News of the death of Mississippi fife-and-drum-band leader Othar Turner and his daughter Bernice, on Thursday, February 27, came as a sad ending to Black History Month. Although relatively few people knew of the 94-year-old farmer and his Rising Star Fife and Drum Band, his music provided a direct link between blues and its origins in Africa.

In performances during the past half-century, Turner would lead his drummers in a loose, shuffling parade, blowing melodies on a hard-carved cane fife that he used, occasionally, to play call-and-response with his voice. The blend of his piercing lines with the martial polyrhythms was trance music of the highest order, especially when played at the picnics he hosted — days-long parties that originally drew neighbors to his Gravel Springs home in Mississippi hill country, and in the last decade of his life attracted visitors from throughout the world.

Turner was a cantankerous but well-loved part of the North Mississippi music community, and his influence spanned generations. He preserved the sound of music made by former slaves and their children and was a close friend of the bluesman Fred McDowell, to whom he referred musicologist Alan Lomax in the 1950s. He was also a mentor to Luther and Cody Dickinson of the popular contemporary blues-rock outfit the North Mississippi Allstars, as well as to Fat Possum–label guitarist Kenny Brown and the group 20 Miles. Although Turner was first recorded by music archivist George Mitchell in the late 1960s, his first complete album, Everybody Hollerin’ Goat (Birdman), was produced by Luther Dickinson and released in 1998. It was followed by From Senegal to Senatobia (Birdman), a Dickinson-produced collaboration with African musicians.

In recent years, Turner had a higher profile than ever, thanks largely to the efforts of his daughter Bernice, who handled his business affairs. He performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Blues Foundation’s W.C. Handy Awards ceremonies, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and, in 2001, at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn for a show filmed by Spike Lee and Wim Wenders for this fall’s Martin Scorsese–led PBS series The Blues. Another Turner tune, " Shimmy She Wobble, " was featured prominently in Scorsese’s recent film Gangs of New York.

Othar Turner died at 6 a.m. on Thursday, after a struggle with pneumonia and heart trouble. Bernice died the same evening, succumbing to stomach cancer. R.L. Boyce, the Rising Star drummer who seemed to be Turner’s most immediate musical heir, also died within the past year. Their passing leaves the musical tradition they served so well on the verge of possible extinction.