max roach: confirmation

Max Roach is arguably one of the most important figures in the development of modern jazz drumming. If you intend to study the style, he is one guy you don’t want to overlook. His time-keeping and solo vocabulary served as the foundation for which every other jazz drummer since then has built upon, and is still relevant today. Max’s playing style is, in a word, timeless.

In this lesson we are going to take a look at a short solo from the 1953 Charlie Parker recording of “Confirmation.” The tune is a 32-bar AABA form, and the drum solo happens in the B section at 2:26, immediately following the bass solo. This solo is full of classic “Max-isms,” which you will most likely come across if you study other solo transcriptions of him… which I would encourage you to do.

I’ve included the original recording below, as well as my own transcription, and a short video of me demonstrating the solo beginning at a very slow tempo, and increasing to the tempo on the recording. I have included stickings for the first three measures so you don’t have to figure that out. When I was learning the solo, I first tried alternate sticking (which would work), but ultimately settled on paradiddles, because I thought it flowed better and actually sounded more like the way Max played it. Also, take note of how Max plays the rhythm in the first three bars as straight eighth-notes. He doesn’t swing the eighth-notes until the fourth bar.

As with anything, take your time, and work out the solo slowly until you can play it in time (always practice with a metronome), then gradually work it up to speed. Have fun!