Saxophonist Jackie McLean, who played alongside the likes of Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Charley Mingus, has died at the age of 74. According to a spokesman from Hartford University where McLean was a tutor, the musician died at his home in Hartford, Connecticut, on Friday after a long illness.
McLean began playing soprano sax at the age of fourteen, later graduating to the alto, which he then played throughout his career. Following his work with Davis and Mingus, McLean went through a difficult period when he faced a waning career and drug problems, before he made a comeback in the 1960s, when he explored free jazz alongside saxophonists Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane.