1. Leslie Coleman McCann was an American jazz pianist and vocalist.
15 Facts About Les McCann
1. 2.
Les McCann is known for his innovations in soul jazz and his 1969 recording of the protest song "Compared to What".
3.
Les McCann's music has been widely sampled in hip hop.
4.
Leslie Coleman McCann was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on September 23,1935.
5.
Les McCann grew up in a musical family with four brothers and one sister, most of whom sang in church choirs.
6.
Les McCann's father was a fan of jazz music and his mother was known to hum opera tunes around the house.
7.
Les McCann explained that he received piano lessons for only a few weeks as a six-year-old before his teacher died.
8.
Les McCann declined an offer to work in Cannonball Adderley's band so that he could dedicate himself to his own music.
9.
The main part of Les McCann's career began in the early 1960s, when he recorded as a pianist with his trio for Pacific Jazz.
10.
The song, which criticized the Vietnam War, was written by Eugene McDaniels years earlier and recorded and released as a ballad by McCann in 1966 on his album, Les McCann Plays the Hits.
11.
Les McCann became an innovator in soul jazz, merging jazz with funk, soul and world rhythms.
12.
Les McCann's music was influential for its use of electric piano, clavinet and synthesizer.
13.
Les McCann had a stroke in the mid-1990s, but he returned to music in 2002, when Pump it Up was released, and continued to release music until 2018.
14.
Les McCann exhibited his work as a painter and photographer.
15.
Les McCann's recordings have been widely sampled in hip hop music, mostly in the 1990s and 2000s, by nearly 300 acts.