Max Roach

The development of bebop would have turned out very differently if not for drummer Max Roach, whose trailblazing polyrhythms helped define the role of rhythm in that mercurial jazz subgenre. Depending on the source, Maxwell Lemuel Roach was born on either January 8 or 10, 1925 in Newland, North Carolina. At the age of four he moved with his family to Brooklyn. He got his first major jazz gig in 1942, subbing for Duke Ellington's drummer, Sonny Greer. At the end of the following year, still in his teens, Roach had his first recording session, working with Coleman Hawkins. By 1945, Roach was recording with the bebop vanguard, establishing a revolutionary rhythmic approach in jazz behind the equally unprecedented innovations of bandleaders like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Over the course of the decade, he also worked with Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Bud Powell, Don Byas, Stan Getz, and a host of others. Roach founded Debut Records in 1953, in partnership with Charles Mingus and his wife, Celia. That same year they released one of the most historic documents in bebop history: Jazz at Massey Hall, with Roach and Mingus as the rhythm section for a front line of Parker, Gillespie, and Powell. Soon after, Roach began a short but legendary partnership with trumpeter Clifford Brown, co-leading a pioneering hard-bop band, but the project was cut short when Brown was killed in 1956. Throughout the decades, Roach continued to push the envelope and search for new sounds. In the '70s, he started the progressive all-percussion ensemble M'Boom. Over time, he ventured into everything from gospel (Roach's mother was a gospel singer, and his roots in the music run deep) to hip-hop. When he passed away on August 16, 2007, the world mourned the loss of one of bebop's founding fathers and leading lights.