Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images/Getty Images Mario Pavone, performing during the What Is Jazz? festival in New York on June 12, 1994. Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images/Getty Images Bassist and composer Mario Pavone came to music late, but made a lasting impact as a unique, mostly self-taught player and versatile composer, who led noteworthy ensembles across more than 30 superb albums. Pavone died May 15 in Madeira, Fla. after a lengthy battle with cancer. Pavone was an enthusiastic and insightful teacher and mentor, and a key figure on the Connecticut jazz educational scene. He was also an organizer, and in the mid-'70s, he, drummer Gerry Hemingway and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith formed the Creative Musicians Improvising Forum, a collective patterned after the renowned Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.