Maxwell Lemuel Roach was born on January 10, 1924, and passed away on August 16, 2007. He was an American jazz drummer and composer. Roach was a pioneer in the bebop style of music and performed in many different musical styles. He is widely regarded as one of the most important drummers in history. He collaborated with many well-known jazz musicians, such as Clifford Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Abbey Lincoln, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, Benny Carter, and Booker Little. He also performed with his daughter, Maxine Roach, who is a Grammy-nominated violist. In 1980, he was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame, and in 1992, he was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame.

In the mid-1950s, Roach co-led an important quintet with trumpeter Clifford Brown. In 1970, he founded the percussion ensemble M'Boom.

Biography

Max Roach was born to Alphonse and Cressie Roach in the Township of Newland, Pasquotank County, North Carolina, which is near the Great Dismal Swamp. This town is sometimes confused with Newland Town in Avery County, North Carolina.

When Max was four years old, his family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in a home where music was important, especially because his mother was a gospel singer. He began playing the bugle in parades as a young child. By the time he was 10 years old, he was already playing drums in gospel bands.

In 1942, when Max was 18 years old and had just graduated from Boys High School in Brooklyn, he was asked to replace Sonny Greer in the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He performed at the Paramount Theater in Manhattan. He started visiting jazz clubs on 52nd Street and at 78th Street & Broadway, where he played with a school friend named Cecil Payne. His first professional recording happened in December 1943, when he played behind the saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.

Max was one of the first drummers, along with Kenny Clarke, to play in the bebop style. He performed with bands led by famous musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, and Miles Davis. He played on many of Charlie Parker’s most important recordings, including a session in November 1945 that changed the direction of recorded jazz. His drumming with Bud Powell’s trio, especially during fast-paced music, was widely praised.

Max was interested in Afro-Caribbean music and traveled to Haiti in the late 1940s to study with a traditional drummer named Ti Roro.

From 1950 to 1953, Max studied classical percussion at the Manhattan School of Music, working toward a Bachelor of Music degree. In 1990, the school gave him an Honorary Doctorate.

In 1952, Max helped start Debut Records with bassist Charles Mingus, one of the first labels owned by musicians. The label released a recording of a May 1953 concert called "Jazz at Massey Hall," which featured artists like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Mingus, and Max. Another recording released on this label was "Percussion Discussion," a groundbreaking album of free improvisation between a bassist and drummer.

In 1954, Max and trumpeter Clifford Brown formed a group that included tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Richie Powell (Bud Powell’s brother), and bassist George Morrow. Harold Land left the group the next year and was replaced by Sonny Rollins. This group was an example of the hard bop style, similar to the music of Art Blakey and Horace Silver. Later that year, Max moved to Los Angeles and joined the Lighthouse All Stars, replacing Shelly Manne.

Clifford Brown and Richie Powell died in a car accident in June 1956. The first album Max recorded after their deaths was "Max Roach + 4." After their deaths, Max continued leading groups with musicians like Kenny Dorham, George Coleman, and Ray Bryant. In 1957, he used waltz rhythms and modality in his album "Jazz in 3/4 Time," expanding the hard bop style. During this time, he recorded albums for EmArcy Records with the Turrentine brothers, Stanley and Tommy.

In 1955, Max played drums for singer Dinah Washington during live shows and recordings. He performed with her at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958, which was filmed, and at the 1954 recording of "Dinah Jams," a highly regarded vocal jazz album.

In 1960, Max created the album "We Insist! (Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite)," with vocals by his wife, Abbey Lincoln, and lyrics by Oscar Brown Jr. This album was inspired by the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1962, he recorded "Money Jungle," a collaboration with Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington, which was praised by Inkblot magazine as one of the best trio albums ever made.

In the 1970s, Max formed M’Boom, a percussion orchestra. Each member of the group composed music and played multiple percussion instruments. Members included Fred King, Joe Chambers, Warren Smith, Freddie Waits, Roy Brooks, Omar Clay, Ray Mantilla, Francisco Mora, and Eli Fountain.

Max was deeply involved in teaching jazz. In 1972, he joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and taught there until the mid-1990s.

