Max Roach

"At age fourteen, i mentioned to Jim Jenson that i was getting into "jazz". He let me borrow three records - Miles Davis/Kind Of Blue, Dave Brubeck/Gone With The Wind and Max Roach/Quiet As Its Kept. All on vinyl. Since that time, i've listened to a lot of Max - from his early work with Charlie Parker, thru his small groups of the fifties and sixties, into his duets with Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor and others, his percussion ensemble and his large works for orchestra and chorus, and perhaps most importantly his solo works. Its hard to sum up what Max Roach means to me, but i learned to "hear" the language of jazz from him, was inspired to perform solo because of him, and most importantly, learned to believe in myself as a musician because of him."

I wrote this early January 2007, on the eve of a concert in San Diego i presented to celebrate Max Roachs birthday. We had a nice night, performing several of his compositions as well as a few piece written in tribute to him. Mr. Roach passsed away on August 16th 2007. I love him dearly and will miss him greatly.