Jazz-filled memorial service honors Max Roach :: Music News :: Articles

A number of actors, poets and fellow musicians are paying tribute to recently deceased jazz drummer Max Roach during a memorial service "awash with jazz" today, which began at 9 a.m with a public viewing and will be followed by an 11 a.m. funeral at the Riverside Church in Manhattan. Among those honoring Roach, who died in his sleep at 83 last week due to complications from dementia and Alzheimer's, are Bill Cosby, Ruby Dee, Maya Angelou, Cassandra Wilson and the masterful jazz pianist Billy Taylor. He is survived by five children.

Roach was a part of modern jazz's most seminal performers, having shared bands with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington. He's known for using revolutionary, improvisational polyrhythms that inspired drummers to expand their roles from timekeepers to highly nuanced bebop artists. Click here to read more.

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.