Saudi- Jazz legend Buddy DeFranco 91 dies

(MENAFN- Arab News) PANAMA CITY Florida: Renowned jazz clarinetist Buddy DeFranco who led the way on his instrument in the transition between the swing and bebop eras has died at the age of 91 his family said.

DeFranco's family told The Associated Press that the famed musician died Wednesday evening at a Panama City hospital. His wife Joyce said he had been in declining health in recent years. The couple lived in Panama City.

DeFranco who began his professional career as a teenager in the late 1930s made both concert and recording appearances with many of the top singers and musicians of his era including Frank Sinatra Billie Holiday Tony Bennett Ella Fitzgerald Nat King Cole Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum.

"Buddy DeFranco almost single-handedly was the clarinetist who moved the harmonic and rhythmic language forward from where Benny Goodman left off into the much more adventurous territory of bebop and beyond while never forgetting his roots in swing music" said leading jazz clarinetist Ken Peplowski in an email to the AP.

Born in 1923 in Camden New Jersey DeFranco was raised in South Philadelphia and began playing the clarinet at age 9. By age 14 he had won a national Tommy Dorsey Swing contest and began his road career in 1939.