Jaki Liebezeit, the percussionist for German band Can who became an icon in avant-garde circles for a machine-like style that rejected standard drumsets, died Sunday. He was 78. His bandmates in Can, which he co-founded in Cologne in 1968, said Liebezeit died suddenly from pneumonia.
He died "asleep peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones. We will miss him hugely," Can said on its Facebook page.
Can was one of the pioneering bands in Krautrock, the broadly defined genre of artists from West Germany who took rock in a more psychedelic and experimental direction by bringing in jazz improvisation and early electronics.
Liebezeit had his start in free jazz, moving after his early studies to Barcelona where he notably played with visiting trumpeting great Chet Baker.
But Liebezeit grew disenchanted with the jazz circuit. He sought to learn percussion from around the world and, with Can, developed a tight, metronome-like method that to listeners became increasingly indistinguishable from machines.
In fact, Liebezeit - unlike so many purists - was fully comfortable exploring the possibilities of drum machines.