Latin jazz pianist Hilton Ruiz dead at 54

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/arts/music/07ruiz.html?_r=1&oref=sloginPublished: June 7, 2006

Hilton Ruiz, a versatile and prolific pianist equally at home in the worlds of modern jazz and Latin music, died yesterday in New Orleans. He was 54 and lived in Teaneck, N.J.

Hilton Ruiz at the "All-Star Latin Jazz Tribute to Tito Puente" in 2005.

His death was announced by his agent, Joel Chriss. Mr. Ruiz had been hospitalized in a coma since May 19, when he was found unconscious on Bourbon Street in New Orleans with severe head injuries. The police said that he had injured himself in a fall.

He had been in New Orleans since May 18 to promote a CD benefiting victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Mr. Ruiz spent his career shuttling between two separate if not entirely dissimilar musical words. He spun dazzling, harmonically sophisticated improvisations in the bands of Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Betty Carter, in groups he led, and occasionally as a solo pianist. He also provided rhythmically insistent support in the ensembles of Tito Puente and Mongo Santamaria.

He could probably have had a concert career if he had chosen that path. Born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, he was a classical piano prodigy and made his debut at Carnegie Recital Hall when he was 8. But jazz and Afro-Cuban music won his heart.(more)