Max Roach, jazz drummer extraordinaire, died yesterday in Manhattan at the age of 83. The most influential jazz drummer ever, Max played with Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. Or perhaps they played with Max.
Ozier Muhammed/The New York Times
Peter Keepnews wrote of Max Roach in the The New York Times:
Ozier Muhammed/The New York Times
Peter Keepnews wrote of Max Roach in the The New York Times:
In Mr. Roach’s hands, the drum kit became much more than a means of keeping time. He saw himself not just as a supporting player but as a full-fledged member of the front line.My favorite Max Roach album is Duke Ellington's Money Jungle, where Max teamed up with Duke and Mingus to create minimalist jazz of unsurpassed clarity and execution. This record lives up to the historic names emblazoned on its cover and is a good starting point for those of you who'd like to hear some classic Max Roach.
Layering rhythms on top of rhythms, he paid as much attention to a song’s melody as to its beat. He developed, as the jazz critic Burt Korall put it, “a highly responsive, contrapuntal style,” engaging his fellow musicians in an open-ended conversation while maintaining a rock-solid pulse. His approach “initially mystified and thoroughly challenged other drummers,” Mr. Korall wrote, but it quickly earned the respect of his peers and established a new standard for the instrument.
