From Ottawa Citizen:
Trumpeter and composer Kenny Wheeler, who was raised in Toronto and beloved in Canada despite having lived in London, England, for the last 60 years, died Thursday. He was 84.
For the last month or so, jazz musicians in the United Kingdom, Canada and elsewhere were hopeful that Wheeler, a towering if extremely humble influence on so many musicians, would get the better of health difficulties.
Some months ago, Wheeler was moved to a nursing home. More recently, he was hospitalised. His friend and long-time collaborator Norma Winstone emailed me earlier this week, after visiting Wheeler last week: “News of Kenny is not too good. He is back in hospital, after being in a nursing home for a while. I went to see him last Friday and he is very frail. I am sure he is grateful for all the messages of love and support he has received.”
• Kenny Wheeler: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Wheeler