Max Roach 100

In celebration of American Jazz composer and drummer Max Roach’s 100th birthday, Max Roach 100 brings together three visionary choreographers—Ronald K. Brown, Ayodele Casel, and Rennie Harris—to produce new works in tribute to Roach’s legendary music and activism. Ronald K. Brown and Cuban-based Malpaso Dance Company will collaborate on a piece set to Percussion Bitter Sweet, Roach’s message-driven score characterized by its Afro-Cuban percussion. Roach’s The Dream/It’s Time, in which the drummer’s band joins a recording of Martin Luther King Jr. in an aspirational and urgent conversation, will be amplified by hip-hop dance company Rennie Harris Puremovement. The deeply knowledgeable tap dancer Ayodele Casel will perform a new solo to a series of duets between Roach and another pioneer of Jazz, pianist Cecil Taylor.