Obituary

The death of beloved Hammond B-3 organist "Papa" John DeFrancesco, on June 25, came nearly two years after the shocking loss of his son Joey, a global ambassador for the instrument.

WRTI remembers André Watts.

"We get so stuck on categories and labels that you completely miss the point of really beautiful, authentic forms of art," Stabille told Jazz Night in America in 2015.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and diarist died Friday at age 99. Although he won the Pulitzer for an orchestral work, he was most celebrated for his huge body of art songs — over 500 in all.

Sanders, revered as one of the avant-garde's greatest tenor saxophonists, was a member of John Coltrane's final quartet. His expressive playing laid a path for generations of musicians.

The Grammy-winning Chicago pianist, composer and radio host died peacefully in his home on Monday morning.

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.

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.

A virtuoso guitarist who straddled the post-bop mainstream and a searching yet rooted avant-garde, Monnette Sudler was a hero in her hometown of Philadelphia. She died on Aug. 21, age 70.

Although much of his work was as a sideman, Wadud was one of the most important jazz musicians of the 1970s, '80s and '90s.