Saxophonist James Moody dies of pancreatic cancer

[December 11, 2010]  SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Jazz saxophonist James Moody, who recorded more than 50 solo albums as well as songs with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Lionel Hampton and B.B. King, has died. He was 85.

Moody's wife, Linda McGowan Moody, says he died Thursday at San Diego Hospice after battling pancreatic cancer for 10 months.

Moody is best known for his 1949 hit "Moody's Mood for Love," an interpretation of the 1935 ballad "I'm in the Mood for Love."

Wynton Marsalis told the San Diego Union-Tribune that Moody was a "titan of our music."

Moody was nominated for four Grammies. He received a 1998 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award and a 2007 Kennedy Center Living Jazz Legend Award.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.