Bobby Whitlock, founding member of Derek and the Dominos whose soulful keyboard and vocals shaped the band’s only album, "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs," and whose session work is heard on records by George Harrison,

How do you express in but a few words the grandness of one man who came from abject poverty in the south to heights unimagined in such a short time?” Whitlock’s wife, Coco Carmel Whitlock, said in a statement to CBS News.

Bobby Whitlock, the keyboard player and vocalist who co-founded Derek and the Dominos with Eric Clapton and played on classic albums like George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass,” died Sunday at age 77. His manager, Carol Kaye, confirmed to Variety that Whitlock died Sunday morning at 1:20 a.m. after a brief bout with cancer. The …