R.I.P Max Roach

bluewax · « **on:** 17 Aug 2007, 04:01 am »

Sad news in the jazz world... Max Roach passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/arts/music/16cnd-roach.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1187323622-hbwdXLUQMGGhJxi4CqqiZA

If this has been posted elsewhere, feel free to bin the post mods.

ZLS · « **Reply #1 on:** 17 Aug 2007, 11:43 am »

I would like to think that Clifford Brown and Richie Powell were waiting for him and said, "Com'n, we got a gig we have to make it to"

ricmon · « **Reply #2 on:** 17 Aug 2007, 01:43 pm »

They're talking about him now on NPR. Tonight Max on vinyl.

RIP

richidoo · « **Reply #3 on:** 17 Aug 2007, 03:15 pm »

I saw Max Roach at an all star concert in New Haven in 1970. Every big name star alive was there from Roy Eldridge to Jon Faddis. Ellington, Brubeck, Gillespie, Stitt, Vaughan, everyone. At the end of a big jam session tune, he started his solo. After 5 minutes everyone else left the stage, as the crowd was going insane for Max. He finished the song himself, no-one wanted to set foot on that stage after what he just did. He left the stage, and standing ovation brought him back out for solo encore. He sat down and played for 10 minutes, by himself. It was thrilling, and never got boring, unlike most jazz drum solos of today. The crowd got pretty worked up and were screaming and cheering, standing on the armrests of the seats during the last half of his encore. It was a peak musical experience for me, one upon which I based my first career choice.

Max Roach is the greatest jazz drummer to ever live. None could touch him. Rich, Krupa, Payne, Klook, Blakey, Taylor. All great, but Roach was from another world.

I hope Max finds the rest he so deserves. It was not an easy road for him, the mundane aspects of this world were more than he should have had to bear given his great artistry. But he continued to deliver the message undaunted through 6 decades. God Bless Max Roach, and hold his family in the peace that passes understanding.

ricmon · « **Reply #4 on:** 17 Aug 2007, 04:23 pm »

I met him also. At the Smithsonian museum her in DC. He did not perform but it was nice to hear him speak and I got to ask his a question about his daughter's band The Uptown String Quartet. Which he was delighted to hear and went on and on about his daughter and here quartet.

richidoo · « **Reply #5 on:** 17 Aug 2007, 05:25 pm »

Just read this short bio/obit at NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/arts/music/16cnd-roach.html

Sonny · « **Reply #6 on:** 17 Aug 2007, 05:37 pm »

a great loss....
how many are left now...from the great 40s - 50s...???

jimdgoulding · « **Reply #7 on:** 21 Aug 2007, 04:04 pm »

None, Sonny. But there are excellent players today. What bothers me is that purist jazz musicians can't make a living so the labels and to a large extent the musicians themselves are veering to more commercially acceptable soft jazz. There is still a scene in New york and some leading edge albums come out of there and pop up in Down Beat, Jazz Is, and a few other publications but it ain't like the 50's and 60's.

I know this thread is a tribute to Max Roach but to say that he was head and shoulders above everybody else is simply false. Blakey, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Billy Higgins, and others are totally in the mix and have recorded more frequently than Roach. There is no best. And, fortunately for us, cats like Michael Cuscana and others are remastering and re-releasing classics and the thing about jazz, it don't get old.

I wonder if Concord Jazz is still releasing? My, my but a good number of labels featuring jazz are not. Impulse still around? Branford Marsalis records for Columbia, I think, Miles Davis' old label, and that's good. Blue Note is still around but the original owners, fans to the max, sold it upstream years ago and have themselves perished.

I think that jazz is healtheir in Europe. Long live it!