Jazz pianist and singer Les McCann, best known for his raucous live single “Compared to What” from the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival and later featuring numerous samples from hip-hop artists, died Friday at an area hospital. from Los Angeles, according to his former manager. and producer Alan Abrahams.
McCann, 88, had been living in a Van Nuys nursing facility and was hospitalized with pneumonia, said Abrahams, who declined to identify the hospital. McCann had been a longtime resident of Van Nuys, Abrahams said.
“He was one of the most influential pianists and singers of all time,” said Abrahams, who called McCann an architect of soul jazz. “When he played live, all over the world, people were captivated, because he never played it safe. He always pushed it to the limit and achieved it and took the audience with him. For the younger ones, they won’t make Les McCann anymore.”
McCann’s music has been sampled by Notorious BIG, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, Warren G., Slick Rick, Dr. Dre, Mobb Deep, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Naughty by Nature, according to his website.
McCann enjoyed his role as a live performer. “Well, some musicians just want to do it with the music,” McCann told the Times in 1992. “I like to be funny. I like to mess with people, shake them up a little. That’s why sometimes I do scandalous things. I know who I am and people who know me wish I did more outrageous things, like the ones I do at home. They say: ‘What’s wrong with you? You are so conservative on stage.
“That’s all I need, to get into my routine. My routine is love, and that’s who I am. I am a channel of love. “I accept my role.”
McCann during the opening of the 40th Montreux Jazz Festival in 2006.
(Marcial Trezzini / Keystone via AP)
Les McCann was born Sept. 23, 1935, in Lexington, Kentucky, Abrahams said. A largely self-taught musician, McCann joined the Navy in the 1950s and was stationed in California, where he frequented San Francisco jazz clubs, was introduced to the music of trumpeter Miles Davis, and was heavily influenced by pianist Erroll. Garner, according to his Kentucky biography. Music Hall of Fame. In 1956, he won a Navy talent show as a singer and appeared on the “Ed Sullivan Show,” according to the 2007 book “The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz.”
He moved to Los Angeles after being discharged, where he formed the trio Les McCann Ltd. and signed to the Los Angeles-based Pacific Jazz label.
A prolific performer and collaborator, it was McCann’s appearance at the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland with saxophonist Eddie Harris, and the subsequent live album “Swiss Movement,” that secured McCann’s international notoriety and his place in the jazz canon. On the hit single “Compared to What,” a joyous anthem of protest against President Nixon and the Vietnam War, McCann sings: “The president, he’s got his war / People don’t know exactly what it’s for / Nobody gives us a rhyme or reason. / I have a doubt, they call it betrayal.”
The album was a crossover success. “The witty, laid-back social commentary that McCann delivered on the album’s signature tune, ‘Compared to What,’ appealed to both middle-aged former beatniks and their rock-loving descendants of the hippie era,” The Times recounted in 1992. .since the “Swiss Movement” continued to be a constant seller.
One of McCann’s other important contributions to music occurred offstage, at a Washington, D.C. nightclub, where he discovered up-and-coming singer Roberta Flack and introduced her to his producer.
McCann, who recorded dozens more albums and pioneered the use of electronic keyboards in jazz, also explored creative outlets beyond music.
“I would love to have a lot of money. Who would not? But I love what I do. I love the other things I do. I play tennis, I paint. One new thing I’m starting is making giant prints of photographs I’ve taken of jazz musicians,” McCann told The Times in 1992. “I’ve read a lot, studied all the religions… My guru is me, The only one in whom I know I can fully trust to be honest with me is me. I love myself more than everyone else, and in doing so, I can love everyone else. “I see myself as a channel of love.”
In 1995, McCann suffered a stroke while on tour in Zelle, Germany, which left him partially paralyzed, although he was able to continue performing afterwards, concentrating more on vocals.
“He was bold and a pioneer on many levels,” Abrahams said, noting that McCann’s sampling of music had spread his influence across generations. “All the rap and hip-hop artists knew it, because they dug deep into his parents’ LP bins.”
