Max Roach was excited by the premise and promise of rap when it first hit the music scene. Roach was introduced to the burgeoning genre by his godson and hip hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy, and would later collaborate with him.
“The fact that he saw that vision before it became cool in the early nineties, for you to mix your hip hop and your jazz together, shows how ahead of the curve he was,” said Questlove.
- A lot of bebop purists want Max and people that made that great music over 50 years ago, they want those guys to continue to play the same thing.
And Max and those guys were always about that new and that next thing.
(images whirring) (upbeat music) ♪ Right about now, my man with the fresh approach ♪ ♪ None other than the maestro, Max Roach ♪ ♪ Check, check, check, check it out ♪ ♪ Rock, rock, yeah ♪ - [Fab 5 Freddy] The musical director at The Kitchen, a performance art space in New York, had a meeting with Max Roach and the idea came, what about a performance?
♪ Max ♪ - [Fab 5 Freddy] This is still early eighties.
♪ Yeah, Max ♪ - I was at that performance with Fab 5 Freddy and the DJs at The Kitchen, yeah.
Max is there, with his suit.
You know, debonair, looking like Max Roach, you know.
It's like, oh, new drum music is being made in the culture?
Well, of course Max Roach is here.
Most natural thing in the world.
(images whirring) In some ways he was kind of this living, totemic, art piece.
Art object.
- [Max] When the rap craze came, it was another thing that excited me, because I said, "Now this is the same thing I had been working on all these years."
Because what they did, was just use rhythm, without using the rules of music theory.
So when my peers say, "Well Max, you know you're dealing with these rap, what?
That's not music, you know?"
And I say, "Well, it may not be music, but it's part of the world of sound that music is part of."
And it created something that was very valid for me.
♪ Dynamite, dynamite, dynamite ♪ - He got the anarchic disruptive aspects of their music and it just gives you a sense of really his connection to Blackness.
- [Questlove] Of course, my dad's like, "Look, Max Roach is on television!"
Like he didn't care what else was going on.
But I was kind of looking at my dad like, "Wait a minute.
You realize, like, this is a fusion collaboration, between the music I like, that you detest and the music?"
Like, this can work!
(audience applauding) - We thank you, very much.
Max, Fab 5 Freddy, see you later.
- [Questlove] The fact that he saw that vision, before it became cool in the early nineties, for you to mix your hip hop and your jazz together, shows, like, how ahead of the curve he was.
(dramatic music)
