Max Roach and the Wonder Years...


When I was in 3th or 4th grade, I got a record player for Christmas. It was made of plastic and had a lid that could close, with a built-in handle so you could haul it around. I thought it was so cool.

I was very interesting in the drums (just waiting for 5th grade band) and my dad gave me a record of a drum battle between Buddy Rich and Max Roach....Rich vs. Roach - Sing Sing Sing (with a Swing).


The liner notes said that Buddy was on one channel and Max was on the other...I didn't know what they were talking about, and the fact that my record player was mono didn't help matters!


The album cover had them facing each other sitting on their drum kits, beads of sweat on their brows. I stared at that cover for hours, looking at the tilt of their drums and the height of their cymbals. It was the first time I had seen a set of drums!


A digression...I had earlier (maybe even that year) received a snare drum for selling Christmas cards...plastic sparkle! with a paper head(!) and plastic rims(!), and my friend and I had been listening to a 45 of the Monkees I'm a Believer. I looked at that single drum, and heard all the different drum sounds on the record and I wondered, "How do they get all those sounds from one little drum?" We decided that they get different sounds by hitting different parts of the head and also by throwing the snare strainer on and off! [ I learned a few years back that Hal Blaine played drums on that tune, and he was the master at oddball percussion sounds...I still can't make out a traditional rock and roll beat on I'm a Believer.


So imagine my surprise when I saw that album cover and these guys had all sorts of drums and shiny things ("What are these, Dad?" "They're called cymbals, Son."). No wonder they could make all those different drum sounds!

The album had a melted spot near the spindle hole...Dad said that, during a party (before the kids came along), he was changing records, and placed the album on the nearest flat space - the top of a lamp shade! He'd forgotten about it (could alcohol been involved?....nah!) and the heat from the light bulb had softened the vinyl and it had drooped causing a warp in the record that got progressively worse as the needle moved toward the center of the record. So only the first couple of songs on either side were listenable (listenable?).


My dad liked Buddy Rich, so I liked Buddy Rich, and since this was a battle, I rooted for Buddy Rich. Although I couldn't tell the left channel from the right channel, the liner notes said that Buddy took the first solo on Sing, Sing, Sing (with a swing), so I mentally kept track of the solos, and cheered for Buddy when I thought it was him playing. After a while I felt sorry for Max Roach and cheered for him, too, but I secretly wanted Buddy to win.


I must have listened to that warped record about a thousand times...for a good while, that album and the Monkees 45 were all I had to play on the record player. Maybe because of that, I've always had a soft spot for Max Roach. Several years ago, I got into Clifford Brown, and Max was a big part of that sound.

So I was saddened to hear of his passing. I think I'll go home and listen to some bebop with Max tonight. And maybe I'll poke around the iTunes store and see if Rich vs.. Roach is still available.