How is Max Roach's Health?

[Guest Mnytime]

Has anyone heard if Max Roach has been having Mental & Physical Health problems? Someone over on the All About Jazz posted a review of the 50th Anniversary show for the Massey Hall Concert and describes Roach as being in really bad shape. Not being able to walk on his own. Taking 15 minutes to walk to the drum kit I assume from the side of the stage. Not remembering that Charlie Parker was part of the original concert. Not being able to play the drums properly or remembering that he just played something.

It really was depressing to read.

http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/showthread....=&threadid=1613

Edited May 17, 2003 by Mnytime

[Guest Chaney]

Here's a review of the show from the Toronto Star:

May. 16, 2003. 12:27 AM

Jazz greatness again at Massey

GREG QUILL

ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

Max Roach isn't finished.

And every time Herbie Hancock tries to coax offstage the veteran drummer — surviving member of the legendary ad-hoc bebop quintet that made jazz history at Massey Hall 50 years ago last night — Max just turns away and launches into another intricate, loopy tattoo on his hi-hat.

That's how Roach, in poor health and almost unable to walk, wants us to remember him. Centre stage, suspended in a spotlight's glow, surrounded by the spirits of the jazz masters with whom he achieved glory in this very room five decades ago, and still giving off all the percussive fire he can muster.

That stoic defiance — Max not about to dissolve quietly into the wings — is probably what most of the 2,700 people who jammed Massey Hall last night will remember most about a concert that.was meant to both honour and eclipse the one in which Roach, pianist Bud Powell, saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie and bassist Charles Mingus excelled all those years ago.

The new quintet was primed to take the honours. Pianist Hancock, trumpeter Roy Hargrove, saxophonist Kenny Garrett, drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Dave Holland are a jazz dream team, at the top of their game, champions all, and, unlike their predecessors, clearly well rehearsed.

And if it hadn't been for Max Roach and the spirits he invoked — "They're with us here tonight, you know that, don't you," he said during his long walk across the stage to his hi-hat and little stool — The Quintet 2003, as they've been dubbed, might have pulled it off.

It was a flawless, almost effortless performance. Hargrove and Garrett ran hot and cold, serving up great slabs of tender, soulful balladry book-ended by intense, blindingly quick but never raucous solos when the tempo demanded. Haynes and Holland worked together, and in solo segments, like athletes, rolling out alternatively mellow and muscular rhythm patterns that gave Hancock all the space and time he needed to build his trademark harmonic constructs punctuated with wild, percussive flourishes. At the piano, he darted about as if dodging the rhythm section's precision shots, and occasionally catching them with great relish.

The performance was perfectly moderated, a masterful lesson in teamwork and individual bravado. It was certainly one of the finest jazz events ever mounted on the Massey stage. It wasn't bebop, it was not a reminder of the past, but a completely contemporary state-of-the-union address that curtly but politely acknowledged the groundwork laid by departed mentors who seemed to inhabit the venerable Shuter St. concert venue last night.

Openers the Massey Hall All-Stars, a large band headed up by Phil Nimmons that included saxophonists Hart Wheeler and Julian Filanowski, and pianist Ralph Fraser — members of the band that opened for the original quintet in 1953 —performed only three pieces, then dispersed in confusion while a bewildered audience watched a stage crew move in to tear down the enormous podium on which they'd played.

[Guest Chaney]

The review from The Globe And Mail:

Bopping with history at Massey Hall

By MARK MILLER

Saturday, May 17, 2003 - Page R8

Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove, Kenny Garrett, Dave Holland and Roy HaynesnAt Massey Hall in Toronto on Thursday

It would be a bit much, if not altogether wrong, to expect that the 50th-anniversary tribute to the famous Jazz at Massey Hall concert would simply replicate the events of May 15, 1953 as closely as possible. Jazz doesn't work that way; nor do its musicians.

To ask pianist Herbie Hancock, trumpeter Roy Hargrove, alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Roy Haynes to subordinate themselves to the stylistic legacies of their counterparts on the Massey Hall stage 50 years ago -- beboppers Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus and Max Roach -- would be to ask entirely too much.

Instead, Hancock and company left the sense of history to the local Massey Hall All-Stars who, under Phil Nimmons's energetic direction, reprised three of the tunes played by a Toronto big band to open the original bill. And the 2003 Quintet, as the concert program called it, left the sentimentality to the lone survivor from the 1953 quintet, Max Roach, who at 78 appeared very confused in a long, awkward cameo that left the end of the evening in disarray.

For their part, Hancock et al. bowed to the past only by borrowing A Night in Tunisia, Hot House and Salt Peanuts from the 1953 quintet's set list. They filled out the concert with updated arrangements of Parker-related material from one of Roy Haynes's current bands, Birds of a Feather, including Diverse, Ah Leu Cha, April in Paris and Now's the Time.

