Jazz pioneer Les McCann dies

Les McCann, whose jazz music influenced today’s artists, has died.

He was 88.

McCann’s style was known as soul jazz, The New York Times reported.

He was born on Sept. 23, 1935, in Lexington, Kentucky. Music was part of his upbringing with his four younger brothers and sister all singing in the Shiloh Baptist Church choir. He started playing piano when he was only 3 years old. McCann eventually picked up drums and sousaphone in his high school marching band.

He left his home at the age of 17 to join the Navy, assigned to the San Francisco area.

McCann got his big break while serving his country, singing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” after he had won a talent contest.

He eventually moved to Los Angeles where he studied music and journalism at Los Angeles City College. During Monday night performances at the Hillcrest Club, he met Eugene McDaniels, writer of the protest song, “Compared to What,” a song that McCann would eventually make his own, adding his own “churchy vocals,” as the Times described. Variety called the performance one of his best-known.

McCann also was part of a 14-hour-long concert in Accra, Ghana, performing for 100,000 people and joining the likes of Wilson Pickett, Santana and Ike & Tina Turner, Variety reported.

McCann released more than 60 albums over his career with his music forming the “bedrock” of early hip-hop, according to Variety, and sampled by about 300 artists including Cypress Hill, the Notorious B.I.G., Sean Combs and Snoop Dogg, the Times reported.

McCann’s death on Friday was announced by his manager. He had been hospitalized last week for pneumonia, but no official cause was released, Variety reported.

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