Whitman

Max Roach (1924-2007), American jazz drummer and composer, a pioneer of bebop. On tour in Japan, mid-1950s Hackensack, NJ, 1955 All of the guys in my gang in the early 1950s listened to jazz. Every day after school we'd go to a record store in Eltham in South East London. Back then they'd let you listen to the latest records in soundproof booths. One day I was going through new albums and came across "Quintet of the Year." That record changed me, particularly the song "A Night in Tunisia." "Quintet of the Year" was recorded at Massey Hall in Toronto [in May 1953]. In America, you know the album as "Jazz at Massey Hall." The quintet was a superband with Charlie Parker on alto sax, Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, Bud Powell on piano, Charles Mingus on bass and Max Roach on drums. They were bebop all-stars who had never played together as a unit—and never did after. I wasn't a drummer then—I didn't even have a drum kit. But I was blown away by Max and the stuff he was doing on "A Night in Tunisia." ... He wasn't playing straight 4/4 time but treating the drums like a solo instrument. ...He threw in things without worrying about complementing Bird [Parker] or Dizzy. He insisted on being an equal member of the conversation, which was cool. I liked the album so much I stole it. I didn't even have a record player. I had to take it around to a friend's house to hear it. From then on I knew I was going to be a drummer. --GINGER BAKER, 2014

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