Jazz legend Don Blackman passes away from cancer

Pianist, singer, songwriter and producer, Don Blackman was hospitalised last night for stage four cancer, with his death confirmed earlier today (11 April).

As reported by FACT, the sad news was broken by his daughter, Irene, over Twitter. Despite the site being filled with tributes to the singer believing him to have passed away, and indeed the artist’s Wikipedia page reporting the same, nothing had been confirmed by the family until the past hour.

FACT point to Blackman’s daughter confirming that the musician had passed at 12.15am, aged 60.

As well as releasing a successful self-titled solo album in 1982, Blackman was a renowned session musician and composer, who in the 1970s played with Parliament/Funkadelic, Roy Ayers, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Lenny White’s group Twennynine.

You can stream a playlist of Blackman’s best known tracks here, and listen to ‘Holding You, Loving You’, below: