RIP Max Roach

[Sigma]

a true musician
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20300885/

[mrface2112]

RIP Max. You will be missed.


peace,
wade

[Silver Sonya]

I suppose Mr. Roach couldn't live forever, but he deserved to.

- c

[kafka]

Max Roach was one of the most ideal musicians to me. I saw him many times over the years. Who else could give a 10 minute hi-hat solo, and have it still be musically relevant? RIP, Max. You will be missed.

[w2w]

A great loss.

One of my favorite drumming records growing up was Rich vs Roach,they dont make em like that anymore.

[lazzaro]

Drummerworld: Max Roach

[theblue1]

Just saw the sad news over at HC.

It's a bummer... the legends are passing into history.

[henryrobinett]

I saw him about 4 times at Keystone Korner. It was history. RIP.

[mastermix]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Max Roach, the master percussionist whose rhythmic innovations and improvisations defined bebop jazz during a wide-ranging career where he collaborated with artists from Duke Ellington to rapper Fab Five Freddy, has died after a long illness. He was 83.

Legendary drummer Max Roach dies at 83 - CNN.com

[Jax]

RIP Max.

Thank you for the snare drum solo with brushes at the Masonic Auditorium about 10 years ago. I've never heard anything like before or since. You also killed at Yoshi's and Kimball's East every time I saw you play, having already blazed new paths for jazz music and drumming.

At the Masonic, Max had a single snare drum in front of him with a pair of brushes which he played so dynamically and with so much groove that music sang from that drum. It was truly astounding and the audience of over 3,000 sat in quiet reverie for a good 10 seconds after he concluded his piece.

[dave-G]

A very sad loss indeed.

-dave

[wallawannabe]

I was lucky enough to have a drum teacher that forced me to listen to Max. Amazing.

[vixapphire]

wow; not too many of the classic greats around anymore. is Louie Bellson still alive?

[taturana]

so long mr roach...

the drum also waltzes... cool stuff...

[RoundBadge]

Rest in Peace MAX

[Bob Ross]

How the hell did I miss this?!?! I gotta read the news more closely...

Bummer. I worked with Max as a stage tech during his M'Boom rehearsals in 1987 or '88. Very sweet man with a warm sense of humor.

[Rich Pell]

Goodbye to one of the founding fathers of Bebop . :-(

[henryrobinett]

Yes. I think he's the last of the true be-bop clan to go. Dizzy, Kenny Clarke, Bud Powell, Bird, Monk, Roach, Mingus, Miles, . . .

[Scott@RealTraps]

Geez . . . I can't believe I missed this either!

He will be sadly missed. Such a huge contribution to drumming that he made.

I'll never forget the time many years ago, I was busking in the NYC subways with a small jazz combo, and we were playing a song from one of the great Clifford Brown/Max Roach records. The guys gave me a solo, and about half way through my solo I looked up and there was Max Roach, standing about 15 feet in front of me, watching. Yikes! Instant panic and adrenalin rush! I looked back down, so as to try to get it out of my head that he was there, and focus on what I was playing. When we finished the tune, I looked back up and he was gone.

Heh . . . I always wondered what he thought of my solo . . . if he thought it totally sucked, if he had any particular thoughts about things I needed to improve, or if he had stopped because he liked something he heard. Sadly, I'll never know.

This happened relatively soon after I had left the jazz program at William Paterson University, where a couple of my teachers (who were themselves jazz masters) told me that I needed to spend some serious time studying more of Max Roach's playing in depth, to fill in some of the gaps in my playing. I followed their advice, and learned a great deal. I still can't play exactly like him (and of course that's not the primary objective), but I learned (and am STILL learning) a great deal from doing that.

My teachers were SO right that I needed to study Max more in depth. He didn't have that unstoppable hard swing like Philly Joe had, but his melodic sense and the way his solos related to the chord changes and the form, etc., were really something to behold.

I also remember at one point translating some Haitian, Cuban and other Afro-Caribbean rhythms to drumset, and being stunned at how often I ended up playing "Max Roach licks"!

Thanks to Max Roach for his incredible contribution to music! And my deepest condolences to his family. May he rest in peace.

[Tapeworm]

I saw him years ago at a local college. The show was going well and the crowd was enjoying it. During the set he broke something on his snare and stopped playing. Then he shook his head and left the stage with snare drum in hand.

His band was composed of younger guys (I think he was in his seventies at the time) that had that look on their faces like "what do we do now?".

They did whatever any young kids do when the old man is away and started a wild improv jam.

Max came back to the stage with the snare fixed about 5 minutes later. He put the snare back on the stand and sat and listened to the wild witches brew that his band was into...they looked at him and devilishly kept playing.

After about ten more minutes of sitting and listening hard, Max gave out a smile so wide you would swear that the back of the audience could count exactly how many teeth he had.

Then he tore it up on the drums so unbelievably hard that the entire crowd went absolutely nuts! The best moment then came, after the wild half hour jam that followed, when his band smiled so wide that everyone could count how many teeth they had.

RIP Max. One of the best.

[firby]

Those Clifford Brown albums with Max Roach are a certain kind of fantastic that you don't get everyday. Anyone just getting into jazz should dig on those because they are are sweetness IMO. All the best parts of jazz at the time are on those albums and I think there are only about three of them.

[ArcCirDude]

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

Yes. I think he's the last of the true be-bop clan to go. Dizzy, Kenny Clarke, Bud Powell, Bird, Monk, Roach, Mingus, Miles, . . .

Roy Haynes is still beating the daylights out of the skins. He must be about 82, now.

Glad I got the chance to see Max a few times. The epitome of taste.

[mal]

If you're interested I've just presented a selection of Max's recordings on my
radio show....scroll in about 39:48 minutes from the start...about an hours worth...

Jazztrack with Mal Stanley

& select Sat Aug 25th Jazztrack.....real audio or windows media

[henryrobinett]

Excellent Mal. I'll check it out!

[AnAverageJoe]

RIP to him, because he was truly great and also had in impact on jazz music

[boodah]

Originally Posted by mal

If you're interested I've just presented a selection of Max's recordings on my
radio show....scroll in about 39:48 minutes from the start...about an hours worth...

Jazztrack with Mal Stanley

& select Sat Aug 25th Jazztrack.....real audio or windows media

Great show. Thank you.
Mr. Roach was definitely an immaculate musician and greater community activist.

[lucey]

A great player and a great person!


RIP Max ... your "bombs" are missed already.

[videoteque]

Tasteful drumming taken to the "Max"... thumbsup

We will miss him. Never saw him live!

I saw Jimmy Cobb playing in a little jazz festival in Italy some weeks ago... He played better in "Kind of Blue"...

[AndreaUB]

Drums unlimited
RIP Max

Andrea