Here are some pretty remarkable videos of Max Roach playing live. The first is in Norway in 1977. The tune with the group, “It’s Time”, is fast, and 20 minutes long, including a solo played […]
Category: Max Roach
Very occasional quote of the day: rehearsal with Charlie Parker
“I’d say, ‘Well, what am I supposed to do?’ He’d say. ‘Oh, you know what to do.’” – Max Roach, Down Beat Magazine, November, 1978, interview with Bret Primack
Very occasional quote of the day: a gig
“A remember when I was 15 or 16 [in about 1940], I used to work Coney Island sideshows. I worked a place called Darktown Follies and we would literally play 18 shows a day. Can […]
Very occasional quote of the day: brave
Be strong and brave enough to stand up and say. “It’s me!” If they want to throw tomatoes at you, stand up and take it. Max Roach, Down Beat Magazine, November, 1978, interview by Bret […]
Very occasional quote of the day: Max fast – 02
SF: Some of the tempos that you play are lightning fast. MR: That’s done through combinations though! No one limb is overworking. There’s a way that it works itself out so that all the weight […]
Transcription: Max Roach – Commutation
Here’s Max Roach soloing with his left hand on Commutation, by J.J. Johnson, on Johnson’s record First Place. A nice little self contained lesson item— there’s some trading after this solo I didn’t bother with. […]
Groove o’ the day: Max In Tunisia
A selection of grooves played by Max Roach on the Miles Davis album At Last!— a live recording made at The Lighthouse in LA in 1953, and released thirty years later. Max here has been […]
Max Roach / Stan Levey duo transcription: Milano Blues
Here’s a composed drum duo played by Max Roach and Stan Levey, on their album Drummin’ The Blues. They trade off on some parts, and play in unison on others. I believe the whole thing […]
Transcription: Max fours
I am not screwing around people, this is now an ALL Max Roach site. Here he is trading fours on Minor Meeting, from the record Sonny Clark Trio, from 1960— there’s another record by that […]
Transcription: Max soloing
On this second of two days of major acts of white supremacist violence here in this paradise we call “the USA”, let’s retreat into art, with part 2 of the thing from the other day: […]
Transcription: Max comping
That’s the theme of the week now: jazz comping. Here’s Max Roach playing on the horn solos on A Little Sweet, from his record The Many Sides of Max. Each solo is 24 bars long, […]
Transcription: Max Roach solo – I’ll Remember April
A Max Roach epic here, a chorus of fours and two solo choruses on I’ll Remember April— not a short tune. This will probably go in an e-book sometime, so get it free while you […]