Saxophonist Johnny Dankworth, a true legend in the British jazz community for over six decades, and an accomplished musical director who worked with the likes of Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, has died in a London hospital aged 82.

His passing was announced by his wife, singer Dame Cleo Laine, during a concert performed by her and the couple's children at a theatre in the grounds of their Buckinghamshire home on the very evening after his death. Which is a pretty remarkable demonstration of the 'show must go on' philosophy. The news left the show's audience visibly moved, and transformed the evening into a tribute of Dankworth's life.

Called "one of the totemic figures of British jazz" and the UK's "first major jazz musician" by Jazzwise magazine, and dubbed, simply, as a "genius" by pop jazz type Jamie Cullum, Dankworth won a place at the Royal Academy Of Music aged seventeen, and, aside from a short spell in the army, worked in music his whole life.

In the sixties, he also became known as a composer of movie and TV themes, and among many other projects penned the brilliant opening music to 'The Avengers'. Having founded the Stables Theatre and accompanying music summer school at his home in Wavendon in 1970, he later created the London Symphony Orchestra Summer Pops.

He continued to perform prolifically until he fell ill last October. Despite his illness he still performed at last November's London Jazz Festival, playing his saxophone from his wheelchair. All in all a truly inspiring composer, musician and performer both within his own genre and beyond.