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Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.

The musician, who performed on and collaborated on writing Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died recently in Nashville.

Widely regarded among the finest studio bands in soul music, the four-piece band the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax/Volt and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent impacted generations around the world," his family expressed in a release.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a family man and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they noted.

A cause of death was not disclosed.

A colleague, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new music.

"He's such a kind human," Gore commented. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."

An Illustrious Journey

Ranked the second-best guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper began working at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were formed, consisting of organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was honored by inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always thought of myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They refuse to play the same phrase twice."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and alongside Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "involved in virtually every record put out by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."