Les McCann, oft-sampled soul-jazz pioneer, dead at 88
Les McCann, oft-sampled soul-jazz pioneer, dead at 88"If it's done from the heart, people feel it," McCann said in a 1986 San Diego Union interview.
He died Friday at a Los Angeles hospital after developing pneumonia about one week ago, but his passing was only disclosed Monday by Alan Abrahams, his longtime manager.
No specific cause has been cited for the death of the 88-year-old musician, who continued performing for more than two decades after suffering a mid-concert stroke in Germany in January 1995 that partially paralyzed the right side of his body.
More at link https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/other/appreciation-les-mccann-oft-sampled-soul-jazz-pioneer-dead-at-88-i-had-a-feeling-that-i-could-do-anything/ar-AA1mn4TX
My intro to the man's talents...
= new reply since forum marked as read
RIP
More from WaPo:
The song did not catch on until Mr. McCann decided to use it as his opening number during an appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on June 21, 1969. He and his trio — bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Donald Dean — were joined by Eddie Harris on tenor saxophone and Benny Bailey on trumpet.
There was no time for a rehearsal, and the horn players had never played with Mr. McCann before, but the resulting eight minutes of music became something of a happy accident of jazz.
Mr. McCann charged into “Compared to What,” pounding out a powerful rhythmic figure on piano as Dean kept pace on drums. Ripples of applause welled from the audience as Mr. McCann began to sing the mildly profane lyrics, which touched on sensitive social issues and were an undisguised indictment of the government and religion:
The President, he’s got his war
Folks don’t know just what it’s for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt, they call it treason
We’re chicken-feathers, all without one nut. God d--- it!
Tryin’ to make it real, compared to what?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/01/02/les-mccann-jazz-pianist-dead-compared-to-what/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=
Hit me like a tons of bricks, heard on the legendary WBCN in Boston, I lived less than an hour from the city so that was my radio station and I thank them for exposing me to the wide world of music beyond what I already knew. This is one of the gems they gave me.
It updated jazz in my mind and showed that I was not wrong about improvisation. It was a milestone for me in my teens, rocked my world so to speak.
