I’m so sorry to hear that Max Roach has died.

I never listened to him a lot, but he turned my brain inside out.

When I was a junior in college and had been playing drums maybe three years, Max Roach came to the University of Kansas. (I should point out I was not studying music at college. Unfortunately, aside from a clinic here or there, I’ve had no training on drums whatsoever). Admission was free for students, though, and I had heard this guy was a big deal.

I went to the auditorium, which was not crowded at all, only to see an empty stage. Please understand, I was an idiot*: at that point, the best drummer I’d ever seen live was Tommy Aldridge with Black Oak Arkansas, and a large part of what impressed me was how he could play a big double-bass kit with (I counted) 11 cymbals. He was definitely a great drummer—so what was with this empty stage?

Eventually this little black guy walks out carrying a single small floor tom and a pair of brushes. He proceeded to play music, all by himself, and he didn’t just play the metal brushes on the top head of the drum, like you’re supposed to: he used the hook on other end, he used the rim of the drum and the side, and at one point (the crowd stood up and cheered) he rolled a brush sideways across the drumhead with the palm of his hand in a complex polyrhythm. Eventually, I got it. Equipment is a means to an end; any sound you make is legitimate as long as it serves its purpose; and it’s all, always, all about making music.

I never looked at a drumkit the same way again. Thank you, Max. You did many things for many people, but that’s what you did for me, and that’s a lot.

*I still am. But these days, I’m a much more experienced idiot.