Bobby "Blue" Bland performs in New Orleans in 2011. (Rick Diamond/Getty Images Entertainment)
The New York Times is reporting that Bobby "Blue" Bland — the soulful balladeer who gave us hits like "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City" (which Jay-Z sampled on his 2001 album, The Blueprint), "I Pity the Fool" and "That's the Way Love Is" — has passed away. He was 83.
The blues legend — a contemporary of Ray Charles and B.B. King — was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. Watch Bland and King perform together on Soul Train in 1975:
