Max Roach
drums
Max Roach was a bebop drummer and bandleader; Barry joined his band in 1956, after Clifford Brown and Richie Powell were killed, and toured with it for a few months.
- mentions
- 16
- recordings
- 11
- Barry speaking
- 6
What Barry says
Barry first left Detroit with Max Roach’s band. As he tells it, after Clifford Brown and Richie Powell died in a car crash, Harold Land went back to California, leaving Max and the bassist George Morrow, and Barry, Donald Byrd and Sonny Rollins joined them.
Detroit Jazz: Ancient to the Future33:03Ep.3 | Everything no one has ever told you about jazz | Barry Harris2:14Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶149Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶86
Barry says it was good working with Max, but Max found it hard to get over the loss of Clifford Brown and the others, so Barry stayed with him for two or three months, mostly on the road, before going home to Detroit.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶218Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶220Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶171
Barry counts the job with Max as luck and calls it a very good band, but nobody recorded it. He jokes that someone probably has the band hidden away, waiting for them all to die.
Interview on Italian television5:045:39Ep.3 | Everything no one has ever told you about jazz | Barry Harris2:14Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶149
Working with Max taught Barry to forget about finger technique and find a way to play five notes at once. Max’s tempos rose so fast that by Barry’s solo they were unbelievable, so he had to grab notes in one go.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶241Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶243Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶245
Max Roach was one of the guest artists who came to play for Detroit’s music society, which had thousands of members and Kenny Burrell as its first president.
Detroit Jazz: Ancient to the Future37:29Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶67
Barry always wanted to hear Coleman Hawkins with players like Max Roach or Bud Powell, because Hawkins could adjust to anything.
In his own words
working with Max Roach taught me a long time ago, “forget that finger business, you better find a way to do something, to play five notes at once.”
See, by the time I used to come around Max would be so fast, it’d be unbelievable.
It was nice. It was good working with Max. But it was hard for Max to get over Clifford and them
So we joined Max with Sonny Rollins, you know, and so we had a very good band.
There are no recordings of this group. You know, somebody probably got us hidden somewhere, waiting for us all to die.
Every mention
16 moments in the recordings, 6 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Detroit Jazz: Ancient to the Future
Ep.3 | Everything no one has ever told you about jazz | Barry Harris
Interview on Italian television
Passing It On
- 4:09
Speaker unclear
Max Roach named in a garbled list of jazz giants Barry played with.
Interview: Bud Powell and teaching singers
- 16:02
Interviewer
Ben Sidran tells a Monk story from Abbey Lincoln’s first session with Max Roach.
Barry Harris Spanish TV
- 15:37
Someone else
A Spanish TV narrator says Max Roach called Barry in 1956 to replace Richie Powell.
Interview: tap dance and bebop
- 26:08
Someone else
A podcast narrator lists Max Roach among musicians Barry played with.
12-15-18 “Mr. Barry Harris aka The Man Who Walks on Notes” - Star Eyes
- 2:39
Someone else
A narrator lists Max Roach among visiting soloists Barry backed in Detroit.
Ali Jackson’s ’Bout It, episode 7
- 0:31
Someone else
A narrator lists Max Roach (‘max rhodes’) among the stars Barry worked with.
In the interviews and notes
Barry joined Max after Clifford Brown and Richie Powell were killed. In his account Harold Land, saddened, went back to California, so Byrd, Rollins and Barry joined Max and George Morrow. Barry regrets they never recorded.
Asked how touring with Max went, Barry says it was good, but Max was having a hard time after losing Clifford Brown, so Barry stayed for him two or three months, mostly on the road.
Barry says working with Max cured him of thinking about fingers: by his solo, Max’s tempo was so fast that he had to learn to grab five notes in one go. He links this to a later New York piano teacher’s advice about the shapes the arms make.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶241Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶243Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶245
Barry stayed with Cannonball Adderley’s band in 1960 for about as long as he had stayed with Max, about three months.
Detroit had a music society of about 5,000 members, called the World Stage, with Kenny Burrell as first president; everybody played there, Max Roach included.
Barry calls Coleman Hawkins a chameleon who could adjust to anything, and says he always wanted to hear him with Max Roach or Bud Powell.
Barry says it was Max Roach who hired him, into a group with Sonny Rollins, Donald Byrd and George Morrow; afterwards he went back to Detroit and later joined Cannonball Adderley.
Barry was unsure whether he joined Max in 1955 or 1956; the interviewer gives Clifford Brown’s death as June 1956, and Barry accepts 1956.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶151Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶168Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶171
Leroy Williams, whom Panken counts among Barry’s favourite drummers, agrees that Kenny Clarke and Max were his role models, adds Philly Joe Jones and Art Blakey, and says he was into Max from the beginning.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶132Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶133Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶135Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶136
Cleary hears Barry’s trio album At the Jazz Workshop as modelled on Bud Powell’s trios, comparing its rhythm section to Bud’s, one of which was Curly Russell and Max Roach.
Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), What is this scale called: Charlie Parker ¶11
Recordings that name them
Barry’s performances and records in the archive that credit or name them.
- Ep.3 | Everything no one has ever told you about jazz | Barry Harrisn.d., 12 min YouTube
- 12-15-18 “Mr. Barry Harris aka The Man Who Walks on Notes” - Star Eyes2018, 15 min YouTube
- Thad Jones - Thedia2016, 11 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Spanish TVMadrid, 1988, 47 min YouTube
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.