RIP

DeFrancesco played in Miles Davis's band as a teenager, brought the sound of the Hammond B-3 organ roaring back to the jazz mainstream in the 1990s and remained the instrument's most visible champion.

With a successful career of over 50 years and more than 300 recordings, Creed Taylor is best known for producing early albums by Quincy Jones and Larry Coryell, and for his own label, CTI Records, which defined the sound of jazz in the 1970s. He died today at age 93.

Warren Bernhardt, a versatile pianist who performed with jazz groups such as Steps Ahead and L’Image, as well as with pop artists like Simon & Garfunkel, Tim Hardin and Steely Dan, died on August 19, 2022. He was 83. He died of natural causes, according to his wife Jan Bernhardt and family friend Scott Cronin.

A rising star in the world of improvised music with her group FLY or DIE, branch died on Monday at her home in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Michael Bourne, longtime radio host for WBGO in Newark, died on Sunday, August 21, as confirmed by family member Elizabeth Dicker. He was 75 years old.

Michael Henderson, a funky, energizing bassist who worked with Stevie Wonder and Miles Davis before launching a potent R&B career in the mid-’70s, died on July 19th. He was 71.

A star alto saxophone soloist with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, Gabe Baltazar also made an outsize impact as one of the most celebrated jazz musicians ever to emerge from Hawaii, where he presided as a local hero.

Trombonist and composer Grachan Moncur III, who died last week at 85, was a pillar of Newark's creative music legacy. The Art of the Story remembers him in his own words, from a 2007 conversation with Michael Bourne.

Moncur, who played an outsize role in jazz's evolution during the 1960s, died Friday on his birthday after a period of poor health.

The brilliant pianist and composer Jessica Williams was known for her devotion to music and her complex personality. She died on March 12.