Max Roach Quotes

"Monk encouraged me to emancipate the drums from their subservient role as timekeepers." - Max Roach

Max Roach Quotes

"We never rehearsed, we just got to the stand and said 'Salt Peanuts' or this or that. 'Cos we knew among ourselves what we had been playing on 52nd Street ... [Charles Mingus] was from the West Coast and had a different repertoire ... and Mingus' feelings was hurt, quite frankly, because we didn't give him a chance. We just went right into it, assuming that Mingus knew what we were going to do anyway. During the intermission he complained." - Max Roach (on 'Jazz at Massey Hall')

Max Roach Quotes

"When we got back to New York, a lot of it had been recorded so you couldn't hear the bass anyway, so on some of the pieces, [Charles Mingus] just dubbed himself in. I think it's one of the earliest times that a person overdubbed themselves." - Max Roach (on 'Jazz at Massey Hall')

Max Roach Quotes

"The people who really got me off were dealing with the musical potential of the Instrument." - Max Roach

Max Roach Quotes

"Jazz is a very democratic musical form. It comes out of a communal experience. We take our respective instruments and collectively create a thing of beauty." - Max Roach