In the early 1980s, Max began performing solo concerts, showing that one person could play multiple percussion instruments and create satisfying performances. He released a solo record with a Japanese jazz label, and a video of one of his solo concerts includes footage of a recording session with his quartet, Odean Pope, Cecil Bridgewater, and Calvin Hill.

Max also recorded duets with musicians like Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, and Abdullah Ibrahim. These recordings often included free improvisation. He also performed duets with the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr., a video artist named Kit Fitzgerald, and his longtime friend Dizzy Gillespie.

In the 1980s, Max wrote music for plays by Sam Shepard. He was the composer and musical director for a festival of Shepard’s plays called "ShepardSets" at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in 1984. The festival included productions of "Back Bog Beast Bait," "Angel City," and "Suicide in B Flat." In 1985, a multimedia collaboration titled "Max Roach Live at La MaMa" was performed.

Max created unique musical ensembles, such as "The Double Quartet," which combined his regular quartet with a string quartet led by his daughter, Maxine Roach. Another group was the "So What Brass Quintet," which included five brass musicians and no chordal instruments or bass players. Members included Cecil Bridgewater, Frank Gordon, Eddie Henderson, Rod McGaha, Steve Turre, Delfeayo Marsalis, Robert Stewart, Tony Underwood, Marshall Sealy, Mark Taylor, and Dennis Jeter.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Max explored new musical forms. He performed a concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and wrote music for the Walter White gospel choir and the John Motley Singers. He also performed with dance companies like the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance

Personal life

Roach's godson is an artist, filmmaker, and hip-hop pioneer named Fab Five Freddy.

Roach had five children in the order of his relationships: a son named Daryl and a daughter named Maxine from his first wife, Mildred Roach; another son named Raoul Jordu from his relationship with singer Barbara Jai (Johnson); and twin daughters named Ayodele and Dara Rasheeda from his third wife, Janus Adams Roach.

From 1962 to 1970, Roach was married to singer Abbey Lincoln. His daughter Maxine, a violist, appeared on several of Lincoln's albums. In February 1961, Roach and Lincoln, along with others, entered a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to protest the killing of Patrice Lumumba, the prime minister of the newly independent Congo.

In an early 1970s interview with Art Taylor, Roach identified himself as a Muslim.

Style

Max Roach began his career using a traditional grip style but later preferred the matched grip as he continued his work.

During the 1940s, Roach and Kenny Clarke created a new way to approach rhythm in music. Instead of using the bass drum to play the steady beat of 4/4 time, they used the ride cymbal. This allowed for a more flexible and smooth rhythm that gave musicians more freedom to play. It also made space for the drummer to add dramatic sounds on the snare drum, crash cymbal, and other parts of the drum kit.

Roach matched his drumming to the melody of a song, which added new depth to how the drums could express emotion. He often changed the volume and focus between different parts of his drum kit during a single musical phrase, creating variety in sound and rhythm. Roach once said, "In no other society do they have one person play with all four limbs."

This style became common later, but in the 1940s, it was considered a major change. When Max Roach’s early recordings with Charlie Parker were released in 1945, other drummers felt surprised and even frightened by his approach. Stan Levey, a drummer, later said, "I realized that, because of him, drumming no longer was just time, it was music."

In 1966, Roach’s album Drums Unlimited showed that drums could be used as a solo instrument capable of playing themes, variations, and rhythmic phrases. Roach described his approach as "the creation of organized sound." His style influenced many jazz and rock drummers, including Joe Morello, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Peter Erskine, Billy Cobham, Ginger Baker, and Mitch Mitchell. The track "The Drum Also Waltzes" was later used by John Bonham in his Moby Dick drum solo and by other drummers like Neil Peart and Steve Smith. Bill Bruford performed a version of the track on the 1985 album Flags.

Honors and legacy

In 1988, Roach received a MacArthur Genius Grant. In 1989, he was honored as a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France. He won the French Grand Prix du Disque twice and was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society’s Hall of Fame and the DownBeat Hall of Fame. He also received the Harvard Jazz Master award. In 2008, he was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy. He was celebrated by Aaron Davis Hall and received eight honorary doctorate degrees from institutions such as Wesleyan University, Medgar Evers College, CUNY, the University of Bologna, Columbia University, and his alma mater, the Manhattan School of Music.

