Nick Colionne, smooth jazz guitarist, dies on New Year's Day at 55

Nick Colionne, a smooth jazz artist known for his guitar skills and his colorful suits and hats, died unexpectedly Saturday at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Elgin, Illinois, according to his publicist. He was 55.

The artist's team remembered Colionne as an "ultra-stylish" urban jazz star who released a string of independent albums in the 1990s before gaining prominence on the global jazz scene in the early 2000s.

Over the course of his career, Colionne hit No. 1 on Billboard's smooth jazz airplay chart eight times, and he was the only smooth jazz artist with five No. 1 hits from a single album, 2016's "The Journey."

Fellow musicians publicly mourned Colionne, known to many of them as "Uncle Nick."

"This man took me under his wing like a nephew," musician Bee Boisseau wrote in an Instagram post. "Sharp dressed ... AT ALL TIMES! And he could play that daggone guitar!!! So much fun to be around ... so much wisdom ... such talent! I am better for knowing him."

At: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/01/02/nick-colionne-smooth-jazz-guitarist-dies-new-years-day/9071414002/

Smooth jazz guitarist Nick Colionne, 1966-2022.