A few years ago, I went to the University of Pennsylvania's graduation ceremony, partly to see Bono, who was getting an honorary degree, but also to see Max Roach, who was also getting one. I figured in both cases that it might be the closest I would ever get to seeing them play live (since U2 tickets are $4000 each and since Max Roach was way freaking old). Max ended up not going because he was sick, and his wife accepted it for him. So I never did see him in person, which hits a little harder now that he's dead.
Max was, to say the least, an awesome drummer. A true master of polyrhythm. My first encounter with him was when I bought Duke Ellington's Money Jungle when I was still in high school, a collaboration of giants that I didn't even recognize at the time (Ellington on piano, Roach on drums, and Charles Mingus on bass, for Christ's sake). After getting more into jazz, and hearing Roach's playing for Thelonius Monk, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis, I came to appreciate Max's skill and diversity, but ultimately, I still go back to Money Jungle. His kinetic drumming propels Ellington's songs forward in a way that no swing drummer could ever accomplish, giving them a sense of urgency and an energy that they never had before. Max Roach damn near single-handedly reinvented "Caravan," for instance. But really, the mere fact that he could hang with Ellington and Mingus as they pushed hard bop to its limits without being overwhelmed is all anybody needs to know about him. If he could stand on equal footing with those two geniuses, he could stay with anybody.
Basically, what Max Roach did for jazz was to make drumming into an art form, instead of somebody just keeping time. He realized that since he was using four different limbs to play, he might as well make the most of them. Here is a particularly good example (although you don't get the effect that you get when he's thumping away with a group of musicians).
Anyway, the point is that he wasn't really a household name to most people, but Max Roach is a name that all jazz fans respect, and he'll be missed.
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