It proved to be a good strategy, given the one-time-only nature of the performance and the limited rehearsal that preceded it. After all, Hargrove, Garrett and Holland are members with Haynes of Birds of a Feather, and Hancock is nothing if not a quick study. But once past those familiar bop themes, the five musicians immediately reverted to their own, personal form and settled into a comfortably high level of execution.

Their single most striking piece was Now's the Time, given an alternately ruminative and dramatic reading that, ironically, had more to do with late-1960s Miles Davis than early 1950s Parker and Gillespie. Fair enough: Hancock and Holland played with Davis in that period, Garrett is also a Davis alumnus and Hargrove does a very good Davis impression.

A relatively contained Garrett was at his most boppish on Ah Leu Cha, while a spirited Hargrove turned quite Dizzying, so to speak, on Hot House. But these nods to 1953 passed slyly at best. Hancock was never anything but Hancock, of course; how good it was to hear him just play "in the moment" on Thursday night -- which is precisely where and when Holland and Haynes live and breath every night. Still, this was an expert performance, rather than an exceptional one. If the musicians chose not to repeat history at Massey Hall, history in turn did not quite repeat itself.

The concert will be broadcast June 8 on CBC Radio's Jazz Beat.

[Guest Chaney]

Here's a review from Audio Asylum (Canadian) member "dnlyko":

Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove, Kenny Garrett, Dave Holland, Roy Haynes and very special guest, the legend himself, Max Roach. I may have witnessed the 2nd. best jazz concert of all time. Thursday May 15/03. 50 years later, to the day, the "Quintet" took the stage directly in front of me (I had seat A31. First row has 60 seats).

To get us warmed up, the Massey Hall All-Stars led by Phil Nimmons started out with 'The Goof & I' followed by 'Where You Are' and blasted their way out with 'Elevation'. We were off to a great start. Three of the original members of the CBC All-Stars that performed on that stage 50 years ago were part of the Massey Hall All-Stars. Hart Wheeler on Tenor, Julian Filanowski also on Tenor and Ralph Fraser on Piano. I'm sure it was an emotional night for them.

While the stage was cleared readied for the Quintet, we were treated to a video on a big screen featuring stills of the original 1953 show.

I should mention at this time (as reported in our local independent weekly: NOW) that designated band leader Herbie Hancock had not discussed the evening's program with fellow band mates. The Quintet took their places. Herbie led them through 'Diverse', 'Night In Tunisia', 'Ah Leu Cha', 'April In Paris/The Gypsy', 'Now Is The Time' and 'Hot House'. To say the least, all members put in 100%. One must keep in mind, these are some of the finest players in Jazz today. And to see/hear them go through these numbers unrehearsed was a treat. Plenty of solos by all members per number. These guys really showed why they were chosen to be there. Roy Hayes performance, even at 77-years old, was the best drumming I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Lightning fast with machine gun power to boot. Dave Holland? What can I say, this guy’s is The Bass. Roy Hargrove: load and ferocious then velvety smooth when required. Kenny Garland sounded as sweet as Coltrane. Herbie led them as a true master and gentleman. Some beautiful magical keys were struck during ‘Now Is The Time’.

After the Quintet’s set, Herbie came back on stage to a backdrop of video depicting Max Roaches career. Herbie recapped all that Max Roach was to Jazz. When concluded, Herbie introduced Max Roach to us. Max was VERY grateful for the efforts put forth in bringing him to Toronto for this historic event. Max reminisced about Dizzy, Powell, Mingus and Parker and their time together on that very stage 50 years ago. He then treated us to a solo performance on the Hi Hat. Max was the happiest person in Massy Hall Thursday night.

The rest of the Quintet came back on stage and performed ‘Salt Peanuts’ with Max sitting comfortably centre stage surrounded by the finest. Herbie contributing the very challinging vocal passages. Max was all smiles and really enjoying himself. He clapped for each after their individual solos. So ended the show.

On my way out of the concert hall I asked the sound/light? engineer if I could have his set list, which he gladly gave me.

There was a Post-Concert Reception. Champaign, wine and drinks were on the house for the night. Lots of food to nibble on. Herbie led Max in and got him seated. I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with him. He noticed I had a piece of paper in my hand (the set list) and offered to sign it. I nor Max had a pen so I asked Herbie if he had one and he gave me his. Max signed my set list. Between drinks and food, I had the pleasure of meeting the rest of the Quintet and thanking them for their wonderful performance.

CBC Radio has recorded the Thursday night performance for broadcast on a future Sunday at 8pm on Radio Two FM 94.1 and also at 11pm on Radio One FM 99.1.

[Guest Mnytime]

Interesting differences in the reviews.

So does anyone know what condition Roach is in?

[Guest Mnytime]

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