Max Roach

Max Roach’s ride-cymbal-driven style set the precedent for modern jazz drumming as we know it; pushing beyond mere time-keeping, he made himself an equal melodic and expressive voice in any ensemble he played with. Born in 1924 in North Carolina and raised in Brooklyn, Roach became a fixture at jazz clubs while he was still a teenager, dropping into bebop jam sessions with Charlie Parker at nights while studying composition at the Manhattan School of Music. In the mid-to-late ’40s, Roach became one of the most crucial voices in the bebop scene, making definitive recordings with Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, and Miles Davis. The drummer’s first major bandleader turn came in the mid-’50s via his influential group with trumpeter Clifford Brown; their recordings, which also featured Sonny Rollins, anticipated the hard-bop movement. In the next decade, Roach’s compositional ambitions increased alongside his interest in political activism. His vocal/instrumental concept album We Insist!: Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite (1960) remains one of the most celebrated musical works of the civil rights movement. Throughout the rest of his career, Roach would continue to push his creative limits in solo performances and duo outings with younger vanguard jazz talents such as Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, and Archie Shepp. He also performed with his percussion group M’Boom, scored theater and dance performances, and ventured outside of jazz in his collaborative work with orchestras, world musicians, rock stars, and rappers. Following a decrease in musical activity at the turn of the 2000s, Roach passed away in 2007.