SAN DIEGO — In a career that stretched across seven decades, Mike Wofford provided exactly the right touch on piano in any and every musical setting. His death Friday morning just after midnight, silences an exemplary artist who performed weekly until earlier this summer. He was 87.

A San Diego resident since he was a child, the Texas-born keyboard master collaborated with such jazz giants as Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass, Charlie Haden and Oliver Nelson. He earned international acclaim traveling the world as the pianist and musical director for vocal legends Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.

A musician for all seasons, Wofford was equally adept performing with such Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees as John Lennon, James Brown, B.B. King, Roger McGuinn, Joan Baez, The Four Tops, Cher, Donn

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