An instantly recognizable blues pianist and singer, Henry Gray died of natural causes in Baton Rouge January 17. He was 95.

A belated 2017 inductee into the Blues Hall of Fame, Gray was born January 19, 1925 in Kenner, Louisiana, and raised in Alsen, a rural community near Baton Rouge.

“I played the harmonica but I started on the piano when I was ten,” said Gray in 2001. “I taug...