Les McCann, a pianist and vocalist who helped popularize the soul jazz genre and whose music was sampled in hip-hop songs by artists like A Tribe Called Quest and Dr.
Les McCann, the legendary jazz pianist who has been sampled countless times and is perhaps best known for the protest song “Compared to What,” died Friday at a Los Angeles area hospital, his manager confirmed. No cause of death was announced, although he had been hospitalized last week after contracting pneumonia; he was 88. The …