Max Roach (1924-2007) was one of the most important drummers in jazz and a style-setter, especially for the development of bebop and hard bop. In the course of his eventful career he played with almost all the greatest musicians of his time, with Charlie “Bird” Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Sonny Rollins. But Roach was much more than “just” a musician of high grace – he was also a political activist and courageous supporter of the civil rights movement, which Sam Pollard and Ben Shapiro consider equal to Roach’s musical genius in their portrait. (Joachim Kurz)