In 1986, the London borough of Lambeth named a park in Brixton after Roach. He officially opened the park during a visit to London in March 1986, invited by the Greater London Council. During that trip, he performed at a concert at the Royal Albert Hall with Ghanaian master drummer Ghanaba and others.

In his later years, Roach lived at the Mill Basin Sunrise assisted living home in Brooklyn. Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz honored him with a proclamation recognizing his musical achievements. He was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

In 2023, a documentary film titled Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes was released. It premiered at South by Southwest and was broadcast nationally on the PBS series American Masters. In 2024, Roach and his album We Insist! were featured in the documentary film Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, directed by Johan Grimonprez.

Discography

• 1953: The Max Roach Quartet with Hank Mobley (Debut, 1954)
• 1956: Max Roach + 4 (EmArcy, 1956)
• 1956–1957: Jazz in 3/4 Time (EmArcy, 1957)
• 1957–1958: The Max Roach 4 Plays Charlie Parker (EmArcy, 1959)
• 1957–1958: Percussion Discussion, with Art Blakey (Chess, 1976)[2LP]
• 1958: MAX (Argo, 1958)
• 1958: Max Roach + 4 on the Chicago Scene (Mercury, 1958)
• 1958: Max Roach + 4 at Newport (EmArcy, 1958) – live
• 1958: Max Roach with the Boston Percussion Ensemble (EmArcy, 1958) – live
• 1958: Deeds, Not Words (Riverside) – also released as Conversation (Jazzland, 1963)
• 1958: Award-Winning Drummer (Time, 1959) – also released as Max Roach (Time, 1962)
• 1958: Max Roach/Bud Shank – Sessions, with Bud Shank (Calliope, 1976)
• 1958: The Defiant Ones, with Booker Little (United Artists, 1959)
• 1959: The Many Sides of Max (Mercury, 1964)
• 1959: Rich Versus Roach, with Buddy Rich (Mercury, 1959)
• 1959: Quiet as It's Kept (Mercury, 1960)
• 1959: Moon Faced and Starry Eyed, with Abbey Lincoln (Mercury, 1959)
• 1960: Long as You're Living (Enja, 1984)
• 1960: Parisian Sketches (Mercury, 1960)
• 1960: We Insist! (Candid, 1961)
• 1961: Percussion Bitter Sweet, with Mal Waldron (Impulse!, 1961)
• 1962: It's Time, with Mal Waldron (Impulse!, 1962)
• 1962: Speak, Brother, Speak! (Fantasy, 1963)
• 1964: The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan, with Hasaan Ibn Ali (Atlantic, 1965)
• 1965–1966: Drums Unlimited (Atlantic, 1966)
• 1968: Members, Don't Git Weary (Atlantic, 1968)
• 1971: Lift Every Voice and Sing, with the J.C. White Singers (Atlantic, 1971)
• 1976: Force, with Archie Shepp (Uniteledis, 1976)[2LP]
• 1976: Nommo (Victor, 1978)
• 1977: Live in Tokyo Vol.1 & Vol.2 (Denon, 1977) – live
• 1977?: The Loadstar (Horo, 1977)[2LP]
• 1977: Live In Amsterdam (Baystate, 1979) – live
• 1977: Solos (Baystate, 1978)
• 1977: Streams of Consciousness, with Dollar Brand (Baystate, 1978)
• 1978: Confirmation (Fluid, 1978)
• 1978: Birth and Rebirth, with Anthony Braxton (Black Saint, 1978)
• 1979: The Long March, with Archie Shepp (Hathut, 1979) – live
• 1979: Historic Concerts, with Cecil Taylor (Black Saint, 1984) – live
• 1979: One in Two – Two in One, with Anthony Braxton (Hathut, 1979) – live
• 1979: Pictures in a Frame (Soul Note 9) – live
• 1981?: Chattahoochee Red (Columbia, 1981)
• 1981: Live at Blues Alley (MVD Visual, 2011)[DVD-Video] – live
• 1982: Swish, with Connie Crothers (New Artists, 1982)
• 1982: In the Light (Soul Note, 1982)
• 1983: Live at Vielharmonie (Soul Note, 1985) – live
• 1984: Scott Free (Soul Note, 1985)
• 1984: It's Christmas Again (Soul Note, 1987)
• 1984: Survivors (Soul Note, 1984)
• 1985: Easy Winners (S