Les McCann has died: the legendary jazz pianist and singer was 88 years old

Les McCann, celebrated jazz pianist and singer, whose biggest commercial success came with the song “Compared to What” from his 1969 album swiss movement, who criticized the Vietnam War is dead. His longtime manager, Alan Abrahams, confirmed to various media that McCann died on Friday in a Los Angeles hospital, where he was admitted with pneumonia. He was 88.

McCann was born in Lexington, Kentucky and grew up in a musical family of four. McCann was largely self-taught as a pianist and won a singing competition while serving in the US Navy, which led to an appearance on ” The Ed Sullivan Show. After moving to California with his own trio, he turned down an offer to join Cannonball Adderley’s band so he could pursue his own music.

McCann’s career began when he recorded as a pianist with his trio for Pacific Jazz Records. His album Swiss movement It was recorded with saxophonist Eddie Harris and trumpeter Benny Bailey and included the single “Compared to What”, which criticized the Vietnam War, and the single “Cold Duck Time”. McCann released the album at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in 1969. Both the album and the single “Compared to What” reached the Billboard charts. McCann was composed by Eugene McDaniels and released the song as a ballad on his album Les McCann plays the hits. Roberta Flack also covered the song, the opening track from her debut album First recording in 1969.

McCann later became one of the innovators of soul jazz, mixing jazz with funk, soul and world rhythms. He was also one of the first jazz musicians to include electric piano, clavinet and synthesizers in his music.

McCann worked at Atlantic Records until 1976, recording records during this time in 1973 Invitation to openness and 1974 Layers. He later recorded successful albums for ABC Impulse and A&M, including 1978 The man, and then absorbed in India, as his biography shows.

In 1995, he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed, but started recording again Pump it up in 2002 and A timely moment for Christmas in 2018. In 2023, Resonance Records released the multi-disc archive version Never a dull moment! Live from Coast to Coast 1966-1967, according to his biography.

In 1975, McCann became the first artist in residence in Harvard University’s Learning From Performers program. Also an artist and prolific photographer of black culture, his work was collected in the 2015 book Invitation to Openness: The Jazz and Soul Photography of Les McCann 1960-1980.

In an interview for the book’s foreword, McCann was asked how he achieved intimacy with his photographic subjects. “I trust my intuition,” he said, adding, “It’s better if I just do what I do at the piano: play.”