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Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has passed away 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 the hit track In the Midnight Hour, passed away on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the best studio bands in soul and R&B, the group Booker T & the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax Records and is primarily known for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a deeply admired guitarist, composer, and producer whose immense talent impacted countless people around the world," his family said in a release.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a loved one and companion, we are consoled knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.

A cause of death was not released at this time.

A friend, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new music.

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

A Prolific Career

Named the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were formed, comprising keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced 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 seen myself as a rhythm player," Cropper remarked in a previous conversation. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They are reluctant to repeat the same riff twice."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to his official biography, he was "integral to the majority of record released by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".

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