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Roach, Maxwell Lemuel (Max)
3 articles on Roach, Maxwell Lemuel (Max)
Roach, Max
Source: Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century
Word Count: 1379 Includes: Bibliography(b. 10 January 1924; d. 16 August 2007), jazz drummer and composer considered by many to be the father of modern jazz. Roach had a career in music as a drummer, percussionist, bandleader, songwriter, teacher, and activist that spanned more than sixty years. During that time he became best known for his innovations, ambitious musical experiments, and dedication to music for social change. Roach was an influential bebop drummer—outshining his predecessor, Kenny Clarke, who is credited with pioneering the style—and is lauded for drawing the drum out of the realm of mere musical timekeeping and into the spotlight as a solo instrument.Maxwell Lemuel Roach was born in Newland Township, North Carolina, a place founded by freed slaves. His family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn when he was four years old, and his ...
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Source: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition
Word Count: 362 Includes: Bibliography1924–
African American drummer. Maxwell Lemuel Roach was born in New Land, North Carolina, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of ten he began playing the drums in Gospel Music groups. He graduated from high school in 1941 and in the early 1950s studied at the Manhattan School of Music. By that time he was already part of the world of Jazz music.Roach began performing in 1942 with Charlie Parker and Thelonius Monk at Clark Monroe's Uptown House in Harlem, New York. During the 1940s and 1950s he performed and recorded with other jazz greats, including Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, and Clifford Brown. In 1960, Roach recorded We Insist: Freedom Now Suite, an album which explores the theme of racial oppression in America and South Africa. In 1970, he created the2001 ...
Read full articleRoach, Max
Source: African American National Biography
Word Count: 2381 Includes: Further Reading | Discography(10 Jan. 1924–16 Aug. 2007), drummer and composer, was born Maxwell Roach in New Land, North Carolina; his family moved to Brooklyn in 1928. Roach's mother was a gospel singer, and Roach began to study piano at age eight with an aunt who was a church pianist and lived with his family; within a year he was performing at the summer Bible school of the Concord Baptist Church. At ten Roach began to study drums at a WPA-sponsored program in the church; he practiced constantly, and his parents eventually bought him a drum set as a reward for his commitment and for doing well in school. Over the next few years Roach played in various neighborhood groups, but much of his earliest professional experience came at the Putnam Central Club, owned by John Parish, a West Indian. Roach had studio space there, ...
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