Folk music legend Happy Traum died of cancer at the age of 86.
The New York Times reported that Traum’s wife, Jane, said he died after undergoing surgery for the cancer.
Traum and his brother, Artie, released five albums — the first called “Happy and Artie.”
Artie died from liver cancer in 2008.
Happy Traum recorded and performed with Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Levon Helm of the Band and the reggae star Peter Tosh.
Per Deadline, he was part of a 1963 session that featured Dylan, Seeger, Phil Ochs and other folk stars that created the seminal folk album “Broadside Ballads, Vol. 1.” Among the tracks on that album was Traum’s duet with Dylan, who used the pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt, on Dylan’s antiwar song “Let Me Die in My Footsteps.”
Traum was a self-taught musician. His career reportedly began in the 1950s and he was called a “stalwart of the Greenwich Village music scene” in the 1960s.
The New York Times called Traum “an enduring presence in the folk world for more than six decades.”
He is survived by his wife and two daughter, Merry and April Trau, a son, Adam, and he had four grandchildren.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.