“An Evening of Jazz: Celebrating Max Roach,” set for 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17, in Elizabeth City honors the jazz drummer and Pasquotank County native a week after what would have been his 100th birthday.
Being held in the Museum of the Albemarle‘s Gaither Auditorium, Douglas Jackson, professor of music at Elizabeth City State University, is set to speak about the life and accomplishments of Roach.
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Also during the celebration, there will be a performance by Elizabeth City native Thomas Taylor and his mentor David Albert, who played a significant role in his music education, and accompanying musicians.
“Roach was a master percussionist whose rhythmic innovations defined bebop jazz,” according to the museum.
Roach was born Jan. 10, 1924, in Newland, a township that borders the Great Dismal Swamp, and died Aug. 16, 2007, in New York, New York. During his career, he performed with music greats Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Stan Getz and others.
The National Endowment for the Arts calls Roach “one of the two leading drummers of the bebop era (along with Kenny Clarke) and was one of the leading musicians, composers, and bandleaders in jazz since the 1940s.”
The program is supported by Friends of the Museum of the Albemarle, North Carolina Museum of History Associates, The Elizabeth City Foundation, and Southern Bank of Elizabeth City.
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