Hank Jones, a jazz master pianist who played with many of the greats, has died in New York at 91, AFP reported Monday.
Jones died Sunday in a New York hospital following a short illness, according to his agent, Jean-Pierre Leduc.
He was one of the survivors of jazz’s golden era, during which he played with Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie “Bird” Parker and Benny Goodman.
He also accompanied Marilyn Monroe when she sang “Happy Birthday Mr. President” to President John F. Kennedy.
Jones was born in 1918 in Mississippi into a jazz family including the drummer Elvin Jones and trumpeter-composer Thad Jones.
Inducted into the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts as a jazz master and into the International Jazz Hall of Fame, Jones played often in the background until later in life.
“In over seventy years as a jazz pianist and composer, his playing style has embodied the essence of mainstream jazz making him one of the most sought after and recorded jazz pianists throughout jazz history,” his official website said.
From his 60s, Jones developed a new career, moving out of the sidelines to record and perform under his own name.
In the 1990s he combined his piano with a variety of other genres, ranging from classical to spirituals.