American Masters

(performers whistling) - [Narrator] We did a whole piece, which described the elements of a storm, from drizzling rain, (rain drizzles) to a thunderstorm and lightning.

(performers whistling) (saw wobbles) This was one of the first abstract pieces that we did that, everybody just brought into.

(performers whistling) - He would give us an idea and we would hit on that, and then we would build on it.

Everybody would build on it, and that was real.

That's there, that's music.

- [Narrator] After a year and a half of rehearsing one day a week, Max got an endorsement from the Ludwig Drum Company, and at that point arranged our first European tour.

(hands slapping) That kind of established us as an entity, and we just kept rolling and kept performing.

(performer drumming) - I would say that of all of the Max Roach projects, this includes the Quintet, the Clifford Brown Project, all the stuff with Abby Lincoln, his solo stuff, the M'Boom project is probably his most adventurous.

(performer drumming) (audience cheers) - Max was one of the people redefining what the music is gonna be in every decade that he was active.

He was never resting on his laurels, and he could have.

(inspiring music)