Jalylah Burrell

Hello, Babar

Seattle-bred, Brooklyn-based cultural critic Jalylah Burrell riffs on anything and everything.

Homegoing: Max Roach

Posted 08/16/2007 at 2:22 PM | Comment?

1924-2007

I can't speak insightfully on the late Max Roach's music, but I do take inspiration from the master percussionist's activist spirit, which certainly persists in the historical record and on the We Insist!: Freedom Now Suite among other recordings. Like many, I came to jazz through Miles Davis, for whom Roach was a sometime sideman and friend. There is an anecdote in Davis' autobiography, co-written with a fair amount of creative license by poet Quincy Troupe, that recounts how Roach disrupted a 1961 Davis and Gil Evans benefit concert over concerns about the sponsoring organization despite a personal affinity for the two players that I'll always remember as it bore witness to Roach's unapologetic commitment to social equality. The following excerpt from the New York Times obituary hits that point home,

“I will never again play anything that does not have social significance,” he told Down Beat magazine after the album’s release. “We American jazz musicians of African descent have proved beyond all doubt that we’re master musicians of our instruments. Now what we have to do is employ our skill to tell the dramatic story of our people and what we’ve been through.”

Although I never saw Roach in action, I take comfort in the fact that I will be seeing Abby Lincoln, Roach's collaborator and former wife, perform at this month's end as part of New York City's 15th annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. The Inventive and fearless Lincoln, who just recovered from a life threatening heart ailment, was featured on the aforementioned We Insist! singing/wailing/screaming lyrics by the late great Oscar Brown, Junior to music composed by Roach.

So, in parting, here are two samples of Max Roach's music:

"Driva'man"[MP3], We Insist! - Freedom Now Suite (1960)