This segment of Jazz Insights explores the music of Max Roach and marks the first time that Dr. Gordon Vernick has focused his program on a jazz drummer. Playing with some of the most important jazz musicians of the twentieth century, Roach ushered in a new approach to drumming, as swing developed into bebop, that focused less on a standard 4/4 backdrop to the music and became more interactive with each soloist. The first segment focuses mainly on Roach’s early work from the mid-1940s with Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker.

Jazz Insights - Max Roach - Part 1
Jazz Insights - Max Roach - Part 2
Jazz Insights - Max Roach - Part 3
Jazz Insights - Max Roach - Part 4