Even at 100, Percussionist Max Roach Is Bringing People Together

SummerstageJazz Events Through August 25Charlie Parker Jazz Festival Starts August 21The centennial of a pioneering modern jazz drummer, Max Roach, has opened up a busy time of celebration. There have been numerous events throughout the year, including an excellent concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center. On August 21 at Jackie Robinson Park, a Max Roach 100 event presented by the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival will include a live performance by the Calvin Hill Quartet and a screening of Sam Pollard’s excellent documentary, “The Drum Also Waltzes.”Jazzmobile celebrated Max Roach’s legacy last Friday with a new performance by one of his most durable bands, the percussion ensemble M’Boom, at Marcus Garvey Park. Roach founded M’Boom in 1970 and first recorded the group in 1973 on the album “Re: Percussion.” As his son, Raoul Roach, said in his introduction: “Max Roach was also a man who believed deeply in collaboration, the power of bringing people together to create something greater than the sum of its parts.” He added, “With M’Boom, my father expanded the boundaries of the way music is defined, and made it more inclusive. He told stories, he built bridges between cultures.”The Jazzmobile concert was supervised by a veteran drummer, bandleader, and as he put it, “S.O.B. — Son of the Bronx,” Bobby Sanabria, who had been a member of the original group under Roach’s leadership. Mr. Sanabria assembled an all-star team of fellow players who, like him, are versatile multi-instrumentalists who are all well-versed in many members of the percussion family. The core of the 2024 M’Boom is five additional percussionists, in Jay Hoggard and Bryan Carrot, vibes and marimba, Lyndon Achee, steelpan, Reggie Nicholson, trap drum set, Warren Smith, tympani, and both Takao Heisho as well as the leader himself on yet more percussion.Mr. Sanabria also made the decision to add an electric bassist, Donald Nicks, and four horns: saxophonists Patience Higgins and Camille Thurman, trumpeter Jimmy Owens, and trombonist Craig Harris. This was one of many surprises, and a factor that makes the current edition of M’Boom somewhat different from the original. To Mr. Sanabria’s credit, the additional instruments, in particular the horns, were there to support the percussionists, and not the other way around.The evening, hosted by WBGO’s Sheila Jordan — my favorite voice on that fine station since the departure of Michael Bourne — began with a short, explosive set by the trio led by a young powerhouse drummer, Kojo Roney, with Russell Blake on fender bass and Antoine Roney on several saxophones, including a Roland Kirk-like stritch. Then M’Boom took the stage, playing handheld percussion implements as they walked to their places, and launched into one of Roach’s most famous compositions, “It’s Time,” which he introduced with a full choir singing behind his quintet on the classic 1962 album of the same title. It was rearranged for M’Boom on the 1984 album “Collage.”Within a few moments, Mr. Sanabria and company established that the current incarnation of M’Boom, more than nearly every jazz ensemble currently playing, is a band for concert settings rather than smaller clubs — and, more than that, a band for outdoor venues rather than concert halls. The group has more gear on stage than any heavy metal band or even chamber symphony, and it has succeeded where many others have not even tried in making jazz more of a visual spectacle rather than an intimate performance art, though there were many intimate moments throughout the evening.There were also two works by original members of the band who were both part of the group’s best-known album, the 1979 “M’Boom,” Joe Chambers’s very exotic, Middle Eastern-flavored “Caravanserai,” in which Ms. Thurman made like a snake charmer on her tenor, and Omar Clay’s “Onomatopoeia.” The latter is a remarkable work that starts like a study in pure chaos, with all six percussionists going like crazy, and yet by the end it somehow coheres into a well-organized composition, with nothing out of place.The highlight of the set was another track from the 1979 album, a tympany-specific arrangement of Thelonious Monk’s “Epistrophy” that spotlights an original member of the collective, Warren Smith, who turned 90 a few months ago. Mr. Sanabria, who is also a loquacious educator and on-air radio host, informed us that well before joining M’Boom Mr. Smith had already made history as the first Black drummer in a Broadway pit orchestra, under Leonard Bernstein in the original production of “West Side Story” in 1957. Mr. Smith’s tympany work illustrated how Monk, who worked with Roach on many occasions, is a perfect candidate for M’Boom in that in his compositions, the rhythm, and the melody are often very nearly the same thing.Near the end of the set, Mr. Sanabria echoed a point made by Raoul Roach an hour or so earlier, that Max Roach had, in addition to everything else, spent his life trying to earn more respect for percussionists in general. Surely it’s working: Roach’s centennial has attracted much more attention and celebration than all of his predecessors, including Chick Webb, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, and Art Blakey. Here’s hoping that Bobby Sanabria and his collective thrive with this idea; as far as I can see, the most difficult aspect of keeping the 2024 edition of M’Boom active as a touring band would be the cartage.

Even at 100, Percussionist Max Roach Is Bringing People Together

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