"We Insist! Freedom Now": Max Roach's Transatlantic Civil Rights Imperative

An article that originally appeared in IAJE's 2007 Jazz Research Proceedings Yearbook is presented. Modern jazz drummer Max Roach recorded several overtly political albums over the course of his career, but the most famous is "We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite," recorded in 1960 for Candid Records. White extends the discussion found in Ingrid Monson's "JazzTimes" article "The Freedom Now Suite" and other sources by looking at the music of the suite and how that music reflects Roach's views of the American and African civil rights movements by placing elements of traditional African American and African music into a modern jazz context. Descriptions written by Nat Hentoff in the liner notes to the "Freedom Now Suite" are used as a resource to help elucidate what is happening the music.