Max Roach, one of the most prominent jazz percussionists of the past half-century, passed away last night in his sleep at his home in New York City. He was 83. A progenitor of the bebop movement, Roach founded the now-defunct Debut Records in 1952 with Charles Mingus, and also collaborated with the likes of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker over his six-plus-decade career. Roach was born January 10, 1924 in Newland, North Carolina, but moved to Brooklyn with his family when he was four years old. He was a fixture of the uptown jazz clubs while still in his teens, and went on to graduate from the Manhattan School Of Music in 1952. Shortly thereafter, he co-founded a quintet with trumpeter Clifford Brown, which became the defining hard bop act of the period. Roach went on to become heavily involved with the civil rights movement and his influential record, We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite, addressed many of the inequality issues in America. Roach was also on faculty at the University Of Massachusetts at Amherst and received one of first MacArthur Foundation's Genuis Grants. He was battling health problems for the past several years, which led to a reduction in appearances, but his legacy includes keynote appearances on records including Miles Davis' Birth Of The Cool and Charlie Parker's legendary 1945 Savoy recordings.
