NC Musician #8 - Max Roach

Maxwell Lemuel Roach
1927 - 2007
American Jazz Drummer
Born in Newland, NC

oil on wood
12" X 15"

When I was a kid I used to read the magazine Drums and Drumming. I don't think it's still around today...wait, maybe it was Modern Drummer? Anyway, I remember there being a cover story on Max Roach and the caption read "The man who changed the way you play drums." At the time I was probably playing drums along to the Cure and 7Seconds so I wasn't quite sure how he changed the way I played drums but I remembered the caption nonetheless.

Now that I understand things a little bit better I've come to realize that Max Roach invented a style of playing (along with with Kenny Clarke) where time signatures are driven by the pattens on the ride cymbal rather than the bass drum, which was common at the time. This probably means nothing to most people but the point is nowadays everyone plays this way. Almost every style of drumming contains some derivative of this technique.

In addition to that, Max played with nearly every big timer in the biz. I really like this painting.

Another breadwinner from the Great North State!