I just read that drummer Max Roach died last night in New York at the age of 83. It’s been nearly 20 years to the day since I saw him at the Caravan of Dreams in Ft. Worth. I’ll never forget that performance. He was still impressive then at the age of 63. He outlasted nearly all of his contemporaries and was arguably the last survivor from the bebop era, living much longer than people like Miles, Coltrane, Bird, and Mingus, and roughly 15 years longer than Diz. It’s a great loss for music and for the jazz world.
[tags]maxroach, eulogy, death, jazz, drummer[/tags]