Goodbye...Max

Max Roach, a master percussionist whose rhythmic innovations and improvisations provided the dislocated beats that defined bebop jazz, has died after a long illness. He was 83.
The self-taught musical prodigy died Wednesday night at an undisclosed hospital in Manhattan, said Cem Kurosman, spokesman for Blue Note Records, one of Roach’s labels. No additional details were available, he said.
Roach received his first musical break at age 16, filling in for three nights in 1940 when Duke Ellington’s drummer fell ill.
Roach’s performance led him to the legendary Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, where he joined luminaries Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the burgeoning bebop movement. In 1944, Roach joined Gillespie and Coleman Hawkins in one of the first bebop recording sessions.

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Max Roach, master jazz percussionist, dead at 83