[2][3] He worked with many famous jazz musicians, including Clifford Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Abbey Lincoln, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, and Booker Little.

In 1942, as an 18-year-old recently graduated from Boys High School in Brooklyn, he was called to fill in for Sonny Greer with the Duke Ellington Orchestra performing at the Paramount Theater in Manhattan.

Roach performed in bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, and Miles Davis.

[7] Roach nurtured an interest in and respect for Afro-Caribbean music and traveled to Haiti in the late 1940s to study with the traditional drummer Ti Roro.

After Brown and Powell's deaths, Roach continued leading a similarly configured group, with Kenny Dorham (and later Booker Little) on trumpet, George Coleman on tenor, and pianist Ray Bryant.

Roach expanded the standard form of hard bop using 3/4 waltz rhythms and modality in 1957 with his album Jazz in 3/4 Time.

Personnel included Fred King, Joe Chambers, Warren Smith, Freddie Waits, Roy Brooks, Omar Clay, Ray Mantilla, Francisco Mora, and Eli Fountain.

[14] Long involved in jazz education, in 1972 Roach was recruited to the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Amherst by Chancellor Randolph Bromery.

One of his solo concerts is available on a video, which also includes footage of a recording date for Chattahoochee Red, featuring his working quartet, Odean Pope, Cecil Bridgewater, and Calvin Hill.

Departing from the style he was best known for, most of the music on these recordings is free improvisation, created with Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, and Abdullah Ibrahim.

He was composer and musical director for a festival of Shepard plays, called "ShepardSets", at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in 1984.

Personnel included Cecil Bridgewater, Frank Gordon, Eddie Henderson, Rod McGaha, Steve Turre, Delfeayo Marsalis, Robert Stewart, Tony Underwood, Marshall Sealy, Mark Taylor, and Dennis Jeter.

He surprised his fans by performing in a hip hop concert featuring Fab Five Freddy and the New York Break Dancers.

Roach expressed the insight that there was a strong kinship between the work of these young black artists and the art he had pursued all his life.

[19] In 1994, Roach appeared on Rush drummer Neil Peart's Burning for Buddy, performing "The Drum Also Waltzes" Parts 1 and 2 on Volume 1 of the 2-volume tribute album during the 1994 All-Star recording sessions.

In a funeral tribute to Roach, then-Lieutenant Governor of New York David Paterson compared the musician's courage to that of Paul Robeson, Harriet Tubman, and Malcolm X, saying that "No one ever wrote a bad thing about Max Roach's music or his aura until 1960, when he and Charlie Mingus protested the practices of the Newport Jazz Festival.

In February 1961, Roach and Lincoln, along with others, burst into a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to protest the murder of Patrice Lumumba, prime minister of the newly independent Congo.

This also created space for the drummer to insert dramatic accents on the snare drum, crash cymbal, and other components of the trap set.

He often shifted the dynamic emphasis from one part of his drum kit to another within a single phrase, creating a sense of tonal color and rhythmic surprise.

One of those drummers, Stan Levey, summed up Roach's importance: "I came to realize that, because of him, drumming no longer was just time, it was music.

"[14] Roach's style has been a big influence on several jazz and rock drummers, most notably Joe Morello,[28] Tony Williams,[29] Peter Erskine,[30] Billy Cobham,[31] Ginger Baker,[32] and Mitch Mitchell.

Compilation The Paris All-Stars (with Dizzy Gillespie, Hank Jones, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath and Stan Getz) With Miles Davis With Duke Ellington With Stan Getz With Dizzy Gillespie With Coleman Hawkins With J.J. Johnson With Abbey Lincoln With Charles Mingus With Thelonious Monk With Charlie Parker With Bud Powell With Sonny Rollins With others