Regarding “Percussion Discussion”, dialogue is unnecessary when giving the drummer, Max Roach some. Activist, architect of percussive sound and sentiment, jazz composer and educator, Roach, created a place for the drum in jazz; he passed away on Thursday, August 16, 2007 in New York. He was 83.
Roach pioneered a series of firsts during his continuous quest to create and organize sounds that manipulated, pulsed and pushed the context of percussion in jazz, as well as dance, film and theatre. Respected for his full-bodied improvised solos and ability to meld instrumental sounds, Roach is considered one of the founders of modern jazz.
Born in New Land, North Carolina, Roach’s family relocated to Brooklyn where Roach began playing the snare drum at 12, to avoid spending time in the streets. Upon graduating from high school, Roach was already a part of Harlem jam sessions and frequently played with Duke Ellington’s orchestra, while honing his skill and laying the foundations for bebop.
In addition to Roach’s remarkable skills as a musician, he also triumphed in organizing, creating and recording unique facets of sound, often pushing boundaries and creating space for a new order. Roach, along with Charles Mingus, co-founded Debut Records and released “Jazz at Massey Hall” featuring Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Mingus and Roach, a paramount recording that included “Percussion Discussion”. In 1954, Roach formed a quintet with Clifford Brown, Harold Land, George Morrow, Ritchie Powell-and later Sonny Rollins. Although Roach lost two members of the quintet in a fatal car accident in 1956, he recorded and released his premier record, “Max Roach Plus Four”.
Roach continued his exploration of excellence-in-progress through the formation of seemingly motley crews of musicians, testing various sounds with chemistry-minded enthusiasm. The “Max Roach Double Quartet”, considered Roach’s most prestigious endeavor, integrated his standard quartet set with the “Uptown String Quartet”, a string quartet led by his daughter, Maxine Roach, lending a space for the string quartet’s role in improvisational expression.
As an activist, Roach’s desire for societal change was reflective in his composition “ We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite”, a musical tribute personifying African American’s struggle for equality and the fight for independence in Africa. Due to the release of “We Insist” in 1960 and other subsequent civil rights projects, Roach’s recordings were rebuffed and silenced by the recording industry for several years.
In 1972, Roach expanded his scope of work by accepting a teaching position at the University of Massachusetts where he taught and continued to form new quartets for nearly 30 years. He continued working within diverse aspects of expression including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, The Beijing Trio, Fab Five Freddy and NY breakers, filmmakers and others.
Roach’s quest for developing expression was pivotal in its contribution and development of purpose and posture of the drum in jazz, as well as challenging fellow and future artists to work within inter-disciplinary contexts.
