 Mulgrew Miller ( August 13 , 1955 – May 29 , 2013 ) was an American jazz pianist , composer , and educator . As a child he played in churches and was influenced on piano by Ramsey Lewis and then Oscar Peterson . Aspects of their styles remained in his playing , but he added the greater harmonic freedom of McCoy Tyner and others in developing as a hard bop player and then in creating his own style , which influenced others from the 1980s on . 
