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Max Roach was excited by the premise and promise of rap when it first hit the music scene. Roach was introduced to the genre by his godson and hip hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy, and would later collaborate with him.
"The fact that he saw that vision before it became cool in the early nineties, for you to mix your hip hop and your jazz together, shows how ahead of the curve he was," said Questlove."
Reed was always at the forefront of American avant-garde music, beginning with creation of the Velvet Underground in 1965. Gritty and realistic, the brutal honesty in Reed’s lyrics and sound made him a cultural icon of the disenfranchised throughout the ’60s and ’70s. From punk rock to grunge, he has had an unparalleled influence on the American music scene.
Bebop, a style of jazz developed in the 1940's, changed American music but wasn't taken seriously for much of Charlie Parker's life. This mid-century popcorn television commercial shows how the public's perception of bebop was riddled with stereotypes.
Charlie Parker's nickname "Yardbird" came to be while he was on the way to a gig with some fellow musicians and involved a bird in a yard that had an unfortunate fate.