Nasheet Waits

On January 2024, revolutionary jazz drummer Max Roach would have turned 100 years and in honor of his centennial, a celebration concert has been commissioned by the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre (NJPAC). This will feature the re-imagining of the 1960 'Freedom Now Suite' which Max co-wrote with Oscar Brown as commentary on whether African-Americans are really free and the issues of apartheid in South Africa . On The Jazz Standard we speak to the show's musical director,drummer Nasheet Waits who was given his first international spotlight by the mentorship of Max Roach calling him up to join Roach's percussion group M'Boom.This commemoration will include heavy weights such as pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, vocalist Cassandra Wilson, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, bassist Eric Revis and poets Sonia Sanchez and Saul Williams. Nasheet Waits joins us on The Blueprint to reflect and share what this celebration truly means to him.