HYPE Oct/Nov 2006
[Strap]
Playmaker
MAX ROACH
Digging through our hip hop archives, we were surprised to come across 2 videos labeled 'Max Roach & Fab 5 Freddy - Live at The Kitchen 1983' as well as one with a tag that read, 'Max Roach & The New York City Breakers - NYC.' Described by many as the Duke Ellington of the drums, Professor Max Roach is arguably the most accomplished jazz drummer of all time. Having worked with jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Ellington, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, as well as having co-led a quartet with trumpeter, Clifford Brown, Roach became "the measure of excellence for bebop drumming" Mike Zwerin - 14 January 1999. Behind the smoke filled rooms, the drum sets and the stuffy suits, sits one of the very first hip hop headz. Max Roach, one of the fathers of jazz as we know it, is funny enough, one of the fathers of hip hop as we know it.
I pressed play after loading the first video, 'Max Roach & Fab 5 Freddy - Live at The Kitchen 1983', and there was Professor Roach, beating away at his drum set. This time, he was not accompanied by the trumpet of Clifford Brown, nor was he backed up by the voice of Abbey Lincoln. No, he was playing a traditional hip hop break beat, accompanied by the scratches from a turn table, and the chants of a rapper by the name of Fab 5 Freddy. Max Roach's involvement in the hip hop scene in the early 80s led him into the world of b-boying, where he played break beats for crews such as The New York City Breakers, a crew that consisted of b-boy legends, Noel Mangual AKA "Kid Nice", Chino Lopez AKA "Action" , Ray Ramos AKA "Lil' Lep" , Matthew Caban AKA "Glide Master" , Corey Montalvo AKA "Icey Ice" , Tony Lopez AKA "Powerful Pexter" and Bobby Potts AKA "Flip Rock" who could flip higher than any other b-boy. Even for a true jazz connoisseur, it is difficult to accurately track the career of Max Roach. One minute he's drumming before a bunch of snobs at a theatre, the next minute he is running a jazz studies program at a University. Before you can say 'Max Roach', he is at a hip hop gig playing break beats for a rap crew. HYPE would like to thank Max Roach for his contribution to the art form we love so much.
