Max Roach

Jazz musician and composer

• Born: January 10, 1924
• Birthplace: Newland, North Carolina
• Died: August 16, 2007
• Place of death: New York, New York

Roach was a significant figure in jazz from the bebop era through the early twenty-first century. While he is especially remembered for his contributions to the bebop style and for working with the great trumpeter Clifford Brown, Roach also had a career-long interest in pursuing new musical paths.

Early Life

A native of Newland, North Carolina, Maxwell Leonard Roach moved to Brooklyn at about the age of four. He obtained his first drum set at the age of twelve. From that point until his emergence into the New York City bebop scene, Roach developed considerable technique. An early exposure to African American church music was a significant factor in Roach’s musical development, and he also studied at the Manhattan School of Music.

In 1942, Roach was named house drummer of Monroe’s Uptown House, one of the hotbeds of the emerging bebop style. He was quickly identified as one of the leading musicians of the new style, playing with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and others at Monroe’s as well as in jam sessions at Minton’s Playhouse.

Life’s Work

Roach quickly cemented his reputation as one of the pioneers of bebop, performing and recording in bands led by Gillespie and Parker. As the 1940’s ended, Roach began to branch out, taking advantage of new opportunities. Between 1948 and 1950, he took part in numerous sessions with Miles Davis, making recordings that were subsequently compiled into the Birth of the Cool (1957). He spent time on both coasts, and it was in Los Angeles that Roach was invited to establish a new quintet.

Although he had not previously worked with Clifford Brown, Roach asked the emerging star trumpeter to join him, and the resulting group was among the best ensembles active in the intense, virtuosic hard bop style. Other members of the quintet were Harold Land on tenor saxophone, Richie Powell (younger brother of bebop piano legend Bud Powell and a capable pianist in his own right), and George Morrow on bass. The subsequent years were a time of intense activity on the road and in the studio, with numerous recordings released between 1954 and early 1956. Sometimes a young Sonny Rollins joined the group, replacing Land on tenor saxophone. Disaster struck on June 26, 1956, when Brown, Powell, and Powell’s wife were killed in an accident while driving from Philadelphia to a gig in Chicago. Roach went into a period of depression and mourning.

Roach spent the remainder of the 1950’s working with Rollins, then branched out during the 1960’s. That decade saw Roach record with a wide range of jazz musicians (including a session with Charles Mingus andDuke Ellington), explore new techniques and approaches with avant-garde artists, and commit significant time and effort to the Civil Rights movement. In the 1970’s, Roach established his M’Boom percussion ensemble and worked with innovative figures such as Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, and Anthony Braxton. During the 1980’s and 1990’s, he devoted time not only to performing but also to teaching and composing.

Roach’s style was intense, and he drove his groups forward with great energy. His approach to the drums was physical, yet efficient, controlled, and precise. His solos display great creativity; Roach sometimes did solos using just one drum or cymbal. Roach’s abilities remained sharp into his later years, his technique matched only by his interest in continued stylistic development. He even performed in a hip-hop concert. Roach died on August 16, 2007, in New York City.

Significance

With Kenny Clarke and Art Blakey, Roach is credited with establishing the standard bebop rhythm section technique, an approach in which the maintenance of tempo shifted from the bass drum to the ride cymbal. As a result, Roach influenced virtually all post-bebop jazz drummers. Roach’s own post-bop recordings reveal an expanding range of techniques, including more polyrhythm and a heightened temporal flexibility. His career was filled with creativity, innovation, and exploration balanced by continuous development of technique. Roach’s musical and philosophical explorations of African American culture and identity also were among his most important later contributions.

Bibliography

Catalano, Nick. Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Roach is a central character in this study of Brown’s career.

Davis, Miles, and Quincy Troupe. Miles: The Autobiography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990. Roach and Davis interacted frequently during the 1940’s, 1950’s, and beyond, and Davis’s autobiography sheds light on their musical relationship.

Roach, Max. “What ’Jazz’ Means to Me.” The Black Scholar 3, no. 10 (Summer, 1972): 2-6. Reprinted as “Beyond Categories.” In Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz History, edited by Robert Walser. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. In this brief article, Roach expresses his frustration with categorization in music and with labels in general. While discussing African American music, identity, and culture, Roach suggests moving beyond the use of terms such as “jazz.”

Yanow, Scott. Bebop. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books, 2000. Roach worked with virtually every musician involved with the development of bebop. This book provides biographical and stylistic information on Roach and his contemporaries, as well as reviews of their recordings and information on reissues.