compared only to the best in the world of jazz.
Despite all these acclaims, he was among legendary musicians who faced both social and financial challenges, including spiritual bigotry, but withered the storms and continued to produce music performances that set the standard for the rest in the field to try and achieve.
Some of Max Roach’s ideas had been viewed as untenable in jazz music due to their unorthodox or eccentric instrumentation. That was way back in the 1950s. The “acceptable” ensemble set up was one which featured a drummer, a pianist, a bassist, guitarist, and wind instrument player or players – saxophonist, a trumpeter or trombonist.
His duet projects won him many critical praises with the most celebrated one being his duet with Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream. In this recording made in 1962, Dr. King presents the oration of his historical sermon/speech, while Max Roach plays multi-percussions as accompaniment.
As recently as when he had been ailing in 2000s, Roach had led bands of various configurations: The Max Roach’s Double Quartet with one half featuring him on drums, Odean Pope on saxophone, Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet and Calvin Hill on bass; and the other half, Uptown String Quartet, featured his classically trained daughter Maxine Roach on viola, Eileen Folson on cello, and Diane Monroe and Lesa Terry on violins.
The Uptown String Quartet would at times perform independently and Roach would at a certain point during the performance join them on drums.
Likewise, he led groups that played wind instruments exclusively, with him on drums. Similarly, the drummer created duets with his longtime friend and associate trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and yet another one with the legendary pianist Mal Waldron, among several other recordings.
Maxwell Lemuel Roach was born in New Land, Pasquotank County, North Carolina, on January 10, 1924 to Alphonse and Cressie Roach, a gospel singer. At the age of ten, he was already playing drums in gospel bands and in 1942, at the age of 18, after finishing high school he got a call to fill in for Sonny Greer, the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s drummer.
He studied classical percussion at the Manhattan School of Music from 1950 to 1953 and earned a Bachelor of Music degree. The school awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in 1990 for his contribution to performing arts.
And when he was leading groups with line-ups featuring jazz luminaries such as his compatriots saxophonists Archie Shepp and Anthony Braxton, and pianist Cecil Taylor, and South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim (formerly Dollar Brand), Roach embraced free improvisation.
In 1960, Max Roach released an album that agitated for the emancipation of African-Americans titled We Insist! – Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite, featuring lyrics by Oscar Brown. The album’s cover recreates the sit-in movement of the Civil Rights Movement of the early-1960s in the United States. The inspiration to this suite came about at the time when many African countries were demanding their independence from their colonizers.
Most African-Americans students in southern states had been aware of the African push for freedom because of African students on their campuses. All the five tracks on this album are performed by Roach on drums and his then-wife, vocalist Abbey Lincoln. His musical mentor, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, is featured as a guest on one track.
Roach was indeed endowed with great creative ideas and he never hesitated to express them when on stage. For instance, the other group that he led was the So What Brass Quintet, which comprised five wind instrument players with no piano, no bass, and no guitar.
At any given performance of the So What Brass Quintet, the ensemble featured a trombonist, a tuba player, a French horn player, and two trumpeters. Musicians in his ensemble included Eddie Henderson, Cecil Bridgewater, Steve Turre, Delfeayo Marsalis and Robert Stewart, among others.
In the 1970s, he co-led with trumpeter Clifford Brown yet another percussion ensemble, M’Boom, which he used as a vehicle for making musical statements tinged with the Civil Rights Movement’s agenda. Powerful black inspirational messages flowed seamlessly with jazz accompaniments performed by M’Boom.
Still not one short of ideas and surprises, Max Roach took the jazz world by surprise when he performed in a hip-hop concert that featured the rapper Fab Five Freddy and New York Break Dancers. He had felt an artistic link between the expressions of young black artists and the jazz music that he had pursued all through his life.
Several years earlier, he had started performing solo concerts in the early-1980, thus proving that as a multi-percussionist he had the proficiency to perform alone and fulfill his audience’s musical entertainment tastes. In fact, he created memorable compositions in such concerts.
Not all his performances were of a secular nature; Max Roach also performed and recorded with gospel choirs such as the Walter White Gospel Choir and the John Motley Singers, and several others, to great acclaim.
It’s almost a decade now since he passed away on August 16, 2007 at 83, and the music he composed and recorded still sounds fresh and relevant to today’s tastes.
In Roach’s music, there was an element of spirituality and a commitment to excellence.
