BERNIE WORRELL, 1944-2016

Keyboardist and composer Bernie Worrell, one of the main architects of the sound that was Parliament-Funkadelic, a band which went on to influence generations of artists over a wide range of genres, has died. He was 72.

Worrell had announced in January of this year that he had been diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer.

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, George Clinton's eclectic P-Funk crew, which consisted of Worrell along with bassist Bootsy Collins and guitarist Eddie Hazel, turned out some of the most inspired, unconventional, cutting-edge and danceable music of all time. The now-classics include songs like "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)" and "Flash Light."

Always an experimentalist looking for new sounds, Worrell was known as "The Wizard of Woo" and was among the first musicians to use a Moog synthesizer, laying down baselines and melodies that would become the backbone of those songs. In essence, he pioneered the funky groove that powered P-Funk.

In the 1980s, he helped reshape the sound of the Talking Heads, recruited by P.Funk fan David Byrne, becoming a regular member of their expanded group.

His solo work, notably the far-reaching Blacktronic Science, showed his ability to incorporate classical and avant-garde tropes in his original pieces.

Mr. Worrell was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.