CHICAGO (AP) — Singer and songwriter Jessy Dixon, whose extensive travels helped popularise gospel music outside the United States, died Monday. He was 73.

Miriam Dixon said her brother died Monday morning at his Chicago home. She said he had been sick but declined to provide additional details.

During a more than 50-year career, Dixon wrote songs for several popular singers, including jazz and rhythm and blues singer Randy Crawford. He later wrote songs performed by Cher, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole and Amy Grant.

But it was for his gospel singing — religious music that combined the rhythmic beat of blues, jazz and soul — that Dixon first gained attention. It was during an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1972 with his Jessy Dixon Singers that Dixon first came to pop singer Paul Simon’s attention. For the next eight years, Dixon toured with the pop icon, collaborating on Simon’s Live Rhymin’ Simon and Still Crazy albums.

Dixon also played keyboard with Earth Wind and Fire and guitarist Phillip Upchurch.

Dixon, who began studying music at age 5, aspired to be classical pianist but told The Associated Press in a 1997 interview that he always knew his talent was destined for use in the church.

Born March 12, 1938, in San Antonio, Dixon’s professional compass was set by gospel music legend James Cleveland, who heard Dixon’s teen group perform at a theatre in the south Texas city. Dixon said Cleveland liked the group, but he liked Dixon more and persuaded him to move to Chicago to join his group, the Gospel Chimes, as both a singer and pianist.

Chicago’s South Side was the place to be for a gospel musician, especially in the early 1960s.

“Going to church was like going to school,” Dixon said. At church, he heard the likes of Mahalia Jackson and blues pioneer Thomas A Dorsey, who is credited with creating modern gospel singing.

“Reading his (Dorsey’s) music and studying it, he was the one who wrote for Tennessee Ernie Ford, Elvis Presley and Pat Boone,” Dixon said. “All these people were singing his music and were making it commercial.”

Dixon credited the creativity of artistes like percussionist Maurice White and blues singer Willie Dixon, no relation, inspired him to compose. He started with choral music for Chicago’s Thompson Community Singers, for which he sat at the keyboards. Several of his early songs have become classics, sung in churches across America, including: Sit At His Feet and Be Blessed, These Old Heavy Burdens and I Love to Praise His Name.

His more recent compositions gained him even wider acceptance. Dixon’s I Am Redeemed, released in 1993, lingered on Billboard magazine’s gospel chart for more than five years.

After his stint with Simon ended, Dixon rode a wave of increased gospel music interest during the 1980s to build a following in Europe.