On Sunday, March 26 , Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will visit world-renowned jazz drummer and composer Max Roach at the Sunrise Nursing Home in Mill Basin, where he will present him with a proclamation honoring his historic musical achievements and his enormous contributions to Brooklyn’s jazz legacy.

Born in 1925 in North Carolina, Roach moved to Brooklyn three years later and began his musical career playing with gospel music groups, performing for the first time on piano at Concord Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant , where he lived as a child. He became a leading drummer in the be-bop movem ent of the 1940’s , playing with Charlie Parker and D iz zy Gillespie’s bands and revolutionizing jazz percussion by shifting the emphasis from drum-based swing to cymbal-based rides.

Roach was a seminal figure in Brooklyn’s thriving jazz scene, la ying the foundation for future artists. I n addition t o recording and gigging with jazz legends such as Miles Davis and Charles Mingus, Roach has played with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and performed a rare duet with fellow Brooklynite Randy Weston at the sculpture garden of the Brooklyn Museum in 1990. He was honored at the first annual Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival in 2000.

Max Roach is currently wheelchair-bound and will be available for photographs only.