Drums

Max Roach

(1924–2007)

United States

Max Roach (1924–2007) — Drums. Led Clifford Brown and Max Roach, Drums Unlimited. Worked with Clifford Brown, Harold Land, Richie Powell.

He turned the drums into music. Technical but melodic — when you listen to his solos you hear singing from the drums. His quintet with Clifford Brown is legendary, combining intellect and expressiveness at a level that has never been surpassed. He also composed Freedom Now Suite, one of jazz's great political statements.

Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet album co-led by Max Roach

Clifford Brown and Max Roach

Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet · 1954

Study in Brown

Clifford Brown · 1955

Saxophone Colossus

Sonny Rollins · 1956

The 1954–56 Clifford BrownClifford Brownクリフォード・ブラウン-Max RoachMax Roachマックス・ローチ Quintet refined bebop's vocabulary to a peak of elegance. When Brownie died at 26 in 1956, the abrupt end left Rollins asking what to do next — a question that produced Saxophone ColossusSaxophone ColossusSonny Rollins · 1956.

Clifford Brown

Sonny Rollins

Max Roach's albums

Saxophone Colossus

Sonny Rollins · 1956

Saxophone ColossusSaxophone ColossusSonny Rollins · 1956 (1956) was recorded in nearly one take. In dialogue with Max RoachMax Roachマックス・ローチ and Tommy FlanaganTommy Flanaganトミー・フラナガン, Rollins fused bebop, calypso, and blues into a single grammar. 'St. Thomas' derives from a Virgin Islands folk song — Rollins's ancestral home.

Sonny Rollins

Tommy Flanagan

Max Roach's albums

Max Roach's videos

August 16, 1992, Newport Jazz Festival. Full concert by Max RoachMax Roachマックス・ローチ. Official Music Vault recording.

— Newport Jazz Festival, 1992

Videos featuring Max Roach

Max Roach's videos

1960, L'Alhambra, Paris. Max RoachMax Roachマックス・ローチ Quintet. From Qwest TV. During the height of the civil rights movement, Max RoachMax Roachマックス・ローチ's music combined artistic depth with political conviction.

— L'Alhambra, Paris, 1960

Videos featuring Max Roach

Sonny RollinsSonny Rollinsソニー・ロリンズ joined the Clifford BrownClifford Brownクリフォード・ブラウン/Max RoachMax Roachマックス・ローチ Quintet in late 1955, replacing Harold Land. Though cut short by Brown's fatal car accident in June 1956, the band dramatically expanded Rollins's improvisational vocabulary.

— Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter, Nick Catalano, 2000

Sonny Rollins

Clifford Brown

Max RoachMax Roachマックス・ローチ was a pioneer in treating the drum kit as a melodic instrument. On 'Conversation' from Deeds, Not Words (1958), his lyrical, storytelling phrasing in an unaccompanied drum solo transformed how a drum solo could be conceived.

— Max Roach: Deeds, Not Words, The Absolute Sound, 2018

Recorded in August-September 1960 (released January 1961 on Candid), Max RoachMax Roachマックス・ローチ's 'We Insist! Freedom Now Suite,' with lyrics by Oscar Brown Jr., became one of jazz history's most explicitly political statements. Abbey Lincoln's screams in 'Triptych' tied the work directly to the civil-rights movement.

— We Insist!, Wikipedia, 2024

In 1954 Max RoachMax Roachマックス・ローチ and Clifford BrownClifford Brownクリフォード・ブラウン formed their quintet in Los Angeles. Combining lyrical melodicism with rigorous rhythmic design, the band bridged East Coast intellect and West Coast polish.

— Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter, Nick Catalano, 2000

Clifford Brown

In June 1956 Sonny RollinsSonny Rollinsソニー・ロリンズ recorded 'Saxophone Colossus' for Prestige. The duo-like exchange with Max RoachMax Roachマックス・ローチ on 'Blue 7' became the historic track Gunther Schuller chose for his landmark thematic-improvisation analysis.

— Gunther Schuller and the Challenge of Sonny Rollins: Stylistic Context, Intentionality, and Jazz Analysis, Benjamin Givan, 2014

Sonny Rollins