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Max Roach, who epitomized modern drumming and whose musical innovations were accompanied by a profound political consciousness, joined his illustrious ancestors last Thursday in Manhattan. Roach, 83, had been ill for some time, and had been living in a senior citizen’s residence in Brooklyn. And it was in Brooklyn, after his family migrated from New Land, North Carolina, where he was born January 10, 1924, that Maxwell Roach began his musical sojourn. At an early age, under the tutelage of his mother and grandaunt, who sang and played gospel piano, respectively, he learned the rudiments of music and subsequently adopted the drums as his instrument of choice. By the time he was a teenager he had already established a notable reputation among local gospel and jazz bands, all of which served him well when he entered the Manhattan School of Music to pursue formal training. But the best lessons were gathered during intense jam sessions, particularly those in the forties at Monroe’s Uptown House and Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. It was at these settings that Roach was nurtured by a coterie of musical geniuses—Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, and Charlie “Yardbird” Parker. Their collective imaginations superseded the paradigm of swing, and gave birth to bebop, variously defined as a richer complexity of harmony, melody and rhythm. Rhythm was clearly the dominant element, and Roach, ever conceding the seminal influences of Sid Catlett, Jo Jones, and Kenny Clarke, was chiefly responsible for bringing a fresh buoyancy, a refined distillation to the jazz idiom. He almost intuitively felt the pulse of the African continuum and invested it with modernity both in performance and composition. Listen to his solo after Parker’s on the inimitable “Koko,” recorded in 1945 and Roach’s exemplary style is evident in the dazzling polyrhythm, the deep punctuations of the bass drum, and the sizzle of the ride cymbal. While Parker instantaneously deciphered the full spectrum of Western music, Roach matched the leader’s incredible speed with his own interpretative velocity, and at the same time replicating a choir of African drums. Some of Roach’s most memorable performances and recordings occurred during his intermittent tenure with Parker from 1945 to 1953. It was during the latter year, at Massey Hall in Toronto, that Roach shared the stage with Parker, pianist Bud Powell, bassist Charlie Mingus, and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, in what many jazz aficionados considers one of the greatest concerts ever. Although the flights with Bird were momentous, Roach still found time to perform and record with an array of musicians such as Louis Jordan, trumpeter Red Allen and tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins. His first recording date was with the esteemed Hawkins. From 1954 to 1956, Roach formed a partnership with trumpeter Clifford Brown, and the ensemble they fronted was soon a pacesetter in the emergence of hard bop. But their fantastic odyssey ended abruptly in June, 1956 when Brown, along with pianist Richie Powell, Bud’s brother, was killed in a car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Powell’s wife, who was driving, was also killed. Listen to their collaborations on the Emarcy Label, especially “Parisian Thoroughfare,” and Brown’s “Joy Spring,” to feel their combined energy, the telepathic ingenuity that was created spontaneously. Already stunned by the loss of Bird a year before, it would take years for Roach to recover from Brown’s sudden departure. Brown was only 25. But there were other plateaus waiting for Roach and he met each with the same gusto and creativity so prevalent in the fifties. He advanced his agenda of social awareness with “We Insist! Freedom Now Suite.” Now the wave of revolution and political change occurring in Africa had the soundtrack, and Roach, ably abetted by the lyricist Oscar Brown, Jr. and the voice of his wife at that time, Abbey Lincoln (Aminata Moseka), unleashed a musical statement that resonated throughout the sixties. A new urgency was given to Dr. King’s “We Shall Overcome,” and the Black Power era was musically anticipated. Just as Roach gave impetus to the political struggle, his own thinking about race relations and corporate capitalism was affected. He identified strongly with the cultural perspective that had been promoted by Paul Robeson and his own contemporary Malcolm X. Emblematic of this change, he stopped using the word “jazz” to define his music. Jazz, as he wrote in an essay, was “a four-letter word.” “This new music,” he wrote, “is both communal and democratic. One of its fortes is to learn how to create collectively. These four-letter word musicians are indeed a very special breed. They are highly skilled in the art and science of organizing sounds to create structurally complete and profound musical compositions spontaneously.” In referring to the four-letter word music, Roach chose to call it “the music of John Coltrane, the music of Miles Davis, the music of…” Ever in search of different ways to present the African continuum, Roach formed M’Boom in the early seventies. These percussionists, and the number would vary from performance to performance, were armed with an assortment of percussive instruments, including Roy Brooks’ musical saw, the timpani of Eli Fountain, Joe Chambers’ high hat, and the vibes of Warren Smith. Among his many achievements was his appointment to teach at the University of Massachusetts in 1972. It was a significant step for a “four-letter word” musician, and once more he was a pioneer. In the late seventies and eighties Roach offered his considerable talent to a host of prominent leaders, and his recordings with Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Archie Shepp are indicative of his versatility, his ability not only to adapt to different musical styles, but to embellish it with wit, humor and wisdom. In time his inspiration gave birth to a number of ensembles, none more enduring than his work with Odean Pope, Cecil Bridgewater, and Tyrone Brown. Or the guidance he gave to the Double Quartet and the Uptown String Quartet where his daughter, Maxine, contributed her extraordinary work on viola. Another breakthrough for jazz musicians occurred in 1988 when Roach received a MacArthur Genius Award. During an interview in the mid-nineties, Roach was asked about his reading and writing habits. “I'm concentrating on my as-yet-untitled autobiography this summer that's what I've been concentrating on for the last year,” he said. “Actually, I've been working on it for years. It's coming out on Simon & Schuster, and Amiri Baraka is assisting me on it. I'm approaching it on several levels sociologically, economically and politically, in addition to musically. And, of course, I'm dealing with the whole thing.” Roach did not complete his autobiography, but some of his compositions for dance, theater, and film are informative, evincing some aspect of his soul and spirit. His musical experiments with rap musicians were interrupted with the onset of physical disabilities. Musicologist Olly Wilson offers this impression of his Roach’s genius. “His imaginative performances as a soloist and his mature technique of improvisation, which is based on the use of deft interaction of pitch and timbral variety, subtleties of silence and sound, rhythmic and metrical contrast, and a refreshingly flexible approach to the fixed pulse, establish him as one of the most outstanding and innovative drummers of his time.”

Roach is survived by his five children, Maxine, Raoul, Daryl, Ayo, and Dara.

The family issued a statement: “We are deeply saddened by his passing, yet heartened and thankful for the many blessings and condolences we have received as we grieve. As a musician, educator and social activist, we are fortunate to share his life and his legacy with the world.”

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to Alzheimer's Association, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Fl. 17, Chicago, Ill. 60601-7633, www.alz.org

Roach’s public viewing will be held on Friday, August 24 at Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive in Manhattan from 9:00 A.M. to 10:30 A.M. with a funeral service from 11:00 A.M. to 1 P.M. The legendary drummer will be buried in a private ceremony at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, according to the family’s spokesperson, Terrie Williams