Mike Longo, Jazz Pianist, Composer and Educator, Dies at 83

THOSE we’ve lost Best known for his long association with Dizzy Gillespie, Mr. Longo, who died of the coronavirus, also led a big band and promoted the work of other musicians. This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.

Mike Longo, a jazz pianist, composer and educator best known for his long association with the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, died on March 22 in Manhattan. He was 83. The cause was the coronavirus, Dorothy Longo, his wife of 32 years, said. As a musician and a composer, said Matthew Snyder, who had studied composition with Mr.

Longo and played baritone saxophone with the big band he led, the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble, Mr. Longo “was simultaneously very earthy and also had the highest possible level of harmony and melodicism and complexity in his musical conception. ” As an educator, Mr. Longo wrote 10 books and produced four DVDs, espousing concepts he had refined while working with Mr.

Gillespie. He also advocated tirelessly for other artists, engaging them for concerts and releasing their recordings on CAP (Consolidated Artists Productions), which he had established as a publishing company in 1970 and a record label in 1981. “He took on other artists because he wanted them to have a forum to produce their own music and express their creativity,” Ms. Longo said in an email.

“CAP is an umbrella organization whereby musicians produced and owned their own product, but if Mike chose to take them on, because of his reputation, he was able to get airplay and distribution. ” Born into a musical household, Mr. Longo played his first nightclub date, with the alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, while still in high school. After arriving in New York in 1960, he found work supporting musicians like the trumpeter Red Allen and the tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins at the Metropole, a Manhattan nightclub.

A year later, he moved to Toronto to study with the pianist Oscar Peterson. Returning to New York in 1962, Mr. Longo became an in-demand accompanist for singers including Nancy Wilson, Gloria Lynne and Joe Williams. In 1965 he led a house band at the New York nightclub Embers West, where he performed with a wide range of luminaries.