Hilton Ruiz, 54; Jazz Musician Known for His Versatility

Jazz pianist and composer Hilton Ruiz, who excelled in a wide variety of styles including Afro-Cuban rhythms and the blues, died Tuesday in New Orleans, said his agent, Joel Chriss. He was 54.

Ruiz, who had come to Louisiana from his home in Teaneck, N.J., to work on a Hurricane Katrina benefit project, had been comatose at East Jefferson General Hospital since taking a fall May 19 in the French Quarter.

Although there were early reports that Ruiz might have been beaten, police said witnesses and other evidence indicated he fell.

Ruiz’s former wife, Aida, and his daughter, also named Aida, had said last week that they too were convinced that Ruiz had accidentally tripped or fallen. But Tuesday they said they had hired a new attorney to pursue the circumstances of his death.

Ruiz has been described as one of the most versatile musicians in jazz.

“He’s one of the few musicians on the scene that is equally at home in both the jazz genre and the Afro-Cuban genre in a complete sense.... He really can play the blues too,” said trombone player Steve Turre, a longtime friend. “There’s a lot of people who dabble with both worlds, but very few can authentically deal with both. And he’s one of them.”

The many musicians with whom Ruiz worked included Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus. He was featured on the 1997 video “The Best of Latin Jazz,” and his song “Something Grand” was used in the film “American Beauty.”

“I was pretty lucky in being exposed to a lot of different kinds of music, and studying them with good teachers,” Ruiz said in a biography on Telarc International’s website.

Ruiz was born and raised in New York City by his Puerto Rican immigrant parents. Trained in classical music as well as jazz, Ruiz played at Carnegie Recital Hall when he was 8.

His teachers included the jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams. In his early 20s, he worked with saxophone player Rahsaan Roland Kirk.