Max Roach film music

[medjuck]

I recently watched  TCM's presentation of Oscar Michaux's 1920 "The Symbol of the Unconquered" and the opening titles include a credit reading "Music by Max Roach"!  Sure enough the originally silent film was accompanied only by one long  drum solo which seemed to have been done specifically for the film though I'm not sure that's possible given that I don't think the only surviving print of the film was discovered long enough before Max's death for it to have  been screened  for him.  IIRC the translated English titles were copyrighted 2008.  (The  print was found in Belgium and had French titles.) 

 

Anyone here know anything about this?  

Edited March 6, 2022 by medjuck

[Joe]

This is news to me, but intrigued. (I was just reading about Michaux's films, coincidentally.)

Roach also provides the score for HOW TO DRAW A BUNNY, a 2002 documentary about artist Ray Johnson. That film, which I have seen and recommend, is available via Vimeo.

 

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by Joe

[medjuck]

SonnyMax who's obviously a better researcher than I am pm'd me the following:

From what I could find, MOMA and TCM issued a restored version of the film in 1998 on videotape. This was the occasion for which a “percussive score [was] added”. Interestingly, I also found this in the NYT, dated February 4, 2001: “On Saturday February 10 at 2 p.m., the Newark Museum will screen one of Micheaux's silent films, ''The Symbol of the Unconquered'' (1920). The drummer Max Roach will provide the percussive accompaniment to the film he performed once before on television.”

[gvopedz]

Max Roach also performed for the movie Death of a Prophet - The Last Days of Malcolm X