By Brett Zongker, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press - 26 jan 2014
WASHINGTON - Music and recordings from Max Roach, one of the creators of modern jazz drumming, will be preserved at the Library of Congress, curators and his family announced Monday.
Over the past year, the library has been preparing and organizing Roach's personal collection from his body of work over several decades. The collection includes more than 100,000 items, including 80,000 manuscripts and papers, as well as photographs, music manuscripts and hundreds of sound and video recordings.
Roach worked with other such jazz greats as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk to develop the jazz style known as bebop. And beyond the confines of music, Roach was engaged with the civil rights movement.
"He's a major figure, not just in jazz but in American music," said Larry Appelbaum, a music specialist and jazz curator at the library. "Max represented much more than just a musician or even a composer. He was at the nexus of music, civil rights and black power because he was among that wave of socially conscious musicians."
Roach studied music on many levels. He wrote about his disdain for the label of "jazz." To him, it represented "the worst of working conditions for an artist." He didn't want to be reduced to a stereotype or cliche, curators said.
One of his most important cultural and political works was his "We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite" from 1960.
"It's a bold statement," Appelbaum said of the music. "And it really caught the fervour of the times."
The NAACP signed him to a $1,000 contract to perform at a concert as part of the movement leading up to the March on Washington.
Read more: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/music-records-jazz-drummer-max-roach-acquired-library-190151730.html
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