Romanian jazz musician Johnny Raducanu, also known as "Mr. Jazz of Romania", died of heart attack on Monday in Bucharest. He was 79.

Bass player, pianist, composer, and band leader, Johnny Raducanu was born on December 1, 1931, in Braila, Romania. The Romanian artist, by his real name Raducanu Cretu, was born in a gypsy family with a musical tradition of over three hundred years. He was first spotted as a 19-year-old playing the contrabass and he went to study music in Bucharest and in the Romanian cities of Iasi and Cluj.

In 1987 he received an honorary membership from the Louis Armstrong Academy in New Orleans.

He is the founder of the Romanian Jazz school, and during a musical career spanning over half a century, he discovered, nurtured and trained several generations of Romanian jazz musicians.

British Leonard Feather named him “Mr. Jazz of Romania”.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Wikipedia)