I Remember Max

Considered by many to be one of the most important musicians of the 20th century, drummer, writer, and activist Max Roach died on August 16, 2007 of complications from dementia and Alzheimer's. He was 83.

Roach’s discography and artistic accomplishments read like a who’s who of black American music. He played with the greatest musicians of his day including Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Coleridge Taylor Perkinson, Abbey Lincoln, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Clark and Philadelphia’s Odean Pope.

Roach was a frequent performer in Philadelphia and in his latter years made regular appearances at Dino’s Lounge, The African American Historical and Cultural Museum and at Morgan’s Night Club. The last time I saw Max Roach was at a book signing for poet Sonia Sanchez at the Old Zanzibar Blue on 11th Street in Philadelphia. I’ll never forget his powerful handshake and grip. Even in his 70’s, Roach was an impressively robust man, from the waist up. I asked him that day about his work with one of my favorite pianists – Sonny Clark, who died tragically in 1963 at the young age of 31, to which he replied, “Sonny was just a baby.”

Max Roach recordings of note include Money Jungle with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus, Sonny Clark Trio with George Duvivier, Brilliant Corners with Thelonious Monk, Max Roach/Clifford Brown Quintet Live at Basin Street, The Max Roach Trio featuring the Legendary Hasaan, Max Roach/Abbey Lincoln: Freedom Jazz Suite and Jazz at Massey Hall, considered by many to be the greatest jazz concert ever!














H. Songhai
8/25/07

So Amazing

Somewhere in between professional development, Garage Band, vacationing in Delaware and listening to a ton of podcasts, I found several hours to fiddle with a few new web based creation tools. These tools are for publishing sideshows (VoiceThread), capturing your desktop, (jing) and customizing world maps (LiveSearch).


I also found these links to be very helpful too - Online Media God, Videos for PD from Wesley Fryer, the TheBloggersCafe on del.icio.us. and Learning The Guitar by Darren Kuropatwa.

It seems like every thirty days we online learners are being offered better and slicker tools to assist us in creating, learning and collaborating easier, better and more professionally. Today, the ability to create compelling knowledge products and publish that work to a global audience is as simple and as user friendly as it has ever been.

Moreover, when you consider that all learners - students, parents and teachers alike, are now capable of forming highly specialized learning communities – online via RSS, Personalized Start Pages, podcasts, blogs and wikis, it is clear that the traditional "sit and get" approach to high school, college and professional development is quickly becoming a relic of the past, soon to be replaced overall by an astonishing and transparent network of possibilities.

I hope to share, trade and explore those vistas with all of you in the very near future.

H. Songhai
8/21/07