zepp101

Ahhhh the end of the week is finally here. Well I still have tomorrow or today more like it but it has been quite a week. The weather this week has just been great...a nice depature from humid sticky days of august. Instead, it was perfect hoodie fall weather. A preview to what I have to look forward to.

All the rain, clouds...I love it all. I love the weather when it's like that...the air smells clean (as clean as if can be in this part of jersey) no one is really out so there's a level of serenity. I miss the days of running around during thunderstorms and being completely at home in the rain. Obviously it wasn't safe but I never gave it thought.

Then came that day I nearly was struck by lightning but thats a whole nother story.

Been getting my ass kicked at both jobs...job#1 more of a mental sense of the word and job#2 physically. I work nights at UPS so at times it can be physically exhausting. I don't mind it...I like the sense of pushing myself further, at the end of the night when things are said and done and I sit down to enjoy that post-work cigarette it brings a sense of accomplishment as corny and lame as that might sound.

I've just been trying to keep busy lately, have had alot of things on the mind...you know what they say" out of sight out of mind...and apparently it is the truth.

I shall get going at this point but before I leave I wanted to leave with this (which was my initial reason for bloggin 2nite.

It's rather late to announce this but Max Roach, the greatest drummer (now people relax I know that may be hard to believe) of all time passed away on August 16th.

I couldn't believe it when I finally heard...to think that legend and such a pioneer and artist was gone as many other from his time. People can dispute the thought of Max being the greatest drummer of all time, but in reality anyone and everyone who came after him , in one way or the other have something to credit him for.

There has always been the dispute of whether or not Buddy Rich was a better drummer then Max Roach. And while I can never take anything away from Buddy, given his power and skill, Max to me was just insane.

Aside from being an inspiration to me and my drum playing, the music he created and the people who played with him was just pure magic. I always found myself completely and utterly under the spell of jazz and in this particular case bebop. I played Saxophone when I was younger and loved every minute I played, so to hear Charlie Parker (the byrd!!!) do what he did best was a total mind fuck.

Then to finally hear Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie AND Charles Parker play together nearly threw me into Cardiac Arrest. Hands down Charlie Parker and Max Roach are my favs but I'm getting side tracked.

Roach lived a long and prosperous life , everything from playing with Jazz Greats at such an early age to Teaching at universities and still performing in his later years..age had caught up to him but not where it mattered most...on the drums. He was just one of those people that you never give thought that they would actually die some day. It hurt to have heard the news but regardless of the fact that he's dead.. his music will never be forgotten not ignored.

Maxwell Roach- Jan. 10, 1924 - August 16, 2007.



A nice piece on the life and times of Max

Also included for you kiddies are some pictures:



Max with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker





Max with Charlie Mingus


And last but not least...some videos






A tribute to him... If you actually care that its not in english....stop whining...you're listening to the wrong thing.

I bid thee a good day.