For the past year, The New York Times has been asking musicians, writers and scholars to share the music they'd play for a friend to get them into jazz. Now we're focusing on Max Roach, who, alongside the drummers Kenny Clarke and Art Blakey, helped pioneer bebop in the 1940s.
In 1960, Roach turned his attention to racial and political issues, releasing the album We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite as a response to injustices in the United States. Featuring the activist and singer Abbey Lincoln (to whom Roach was married for eight years), the LP used equal amounts of rage and silence to convey the angst of Black Americans. He was not trying to be slick and have a message, his son Raoul said in the 2021 documentary Summer of Soul. Instead, that is the message. It's our time. Do it now. We want liberation.
Long considered a cornerstone in the world of jazz, his rapid-fire rhythms have influenced scores of like-minded percussionists to explore themes and textures.
[
add
]
[
|
|
...
]