‘Roland Hanna, a versatile jazz pianist whose deft touch, lush harmonies and encyclopedic knowledge enabled him to fit comfortably in a wide range of musical contexts, died on Wednesday in Hackensack, N.J. He was 70 and lived in Liberty, N.Y… Mr. Hanna was, as John S. Wilson of The New York Times said in 1985, “an impeccably polished performer” who was “as much at home in turn-of-the-century ragtime as he is in the works of John Coltrane.”

Nor were his influences limited to jazz: his harmonically complex improvisations were also informed by his extensive classical training.’ I knew Hanna liked to be referred to as ‘Sir’, but just learned from the obituary that this was “not an affectation or a casually bestowed title like Duke or Count. He was knighted by the government of Liberia in 1970, in recognition of benefit concerts he had given there.” I hadn’t even known that Liberia confers titles of nobility.