Damn.

Here’s a list of videos from youtube.

Damn.

AUG. 18 UPDATE: I got the following from Kalamu.

YOUNGBLOODS, ELDERS and FRIENDS:
 
 Legendary jazz drummer and political activist-musician Max Roach died yesterday. The funeral will be at Riverside Church in Manhattan on Friday, August 24th with services at 11 AM and viewing Max for the last time at 9 AM.  (Directions below)
 
 WKCR FM 89.9 will be playing Max Roach’s music 24 hours a day until Wednesday, August 22nd at 9 PM.   Youngbloods who haven’t heard his repertoire should take this chance to dig one of the greatest musical geniuses of the twentieth century.  
 
 One of the founders of Bebop in the 1940s Max played with Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Bud Powell and Coleman Hawkins, among many others. Generally regarded as the greatest jazz drummer of all time, Max was a creative genius who crossed over into many other genres and integrated political activism and his commitment to African-American self determination into music that included classical jazz, bebop, African, Afro-Cuban, avant garde and some music which can only be classified as “Max Roach Music.”
 
 Max traveled to Africa to expand the scope of his music. He played with ensembles from Japan and Cuba as well as with avant-garde artists and hip-hoppers.  In the 1970s and 1980s he organized a ten piece all-percussion ensemble, performed solo drum concerts, worked with a regular jazz quartet, founded a quintet (actually a sextet) featuring only Max and five horns without any chords or bass, and Max worked on innumerable innovative collaborations with other artists and performed with women jazz instrumentalists at a time when women were generally limited to performing as vocalists in the Jazz scene.    
 
 Max  Roach’s commitment to African-American self-determination was always a integral part of his music.  In 1960, before the main thrust of the Black Power movement, Max wrote the music for the incredible “Freedom Now Suite” with lyrics by Ossie Davis and featuring the vocals of Abbey Lincoln.  Max’s militancy got him blacklisted by the major record labels and many of the white-owned clubs in the 1960’s.  However, the white music moguls could still neither his musical genius nor his commitment to Black freedom and self-determination.
 
 With Charles Mingus, Max co-founded Debut Records, one of the first artist-owned labels in music history.  Following his blacklisting Max, Mingus
and other Black musicians including Eric Dolphy, Roy Eldridge, Abbey Lincoln, Tommy Flanagan, Booker Little and Jo Jones recorded the Newport Rebels album and set up the Jazz Artists’ Guild Festival as a protest against the commercialization of the promoters who controlled the Newport Jazz Festival. 
 
Max didn’t just survive the blacklisting, he prevailed.  As long as he lived, there was no force on earth that could still Max’s voice or make him dampen his message to gain commercial acceptance. After the “Freedom Now Suite,” Max Roach continued to dedicate his music to militant opposition to racism in America and oppression of African people on the continent and in the Caribbean. 
 
 Max’s greatest legacy will always be his music.  But inextricably linked to his music will be his commitment to freedom and to his people.  In the end, the people recognized Max’s genius and defeated the attempts of the racists in the recording music industry to marginalize him. Thus, Max’s victory is a lesson and a testament to the power of the people to define our own culture. 
 
 In the spirit of self-definition, let us join the celebration of Max’s music and his life.  Google him. Read about Max, his life and his times.  And listen to the round-the- clock festival featuring Max Roach’s music on WKCR at 89.9 FM from now until Wednesday, August 22nd at 9 PM. 
 
 Max’s funeral will be on Friday, August 24th at Riverside Church in Manhattan.  Viewing will be at 9 AM.  Services at 11 AM. 
 
 Riverside Church is on 122nd Street between Riverside Drive and Claremont Avenue.  There are entrances at Claremont Avenue and on Riverside Drive.  Nearest subway stop is the #1 at 125th Street (at Broadway).  Walk south one block to Tiemann Place, turn right (West) one block to Claremont Avenue, turn left (south) one block to 122nd Street.  You can also take the M4 or the M104 to 122nd Street and Broadway or the M5 to 122nd Street and Riverside Drive. For a map,
see: http://www.tiny.cc/Riverside815 .
 
 Peace,
 Ronald B. McGuire

AUGUST 27th UPDATE: Please listen to/watch today’s “Democracy Now!” to hear excerpts of the funeral and interviews.