MAX ROACH, whose rhythmic innovations were a key factor in defining the role of drums in modern jazz, has been composing music for the theater ever since a short-lived Broadway production of Richard Wright’s “Black Boy” in the early ’50s. Yet it wasn’t until he met George Ferencz at a party at poet-playwright Amiri Baraka’s house several years ago that the famous drummer found a director whose approach to drama was much like his own to jazz.<\/p>\n

“George loves jazz and directs like that,” the 62-year-old drummer explained after rehearsing the two musicians – guitarist Dimitri Vandellos<\/strong> and percussionist Michael Bruno<\/strong><\/em> – who will perform his music for the Berkeley Repertory Theater’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s experimental 1921 play, “The Hairy Ape.'”<\/p>\n

“He kind of lets things unfold the way folks like Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington, would do. He knows where he wants it to go, but he gives everybody a chance to make a contribution.” Roach was a member of saxophonist Parker’s’ ground-breaking group, from 1945 to 1953. “He’d give Miles(Davis) just the trumpet part and he’d transpose his part off the trumpet part. He’d tell the changes to the bass player and the pianist. Then he’d look at me and say, ‘You know what to do.’\u00a0 ‘That’s all he’d ever say.”<\/p>\n

Roach’s collaboration with Ferencz marks the sixth time they’ve worked together. His music, for three Ferenczc directed Sam Shepard plays In New York won an Obie award in 1985, and they later set Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cA Midsummer Nights Dream\u201d, to an improvised jazz score that had the actors singing their way through most of the script.<\/p>\n

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Drummer Max Roach confers with guitarist Dimitri Vandellos and percussionist Michael Bruno.<\/p><\/div>\n
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“Rather than just composing background music,” Ferencz said of ‘Roach after the rehearsal, “his music always informs the production and becomes an integral part of it. \u00a0He creates new dynamics for the actors and the people in the audience. It’s helped to enlarge my work.”<\/p>\n
The director has given Roach much freedom in composing the music for “The Hairy Ape.” To provide counterpoint to quiet scenes, Roach at times provides music that is frenetic. \u00a0Sometimes he goes in the opposite direction for more active scenes. \u201cGeorge will tolerate that, if it really helps the action on stage\u201d Roach explained.<\/p>\n
The music, which runs throughout the production, is slightly similar to that of M’Boom, the eight-man percussion ensemble Roach leads in New York. \u201dIt isn’t a jazz or swinging version of O’Neill\u201d he said. “You couldn’t treat this piece like that anyway.”<\/p>\n
In auditioning musicians for “The Hairy Ape\u201d Roach said he looked for players who could both sight-read and improvise, and who were familiar with all idioms of American music. \u00a0Vandellos, currently a member of mandolinist David Grisman’s quartet, plays both acoustic steel-string and synthesized guitar, while Bruno’s stand-up percussion kit includes conga and bongo drums, xylophone and homemade instruments fashioned from springs and tire irons.<\/p>\n
Live theater, especially with Ferencz directing, allows both actors and musicians a degree of improvisation, Roach said, but the scfipt like the chord changes of a jazz tune, must be respected. \u00a0“Like If you’re playing ‘All the Things You Are\u2019 you’ll always respect the changes, even though each night you’ll do something different to it,” he explained. “If you don’t respect the changes, somebody will accuse of playing wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Improvisation doesn’t mean you just do anything. \u00a0Many people think you just throw some notes up in the air and drop ’em and that’s the song, but it’s very scientific.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people don’t realize that the reason a lot of the great improvisers are great is because they can repeat a harmonic line and create new melodies. That’s exactly what the old masters did. They had a figured bass line and created melodies on the harmonic thing and they would create symphonies. Jazz musicians can improvise the same “thing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In auditioning musicians for “The Hairy Ape\u201d Roach said he looked for players who could both sight-read and improvise, and who were familiar with all idioms of American music. Vandellos, currently a member of mandolinist David Grisman’s quartet, plays both acoustic steel-string and synthesized guitar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/vandellos.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/vandellos.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/vandellos.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vandellos.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vandellos.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/vandellos.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":632,"href":"http:\/\/vandellos.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions\/632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/vandellos.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vandellos.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vandellos.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}