An argument could be made that Max Roach (Pasquotank County, NC) was the most important drummer of the 20th century

An argument could be made that Max Roach (Pasquotank County, NC) was the most important drummer of the 20th century – in terms of his influence inside and outside of jazz, his expansion of music’s rhythmic vocabulary, and his fusion of aesthetic mastery with an elevated social consciousness. This reel revisits a 2019 restaging of Roach’s WE INSIST: FREEDOM NOW SUITE by Fresh Cut Orchestra and Melanie Charles at Black Mountain College. Recorded in 1960, the FREEDOM NOW SUITE represents four stages of the black experience: slavery, emancipation, US civil rights, and African independence. A collaboration with Abbey Lincoln, Coleman Hawkins, Booker Little, and Michael Olatunji, WE INSIST speaks to Black struggles and strivings in a manner still aesthetically vital today. During Black History Month 2025 (and every other month), it remains essential listening.