Raoul Roach

RAOUL ROACH...A PROFILE Raoul Roach has forged a distinguished career in contemporary music as a prolific and respected upper echelon record executive that spanned over four decades. He has built a sterling reputation for mining gold and platinum records for a bevy of major recording stars and record labels including Quincy Jones, Anita Baker, the late Michael Jackson and Teddy Pendergrass, Grand master Flash, Pete Rock, C.L. Smooth, Tevin Campbell, Elektra Records, Qwest Records, and MCA Records, to name just a few. Raoul's passion and ears for music are deeply rooted in his family's lineage and late father, the iconic and internationally revered jazz musician Max Roach. He was born and raised in New York City, and by age 15, was cutting his teeth working for his legendary dad, first as an office assistant, then a roadie, and eventually as his Road Manager and producer of several of his concerts. Roach was also firmly entrenched in activism, civil rights and the social justice movement of the sixties and seventies, so Raoul was exposed to and mentored by some of the most pivotal Black figures of the period including Maya Angelo, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka and Alvin Ailey. He initially enrolled at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA where he majored in Electronic & Computer Engineering, and also participated in organizing rallies and protests for change at UMass and other regional colleges and universities. However, after his junior year, he took a year sabbatical, shifted away from engineering and enrolled in an Arts Marketing Program at SUNY Purchase. Upon completion of the academic program at SUNY, he landed a gig as a booking agent for O'Gilvie Management Associates, booking R&B and Jazz tours in Europe and North America. During his tenure there, he had a chance meeting with Wynton Marsalis at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague, Holland, which led to him being hired as the Grammy Award-winning artist's Road Manager. In the early eighties, Raoul opted to take his burgeoning talents to Los Angeles. His first break was scoring an internship with Quincy Jones Music Publishing Company. Jones later hired him as his personal production assistant and driver. During his tenure under Jones' tutelage, he was intimately involved in numerous music and film projects Jones helmed, most notably the production of "The Color Purple" directed by Steven Spielberg, and Michael Jackson's "Bad" album. His first major record executive appointment came as National Director Black Music A&R for Elektra Records. He hit the ground running scoring his first number one platinum selling hit with Keith Sweat's "I Want Her," produced by Teddy Riley, ushering in a new R&B sound called "New Jack Swing", and netting top-selling singles/albums by Anita Baker, Teddy Pendergrass, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and many others. He's also credited with signing the first "Dancehall" artist, Jamaican Rapper "Shinehead" to a major record label. Quincy Jones then pursued Raoul to resurrect his then defunct and debt-ridden Qwest Records label. He accepted the offer and in a less than a year erased the label's debt and turned the company into a hit-making and profitable machine (generating over $70 million in record sales). Under Raoul's leadership, Qwest successfully launched newcomers Tevin Campbell and Keith Washington, releasing Quincy's own record breaking "Back on the Block" singles, as well as feature film soundtracks for: Spike Lee's "Malcolm X", John Singleton's"Boyz 'N Da Hood and Nora Ephron's directorial debut "This Is My Life" with Carly Simon. Raoul was later lured by UMG/MCA records to serve as Senior VP of its' Black Music A&R department, where he managed recordings for some 40 artists and a $75 million budget. Raoul then became involved as an executive in a number of Internet/Entertainment start-ups and worked as an independent consultant for new and established artists, recording labels and media ventures. He was involved in the launching Harry Belafonte's Sankofa.org for five years, and served as the organization's Co-Executive Director. There he helped to raise over $1,000,000 for operations, executive produced social justice charity recordings from John Legend, Usher, Sting, Mali Music, Ty Dollar Sign, TI, NeYo, Aloe Blaac, & Nas, Co-Executive Produced the "Many Rivers To Cross Festival" a music, art and justice festival in Chattahoochee Hills, GA in 2016. The Festival featured John Legend, Common, Dave Matthews, Santana, Public Enemy, Goapele, Robert Glasper, Sweet Honey In The Rock and many others. Currently semi-retired, he is working with family and other collaborators of his late father, to coordinate #Max100, an international centennial celebration of his father's birth, in 2024. Raoul currently resides in NYC and is the proud father of two boys, Kyle, and Kadar.