Clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, a brilliant jazz improviser who devised many paths for his instrument following its peak popularity in the swing era, died Dec. 24, his website announced. He was 91.

DeFranco began his career touring in big bands, but as the virtuosic style of small-group bebop became the reigning paradigm for modern jazz, he adapted his technique to the music's demands. All the while, he played in the bands of Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie as well as with Billie Holiday and the Jazz at the Philharmonic tours. DeFranco maintained a bebop quartet for several years in the early 1950s. 

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Source: http://www.npr.org/