Max Roach

Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach ( born January 10, 1924 Newland Township, North Carolina; † August 16, 2007 in New York City, New York) was an American jazz drummer and composer.

He became known as bebop and hard bop musician who has performed with major jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins. Roach is regarded as one of the most influential drummers in the history of jazz.

Life and work

Max Roach was the son of Alphonse and Cressie Roach; his family moved to Brooklyn (New York City ) when he was four years old. He grew up in a musical family. His mother was a gospel singer. He began at an early age to play signal trumpet in marching bands. At the age of ten he played drums in some gospel bands.

He studied until completion in 1952 at the Manhattan School of Music Composition and Music Theory. Meanwhile, Roach was already occasionally gone into Minton 's Playhouse in bands before he took the place of Kenny Clarke in the band of Coleman Hawkins ( 1943). In 1944 he played with Dizzy Gillespie, but also briefly with Duke Ellington and was then a year in the band of Benny Carter. He was one of the first bebop drummer: In 1945, he was employed by the Big Band of Gillespie, but also performed with Charlie Parker on in the clubs. In 1946 he played with Stan Getz, in order then to work until 1949 in the band of Parker, with whom he appeared in May 1949 at the Paris Festival International de Jazz in 1949. Then he led his own groups.

1952 founded Roach along with Charles Mingus Debut Records label, which probably first Independent Label Musicians in possession. For this he took with Mingus on several boards, including the memorable Jazz at Massey Hall concert in 1953 with Parker, Gillespie and Bud Powell. He then worked in California, where he led together with trumpeter Clifford Brown quintet, which also includes Sonny Rollins and pianist Richie Powell, the brother of Bud Powell belonged. With this group he created the hard-bop style. Due to the sudden accidental death in 1956 by Brown and Richie Powell Roach plunged into depression and alcoholism.

In 1960, he took the concept album We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, in which he convincingly manner transposed the political message of the civil rights movement with Coleman Hawkins, Babatunde Olatunji and the singer Abbey Lincoln. We Insist! Freedom Now Suite is a topic for choreographers, filmmakers and Off-Broadway stage productions. Because this recording Roach was boycotted in the 1960s by the record companies. As there he worked in his later group M'Boom with other percussionists and drummers. 1962 did the collaboration with Duke Ellington ( Money Jungle ).

To his band included musicians like Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham, Booker Little, George Coleman, Stanley Turrentine, Billy Harper, Mal Waldron, Ray Bryant, Odean Pope and Cecil Bridgewater. For special projects, he integrated in this band vocal soloists, as well as choirs and a string quartet. In the 1970s and 1980s, he often played duets with Archie Shepp, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Connie Crothers and Abdullah Ibrahim. In the 1980s he also worked with a double quartet, consisting of his own ensemble and the Uptown String Quartet. As one of the first jazz musicians he has worked with rappers and break dancers.

Starting in 1972, Max Roach was a professor at the Faculty of Music of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, until he retired in 2002 because of Alzheimer's disease. In 1988 he was MacArthur Fellow. The University of Pennsylvania in 2004 awarded him an honorary doctorate. Max Roach died at the age of 83 years on August 16, 2007 in a New York hospital.

Family

In his first marriage he was married to Mildred Roach, with whom he had two children, has established his son Daryl and daughter Maxine, who is a violinist today and the Uptown String Quartet. In 1954, he met singer Barbara Jai (Johnson ); from this compound originates son, Raoul Jordu. Roach was married from 1962 to 1970 with singer Abbey Lincoln, whom he accompanied on numerous albums. From his third marriage with Janus Adams Roach twin daughters Ayodele and Dara Rasheeda come.

Disco Graphical Notes

  • Max Roach Quartet ( Fantasy, 1953)
  • Brown And Roach Incorporated ( EmArcy, 1954)
  • Jazz In 3/4 Time ( EmArcy, 1957)
  • Max Roach With The Boston Percussion Ensemble ( EmArcy, 1958)
  • We Insist! Freedom Now ( Candid, 1960)
  • Percussion Bitter Sweet ( Impulse! Records, 1961) with Mal Waldron, Julian Priester, Eric Dolphy, Booker Little, Eugenio Arango
  • Drums Unlimited ( Atlantic, 1965) with James Spaulding, Freddie Hubbard, Ronnie Mathews, Jymie Merritt, Roland Alexander
  • Re: Percussion ( Strata - East Records, 1973) with M'Boom
  • Solos ( Baystate, 1977)
  • Birth And Rebirth ( Black Saint, 1978) duo with Anthony Braxton
  • Swish (New Artists, 1982) duo with Connie Crothers
  • Max Roach With The New Orchestra Of Boston And The So What Brass Quintet ( Blue Note, 1993)
  • Charlie Parker: The Complete Savoy Studio Recordings ( 1945-48 )
  • J. J. Johnson: Mad Be Bop (1946 )
  • Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (1949 )
  • Charles Mingus: The Charles Mingus Quartet plus Max Roach (1955 )
  • Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus (1956 )

Collection

Gospel music Clarion (instrument) The Bronx Amherst (Massachusetts) Strata-East Records George Morrow (cricketer) Roy Haynes Ben Riley Thelonious Monk Integrated Authority File
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