Early career
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 play bebop with luminaries such as Charlie Parker, which thrust him into the jazz spotlight.

Musical innovations
During the mid-\'40s, Roach drew on the style of Kenny Clarke to advance new approaches to drumming, including the use of the bass drum as an instrument to improvise a background for a solo, and a more melodic style of soloing with innovative use of cymbals.

Instead of spelling out the pulse with the bass drum, Roach shifted the emphasis of the swing approach to the ride cymbal. The result was a lighter, far more flexible texture, giving drummers more freedom to explore the possibilities of their drum kits.

What also distinguished Max Roach from other drummers were his fast hands and his ability to simultaneously maintain several rhythms. By layering different beats and varying the meter, Roach pushed jazz beyond the boundaries of standard 4/4 time.

Cool bop, hard bop and avant-garde
Roach continued playing cool bop with Miles Davis, including the recordings for his groundbreaking \'Birth Of The Cool\' album. Later the drummer led an influential hard bop quintet, also featuring trumpeter Clifford Brown. Beginning in the \'60s, Roach pursued a range of more avant-garde and eclectic projects.

Illness
Max Roach garnered numerous awards throughout his robust career, but in recent years he had become less active due to hydrocephalus-related complications. People with hydrocephalus suffer from elevated intracranial pressure, which may cause compression of the brain, leading to brain damage and other complications.

The jazz master was living in New York at the time of his death. Max Roach is survived by five children: sons Daryl and Raoul, and daughters Maxine, Ayl and Dara.

Watch this brief video of Max Roach playing just a hi-hat: