Max Roach Biography?

[Robs]

Hey all-

I've never posted before, but I've been lurking for a couple months and have really enjoyed a lot of the discussion going on around here.

I have a simple question -- does anyone know of a good Max Roach biography? He's a guy I've always wanted to learn some more about, but I've never come across a biography. He's certainly a worthy subject. Thanks in advance.

[marcello]

No there isn't one but you can always get this:

[sgcim]

Hey all-

I've never posted before, but I've been lurking for a couple months and have really enjoyed a lot of the discussion going on around here.

I have a simple question -- does anyone know of a good Max Roach biography? He's a guy I've always wanted to learn some more about, but I've never come across a biography. He's certainly a worthy subject. Thanks in advance.

It would have been difficult to get anything out of Max towards the end.

A friend of mine played a gig with Earl May at the senior home where Max was living, and sadly he said Max was all but gone from some severe brain disease.

[CJ Shearn]

Did the Alzheimer's really set in from the late 90's till his death? He was still very sharp on the "Blue Note a Story of Modern Jazz Documentary". It's also sad how Horace Silver has been ravaged by Alzheimer's.

[Milestones]

Alzheimer's/dementia is horrible indeed. My late mother suffered from it for about 3 years--in a major way ('m sure it had set in before then). Many others get bad cases that can last as long as a decade.

[JSngry]

Max speaks in Notes and Tones. Worth a read.

[Milestones]

Is that the book by Art Taylor? Interviews with a lot of great figures in jazz.

[mjzee]

Ditto re my mother and Alzheimers. It's debilitating in a shocking and horrible way.

[Big Beat Steve]

Wasn't it rather some form of "hydrocephalus" that he suffered from in his later days which ultimately led to his mental degradation?

This is what his Wiki biography entry says. Not that I would always take Wikipedia as a 100% reliable source but the description of this disease corresponds to how he was described in his "final phase" in a very old post/thread somewhere here on this board several years ago.

[ghost of miles]

Ironically enough, a friend of mine and I were just discussing the lack of a Roach biography a few days ago. Wouldn't be surprised if somebody out there is doing some sort of research or possible dissertation work on his music and life, though.

[marcello]

"Quintet of the Year" by Geoffrey Haydon has a nice chapter on Max

[bertrand]

Max was working with Amiri Baraka on his (Max's) biography. This project seems to have fizzled.

Bertrand.

[AllenLowe]

it would never have happened; Max, and I kid you not, wanted money for everything, interviews (not all, but that's why he's not in Burns' Jazz), and I'll bet any writer who approached him independently would have been shaken down (politely).

[sgcim]

Is that the book by Art Taylor? Interviews with a lot of great figures in jazz.

There's a lot of wild quotes from that book. I think the most famous was:"The only way a caucasian musician could swing is from the end of a rope!"

Edited July 21, 2013 by sgcim

[robertoart]

Is that the book by Art Taylor? Interviews with a lot of great figures in jazz.

There's a lot of wild quotes from that book. I think the most famous was:"The only way a caucasian musician could swing is from the end of a rope!"

'Caucasion'....that's very polite.

[fasstrack]

Is that the book by Art Taylor? Interviews with a lot of great figures in jazz.

Yes, Art Taylor.

[Robs]

Thanks for the responses everyone.

[Gheorghe]

Besides the interview for Taylor´s book "Notes and Tones", there´s lot inside information about Max Roach in an old german book from the late 70´s done by Gudrun Endress, with a long and very interesting interview with Max Roach. Others, about all from let´s say 1976-1978 were done with Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, Ornette Coleman, and many many others......

I´d also be glad to read a full bio about Max Roach. He is one of my idols, one of the musicians I love most. Was lucky to see him live on several occasions, always great, I´ll never forget that as long as I live.

[romualdo]

Chapters on Max can be found in

Kenny Mathieson's "Giant Steps - Bebop & The Creators Of Modern Jazz 1945-65" (1999)

Ira Gilter's "Jazz Masters Of The 40's" (1966)

[sgcim]

I'll always remember him for beating the shit out of Ornette Coleman in the kitchen at the Five Spot, because he hated OC's music, and then following OC home, and beating the shit out of him again in front of his apartment.

[bertrand]

This event is documented somewhere?

Bertrand.

[Gheorghe]

I'll always remember him for beating the shit out of Ornette Coleman in the kitchen at the Five Spot, because he hated OC's music, and then following OC home, and beating the shit out of him again in front of his apartment.

he really did? To me, he always looked and behaved very gentleman-like, very intellectual. And as open and free much of his outputs were (starting with his 1962 "Speak Brother Speak", it seems strange to me he hated OC´s music. I have thought, he is one of the bop fathers, who made the transition, the way how he opened his music to more avantgarde stuff and political messages.

[sgcim]

That story was recounted in the book about Ornette's appearance at the Five Spot in 1959.

I forget the title and author.

There were many negative reactions from prominent jazz musicians to Ornette's music recounted in that book.

Even in "Notes and Tones" by AT, many musicians that were interviewed still had negative opinions about "Freedom music" in the 1970s.

[marcello]

Critics at Large

Drummer Max Roach, one of the great progenitors of be-bop, was so angry he followed Coleman into the kitchen of the Five Spot and punched him in the mouth. (Still not satisfied, Roach later "harangued him from the street outside his apartment.")

[paul secor]

I've never read that story anywhere else. I'm curious to know where David Lee got his information.