5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Max Roach (NYTimes, 9/6/23)

Credit Dante Zaballa

The drummer helped pioneer bebop in the 1940s and delivered a message of resistance and liberation from the 1960s on. Listen to 13 selections from musicians, writers and critics.

continue reading @NYTimes.com

By Marcus J. Moore

Sept. 6, 2023

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes Airs on PBS

Experience the groundbreaking sounds of bebop pioneer, virtuoso percussionist and bandleader Max Roach.

Roach’s far-reaching ambitions were inspired and challenged by the inequities of the society around him. His political consciousness, expressed in his groundbreaking Freedom Suite and other works, made him a fierce advocate for change at a time when the nation was steeped in racism.

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes premieres Friday, October 6 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS App.

Read more, here.

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes

The latest and most exciting project is the documentary, Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes. Directed and Produced by Sam Pollard and Ben Shapiro.

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes is the story of a musician whose far-reaching ambitions were inspired and challenged by the inequities of the society around him. His stunningly diverse seven-decade career marked him as one of the great musical artists of the 20th century and a pioneering cultural activist at times when the nation was steeped in racism. The film follows Roach across a rich and complicated life, years of now-legendary achievement, deep personal struggle, and the price he paid for his outspoken views. His was an epic musical journey -- from the revolutionary Jazz of the 1940s to the Civil Rights years, through experiments in hip hop, multi-media works, and beyond.

https://www.maxroachfilm.com/