Max is the highest
The outest the
Largest, the greatest,
The fastest, the hippest,
The all the way past which
There cannot be

When we say MAX, that's what
We mean, hip always
Clean. That's our word
For Artist, Djali, Nzuri Ngoma,
Senor Congero, Leader, Mwalimu,
Scientist of Sound, Sonic Designer,
Trappist Definer, Composer, Revolutionary
Democrat, Bird's Black Injun Engine, Brownie's Other Half, Abbey's Djeli - ya - Graph

Who bakes the Western industrial singing machine
Into temperatures of syncopated beyondness
Out Sharp Mean

Papa Joe's Successor
Philly Joe's Confessor
AT's mentor, Roy Haynes'
Inventor, Steve McCall's
Trainer, Ask Buhainia. Jimmy Cobb, Elvin or Klook
Or even Sunny Murray, when he aint in a hurry.
Milford is down and Roy Brooks
Is one of his cooks. Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette,
Andrew Cyrille can tell you or youngish Pheeroan
Beaver and Blackwell and my man, Dennis Charles.
They'll run it down, ask them the next time they in town.

Ask any or all of the rhythm'n. Shadow cd tell you, so could
Shelly Manne, Chico Hamilton. Rashid knows, Billy Hart. Eddie Crawford
From Newark has split, but he and Eddie Gladden could speak on it.
Mtume, if he will. Big Black can speak. Let Tito Puente run it down,
He and Max been tight since they were babies in this town.

Frankie Dunlop cd tell you and he speak a long time.
Pretty Purdy is hip. Max hit with Duke at Eighteen
He played with Benny Carter when he first made the scene.
Dig the heavy learning that went with that. Newk knows,
And McCoy. CT would agree. Hey, ask me or Archie or Michael Carvin
Percy Heath, Jackie Mc are all hip to the Max Attack.

Barry Harris can tell you. You in touch with Monk or Bird?
Ask Bud if you see him, You know he know, even after the cops
Beat him Un Poco Loco. I mean you can ask Pharaoh or David
Or Dizzy, when he come out of hiding, its a trick Diz just outta sight.
I heard Con Alma and Diz and Max In Paris, just the other night.

But ask anybody conscious, who Max Roach be. Miles certainly knew
And Coltrane too. All the cats who know the science of Drum, know where our
Last dispensation come from. That's why we call him, MAX, the ultimate,
The Furthest Star. The eternal internal, the visible invisible, the message
From afar.

All Hail, MAX, from On to Dignataria to Serious and even beyond!
He is the mighty SCARAB, immortal as our music, world without end.
Great artist Universal Teacher, and for any Digger
One of our deepest friends! MAX! MAX! MAX!

Amiri Baraka '99