Max Roach

Max Roach
Max Roach, Amsterdam 1979
Background information
Birth name	Maxwell Lemuel Roach
Born	(1924-01-10)January 10, 1924 Newland, Avery County, North Carolina, U.S.
Died	August 16, 2007(2007-08-16) (aged 83) New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres	Jazz bebop hard bop
Occupation(s)	Musician composer educator civil rights activist
Instruments	Drums percussion
Years active	1944–2002
Labels	Capitol, Impulse!
Associated acts	M'Boom Coleman Hawkins Thelonious Monk Sonny Rollins Charlie Parker Duke Ellington Eric Dolphy Miles Davis Charles Mingus Dizzy Gillespie Booker Little Clifford Brown Sonny Stitt Billy Eckstine Bud Powell Stan Getz

Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.

A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history. He worked with many famous jazz musicians, including Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy and Booker Little. He was inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1992.

Roach also led his own groups, notably a pioneering quintet co-led with trumpeter Clifford Brown and the percussion ensemble M'Boom, and made numerous musical statements relating to the Civil Rights Movement.

Roach was born in the Township of Newland, Pasquotank County, North Carolina, which borders the southern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, to Alphonse and Cressie Roach. Many confuse this with Newland Town in Avery County. Although Roach's birth certificate lists his date of birth as January 10, 1924, Roach has been quoted by Phil Schaap as having stated that his family believed he was born on January 8, 1925. Roach's family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York when he was 4 years old. He grew up in a musical home, his mother being a gospel singer. He started to play bugle in parade orchestras at a young age. At the age of 10, he was already playing drums in some gospel bands. In 1942, as an 18-year-old fresh out of Boys High School, he was called to fill in for Sonny Greer with the Duke Ellington Orchestra when they were performing at the Paramount Theater.