NEW YORK (AFP) ― The influential U.S. jazz drummer and composer, Paul Motian, died Tuesday at the age of 80 in New York, a close friend said.

“Paul did pass away early this morning,” Carole d’Inverno, a painter, told AFP. Jazz producer Hans Wendl said Motian had died from complications from Myelodisplastic Syndrome, a bone disorder.

In the latter half of his career Motian became a band leader, playing with saxophonist Joe Lovano, guitarist Bill Frisell and pianist Masabumi Kikuchi among others, and he also worked as a composer.

However as far back as the 1950s Motian began to shine in the influential core of the jazz world, according to The New York Times, both a member of Bill Evans’ trio and later in the 1970s with Keith Jarrett’s American quartet.

“Paul Motian was my hearbeat,” Wendl quoted bassist and Motian playing partner Charlie Haden as saying on hearing of his friend’s death.