Iconic Jazz pianist dies at 88
Iconic Jazz pianist dies at 88
Les McCann, the iconic jazz pianist, renowned for the protest song ‘Compared to What’, breathed his last today, Friday, 5 January at 88 at a hospital in Los Angels.
This was confirmed by his Manager. He had been hospitalized last week due to pneumonia, though no cause of death was given.
Notedly, McCann combined jazz and R&B in his work, laying the foundation for numerous early hip-hop hits, such as ’10 Crack Commandments’ by the Notorious B.I.G., ‘After Hours’ by A Tribe Called Quest, ‘The Next Episode’ by Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, ‘Pet Rock and C.L. Smooth, and many more.
McCann was brought up in a musical family and was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1935.
He claimed to have only had a few weeks of piano instruction as a child, and he played the tuba and drums in the marching band at his school.
He had participated in a singing competition even as serving in the United States Navy, and the result was a 1956 performance on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show,’ the most-watched show on television at the time.
He shifted to Los Angeles following his release from the Army. He started a trio turning down an offer to play with the Cannonball Adderley Quintet.
In the 1990s, he suffered a stroke that limited his ability to play the keyboard, as per Variety.
Over the course of his career, McCann published over 60 albums; the most recent being a reissue of his CD ‘Never a Dull Moment! Coast to Coast Live 1966-67.
News Edit K.V.Raman
