Canadian jazz great Rob McConnell dies

 
Rob McConnell, a Canadian jazz musician best known for his band the Boss Brass, has died. He was 75.

McConnell, who had cancer, died May 1 in a Toronto hospital, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

"The members of this strikingly creative orchestra speak essentially with one exhilarating voice, that of the maestro," The Times' Leonard Feather wrote in 1981 of McConnell and the Boss Brass. "He composes or arranges almost all the music, plays some of the best solos and relates well to audiences with his dry, laconic wit."

Guido Basso, who played in the Boss Brass, told the CBC the group "was the only Canadian jazz band that could cross the border and play the living daylights out of U.S. musicians."

We'll have more later at latimes.com/obituaries.

--Keith Thursby

Photo: Rob McDonnell in 1996