Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Max Roach, whose pioneering bebop drumming was revered for its tenacity and musicality, died early Thursday morning in his sleep. He was 83.
Roach is considered one of the most important and influential jazz drummers of all time. His work with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker first thrust him into the jazz spotlight during the mid-‘40s. At this time, Roach drew on the style of Kenny Clarke to advance new approaches to drumming, including the use of the bass drum as a comping instrument and a more melodic style of soloing.
Roach recorded with Miles Davis for his groundbreaking Birth Of The Cool sessions, and later he and trumpeter Clifford Brown led an influential hard-bop quintet. Beginning in the ‘60s, Roach pursued a range of more avant-garde and eclectic projects, performing with such artists as Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton.
Roach garnered numerous awards throughout his robust career, including an induction into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 1980 and a MacArthur “genius grant” in 1981. He also joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1972.
In recent years, Roach had become less active due to hydrocephalus-related complications. He was living in New York at the time of his death. DownBeat will report more details of Roach’s passing as they become available.
Roach is survived by five children: Darryl, Maxine, Ayo, Dara and Raoul. Fans can leave their thoughts at an online guestbook here.
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
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In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
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Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
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In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
