Late Collaborations

This week Kate Molleson explores the life and work of a musical giant: drummer and composer Max Roach – in the company of writer and broadcaster Kevin LeGendre. They’ll be focusing on Roach as a percussionist and performer, prioritising his own compositions but also appreciating the art of improvisation as a kind of spontaneous composition.

Max Roach was born in North Carolina in 1924 and grew up in Brooklyn. He was at the vanguard of bebop, alongside Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. They transformed jazz in the mid-20th century and Max Roach never stopped transforming the music, himself and his society. He was a force of political activism in the 1960s, using music as a powerful platform through the civil rights movement. He kept innovating in academia in the 70s and all the way to the early years of the 21st century. A long and innovative musical life.

Today Kate Molleson and Kevin LeGendre explore the dizzying range of collaborations in his final decades.

Music featured:
Double Delight (from Bright Moments)
Spirit Possession (from Birth and Rebirth)
Place de la Concorde (from Max + Dizzy: Paris 1989)
Ghost Dance (from Max Roach with the New Orchestra of Boston and the So What Brass Quintet)
Monk’s Dream (from Explorations to the Mth Degree)
Love is a Many Splendored Thing (from Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street)
Drums Unlimited (from Drums Unlimited)