Graciela Perez Dies

Afro-Cuban music pioneer Graciela Perez Grillo has died in New York City at age 94.

Perez Grillo was known as the First Lady of Latin Jazz. Her best-known songs include “This is Graciela,” “Intimate and Sentimental” and “That’s the Way I Am.”

Perez Grillo was born in Havana. She moved to New York in 1942 and got her start playing bass and singing with an all-female band.

Her representative Richie Viera says she died Tuesday of natural causes after being hospitalized for some time.