Max Roach - Links to the obits

Below is an item from the jazz (e)-newsletter sent out by JazzInstitut Darm Stadt (Germany) -- great links here! I didn't include the NYTimes links, because they are included in my previous post.

The organization calls itself a "municipal cultural institution" of Darmstadt. Wouldn't it be great to see my city, Tampa, or (insert your city here) support such an institution?


Max Roach


The drummer Max Roach died early on August 16th at the age of 83. His daughters Dara and Maxine were with him. In 1942 already Roach had played with Charlie Parker at a Harlem night club. Together with Kenny Clarke he had revolutionized the role of the drums in jazz during the bebop era.

He saw his function never purely as a serving one but always felt like an equal band member. In the 50s he co-led an influential hardbop quintet with the trumpeter Clifford Brown. In the late 50s he worked with irregular rhythms; in the 60s he was one of the first jazz musicians to use their music for clear political and anti-racist protest.

In the 70s he taught at the University of Massachusetts; he also gave duo concerts with avantgarde musicians such as Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton. In the 80s he worked with a double quartet made from his own ensemble and the Uptown String Quartet, one member of which was his daughter Maxine. He toured up to the early 21st century and in 2002 wrote and played the music for the documentary "How to Draw a Bunny" about the artist Ray Johnson.

Obituaries:

Washington Post (1), Washington Post (2), San Francisco Chronicle , Boston Herald , Chicago Tribune , Bloomberg , New York Sun , New York Newsday , The Independent , Frankfurter Rundschau , Die Welt , Le Monde .

As a tribute to the great Max Roach we have put together an online bibliography from our Jazz Index, listing all entries referring to books and magazine articles about the drummer.

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Complete copies of the articles summarized here are collected in the archive of the Jazzinstitut in paper as well as in digital form. If you need a copy of specific articles you can either order them on the websites of the respective papers linked in this mail or you can write us.