Passage: Oscar Brown Jr., 78

A legendary singer of rhythm and blues and jazz, has died. The songwriter was known for compositions such as "The Snake," "Signifyin' Monkey" and lyrics for Miles Davis' "All Blues." His first album, Sin and Soul, came out in 1960 and he appeared with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly. Brown also wrote more than a dozen plays and musicals, was active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s and ran unsuccessfully for political office -- first for the Illinois legislature and later for the U.S. Congress.
-- Reuters