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The Advantage of Jazz Versatility | Shuffles Galore | A Study of Max Roach

A Study of Max Roach

by Ian Goodman

Jazz is a word that many have tried to define and on many occasions claims have been made that jazz can be defined. It is an ongoing task. However, there are a couple of key ingredients such as melody, harmony, and rhythm that arguably are the most common factors in jazz. The usual tendency is to leave the melody and harmony portion of jazz to the pitched instruments including the horns or piano/guitar, not excluding the rhythmic solos that these contribute, and leaving the major rhythmic or time keeping responsibility up to the bassist and drummer. In the jazz that was happening in the late 1800's and early 1900's, this statement could usually prove to be true. Then, 30 or so years later, came bebop, and because the jazz world had changed and continued to change, so was the common expectancy of the drummers. One of the most prolific drummers of the bebop era to change this common belief is Max Roach. He surpassed the ordinary job of keeping time and also incorporated melody into his playing. As we go thru a brief history of his life and analyze some of his playing, hopefully we can begin to understand how he changed the common role of the drummer/"Time Keeper."

Introduction to Max Roach
Max Roach was born in the year 1925, in New Land, North Carolina and started his extensive career at the age of ten when he began playing drums in Brooklyn, New York for gospel music groups and also started formal music training at the Manhattan School of Music. Max's mother was a gospel singer, and the early immersion in the church and gospel music had a lasting effect on his musical direction. At the age of 18, Max began working at a nightclub in Harlem, Monroes Uptown House, along with Thelonious Monk, Dizzie Gillespie, and Charlie Parker. This group of musicians constantly experimented with new styles of music and later became known as the inventors of Bebop. Along with fellow drummer Kenny Clark, Max began making some of his own innovations to the music such as utilizing the ride cymbal rather than the bass drum for the primary rhythmic pulse of the music. This change resulted in a lighter, far more flexible texture, giving drummers more freedom to explore the possibilities of their drumsets and drop random "Bombs" on the snare or bass drum to accent or fill in the gaps of the solos being played by the horn players. To this, Max added many more qualities of his own including the dexterity to use the brushes as brilliantly as the sticks, a ferocious drive, and the ability to play a solo with a definite melody and definitive story line by mixing up pitches and timbres and using silence. He was the beginning of the shift in the drummer's role by creating atmosphere as well as keeping the groove pushing forward.

Now that we have learned a little bit about Max's background, we are going to take a look at some transcriptions of his playing. As we look at the solo, we can see the elements that Max used to push past the ordinary, marching-band-like snare drum solos of early jazz.

There are two separate takes that are each twelve bars long. In the first take Max follows along the likes of what Gene Krupa would do during a solo by playing the bass drum on all four beats along with the hi-hat on two and four for the first seven bars. On top of the ostinato bass drum and hi-hat he states a theme with triplets on the toms followed by a displaced quarter note triplet figure (in measure 3) moved around the set. Note during the moving around the drums in the solo is where we see the full set being used instead of just the snare and bass drum. In measures 6 and 7 Max goes back to the steady triplets but puts accents in places that create a 3 over 4 type of feel. In the beginning of the next measure he stops the bass drum on all 4 and begins to use it as "third hand." This, "third hand" bass drum, is a major contribution that Max offers to the drumming world. The last four measures are full of the third hand bass drum along with some hemiola figures between toms, snare and bass drums.

In the second take of "Cosmic Rays," Max once again uses the bass drum on all four beats and plays a nice quarter note triplet melody on top of the steady pulse. Instead of keeping the ostinato bass drum going, he ends it in the 4th measure and goes right to the third hand bass drum. He uses this method frequently through the rest of the solo and once again he uses hemiola rhythms. Max was very creative in his use of the hemiola. These figures kept a constant pulse but hid the bar lines and created a circular flow of time going.

Max still had some early drumming style influences in his playing. He used the bass drum on all four beats sometimes in his soloing. This method began to get phased out later in Max's career as he continued to grow and experiment. In most of Max's soloing you can usually feel a constant pulse. Max was into hiding the bar lines and evening the pulse at times but for the most part he plays with a driving pulse that is easy to feel and follow.

Max has made great contributions to the jazz drumming world and caused many drummers to explore a new world of playing. He created new ways of playing melodically and making the drums speak and tell stories as if they were playing a horn or a pitched instrument. Anyone who has listened to Max play the drums can't help but notice the way that he communicates on the drums and has completely transformed the way that jazz drums are heard and played. The drums are no longer looked at as a simple time keeping instrument. Because of Max's playing, jazz drums are now a major contributor to the music as a whole and even recognized as a melodic instrument.

Transcriptions
Max Roach. "Cosmic Rays," transcribed by Ian Goodman