RIP

The Connecticut-born bassist was known both for his attack on the fingerboard and the decades he spent nurturing the next generation of players.

Best known for marquee associations with singers — like Carmen McRae, Joe Williams and Betty Carter — Norman Simmons was a pianist and composer of refinement and soul. He died on May 13.

After cutting his teeth in Detroit, a move to New York near the middle of the century found him directly in the center of a deeply important moment for jazz.

An announcer at WBGO for more than a decade, as well as a fixture at SiriusXM, Eulis Cathey died on April 27. His colleague, friend and fellow Buffalo native Sheila Anderson remembers him fondly.

In a legendary career, Al Schmitt won 20 Grammys for engineering and had a hand in more than 150 gold or platinum albums.

The musician spent a decade homeless in San Francisco before making records, but left a much longer legacy by bringing his knowledge of bebop and blues, and an innate soulfulness into jazz music.

Among the first voices on the air at Newark Public Radio, Bob Porter was also a Grammy-winning record producer and a firsthand chronicler of soul jazz.

Victor “Vitín” Paz, considered by many to be the greatest lead trumpeter player of the modern era, died on April 3 at his home in Panama City, Panama. He was 89.

A drummer and educator, Buddy Deppenschmidt co-conceived Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd's landmark album Jazz Samba.

Best known for his work on Hancock's blockbuster 1973 album Head Hunters, Paul Jackson was a bassist who found his musical identity between jazz and funk.