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Max Roach Biography

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Maxwell Lemuel Roach (born January 10, 1924) to parents Alphonse and Cressie Roach. He is a world-class percussionist, drummer, and jazz composer.

Born in Dismal Swamp, (more correctly called The Great Dismal), [[Virginia], his family moved to Brooklyn, New York when Roach was 4 years old. He grew up in a musical context with his mother being a gospel singer, and started to play bugle in parade orchestras very young. At the age of 10, he was already playing drums in some gospel bands. He performed his first big-time gig in New York City at the age of sixteen, substituting for Sonny Greer in a performance with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

He left the Manhattan School of Music in 1942 with a diploma in percussion, and then started to go out in the jazz clubs of the 52nd Street. He was one of the first drummers (along with Kenny Clarke) to play in the bebop style, and performed in bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, and Miles Davis.


Two children, son Daryl and daughter Maxine, were born from his first marriage with Mildred Roach. In 1954, Max met singer Barbara Jai (Johnson), he had another son, Raoul Jordu. Composing and recording the tune Raoul.



In the early 2000s, Roach became less active owing to the onset of complications brought on by hydrocephalus.


In 1952 Roach co-founded Debut Records with bassist Charles Mingus. This label released a record of a concert, billed and widely considered as "the greatest concert ever," called "Jazz at Massey Hall," featuring Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Mingus and Roach. Also released on this label was the groundbreaking bass-and-drum free improvisation, "Percussion Discussion."


In 1960 he composed the We Insist! - Freedom Now suite with lyrics by Oscar Brown Jr., after being invited to contribute to commemorations of the hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Using his musical abilities to comment on the African-American experience would be a significant part of his career. Unfortunately, Roach suffered from being blacklisted by the American recording industry for a period in the 1960s. In 1966 with his album "Drums Unlimited" (which includes several tracks that are entirely drums solos) he proved that drums can be a solo instrument able to play theme, variations, rhythmically cohesive phrases. He described his approach to music as "the creation of organized sound."


During the 70s, Roach formed a unique musical organization--"M'Boom"--a percussion orchestra. Each member of this unit composed for it and performed on many percussion instruments. Personnel included Fred King, Joe Chambers, Warren Smith, Freddie Waits, Roy Brooks, Omar Clay, Ray Mantilla, Francisco Mora, and Eli Fountain.




He wrote music for theater, such as plays written by Sam Shephard, presented at La Mama E.T.C. in New York City.





During all these years, while he ventured into new territory during a lifetime of innovation, he kept his contact with his musical point of origin. His last recording, "Friendship", was with trumpet master Clark Terry, the two long-standing friends in duet and quartet.
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