Max Roach, master jazz percussionist, dies at 83

New York – By his 30th birthday, Max Roach was already considered the greatest jazz drummer ever by his peers. By the time he died this week, the 83-year-old master percussionist was known worldwide as much more: innovator, activist, teacher, genius.

Roach, whose rhythmic innovations and improvisations defined bebop jazz during a career marked by expectations defied and musical boundaries ignored, died late Wednesday in a Manhattan hospital after a long illness.

No additional details were available, said Cem Kurosman, spokesman for Blue Note Records, where Roach played on seminal recordings with Thelonius Monk, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. Roach was elected to the Downbeat magazine Hall of Fame in 1980, and the Grammy Hall of Fame 15 years later.

In 1988, he became the first jazz musician ever honored with a MacArthur Fellowship – receiving a $372,000 “genius grant.”

“I try to show my students the correlation between hip-hop and Louis Armstrong,” he once said. “That’s how well-rooted hip-hop is, coming out of an environment where people were denied any kind of cultural enrichment.”

The North Carolina native was born Jan. 10, 1924, and moved to Brooklyn with his family four years later.

He is survived by five children: sons Daryl and Raoul, and daughters Maxine, Ayo and Dara.

R. Kelly debuts latest video in strange saga

New York – R. Kelly’s closet is getting bigger – and more bizarre.

The singer premiered the sequel to his twisted and craftily campy “Trapped in the Closet” video serial with a red-carpet extravaganza in New York on Wednesday night.

“Don’t ask me to explain it,” Kelly told the audience before the videos aired. “I don’t know how to explain how I wrote it.”

It might be hard for anyone to explain Kelly’s ghetto soap opera, which includes a gay pastor, cheating spouses, a convict named ‘Twon and a well-endowed midget. In the new episodes – chapters 13 through 22, for those keeping count – he adds an old reverend, ex-con lesbians and a stuttering pimp, played by Kelly himself.

“I call it an alien,” Kelly said of his tour-de-farce.

The “alien” first appeared in 2005, when the singer-songwriter premiered “Trapped in the Closet,” a five-part song series that kicked off with a man hiding in his paramour’s closet as her husband comes in; each song ended with a cliffhanger.

Soon afterward, Kelly released a DVD of the series, adding seven more chapters – and with each chapter, the plot got weirder.

Gwen Stefani wants more children, No Doubt

New York – Gwen Stefani says she wants more children – but not while she’s on tour and not until she’s done another No Doubt record.

Her 1-year-old son, Kingston, has been traveling with the 37-year-old singer on her “The Sweet Escape” tour.

“I go from the tour bus to the hotel room to the concert venue – all while carrying my baby,” Stefani tells InStyle in its September issue, on newsstands today.

“He’s just getting into music. He does the whole head-bouncing thing,” she says. “I love him so much. He’s the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

Kingston is the first child for Stefani and her rocker husband, Gavin Rossdale, 39, who were married in 2002.

“Obviously I’m in a race to have another, but I don’t want to do it while on tour,” Stefani says. “And I want to do another No Doubt record.”

Forbes.com: Jay-Z earned $34M last year

New York – Jay-Z wins all around, says Forbes.com. He’s got Beyonce on his arm – and more millions than 50 Cent and Diddy.

The rap icon, aka Shawn Carter, is No. 1 on the site’s list of “Hip-Hop Cash Kings,” based solely on 2006 income. He banked an estimated $34 million, Forbes.com said Thursday.

Jay-Z, president and chief executive officer of Def Jam Recordings, released his 11th studio album, “Kingdom Come,” which sold about 2 million copies. Jay-Z, 37, is also part owner of the New Jersey Nets and has endorsement deals with Budweiser, Hewlett-Packard and General Motors.

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson ranks second with an estimated $32 million. And Diddy (real name: Sean Combs) placed third with an estimated $28 million.

Rounding out the top five are Timbaland ($21 million) and Dr. Dre ($20 million). They’re followed by Eminem ($18 million); Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Scott Storch (all $17 million); Ludacris and T.I. (both $16 million); Outkast and Lil Jon (both $14 million); Ice Cube ($13 million); Jermaine Dupri and Swizz Beatz (both $12 million); Chamillionaire and The Game (both $11 million); and Young Joc ($10 million).

Spears strikes a pose, but won’t interview

New York – Another day, another bit of bizarre Britney behavior.

The cover of the September issue of Allure magazine features Britney Spears posed provocatively in jeans and a dark brown wig, her bare breasts covered by her arms. There are two similar shots inside the mag. She very cooperatively posed for the shots in April.

“Britney showed up for Allure’s cover shoot on time and ready to work,” editor-in-chief Linda Wells wrote in an a letter for the issue, on newsstands Tuesday.

As for the interview that was to follow, the 25-year-old Spears missed four appointments with Allure interviewer Judith Newman, Wells said.

What do you do when you have no profile to accompany some alluring photographs? Newman wrote a first-person essay about her experience trying to track down Spears.