Musician Angus R Grant, who played fiddle with the Edinburgh-based Celtic fusion group Shooglenifty, has died following a short illness.

The 49-year-old was a founding member and frontman of the folk band, who celebrated their 25-year anniversary last year.

Mr Grant, described as "one of Scotland's best-loved musical figures", died on Sunday surrounded by family on friends, a statement on the band's website said.

Paying tribute, the band's manager Jane-Ann Purdy said he influenced a generation of musicians and "made fiddle playing cool."

Describing his early performances with the band in the 1990s, she said: "Shooglenifty's sound was brewed in those early sessions ... soaring above was the, by turns, wild and serenading fiddle of Angus R Grant.

"They were a rock band. With a fiddle player as a front man."

She added: "With Venus in Tweeds, Shooglenifty's first album, the band took the folk world by the scruff of the neck and they've kept on shaking ever since.

"Through seven studio albums, gigs to a few hundred in small Highland village halls, playing to tens of thousands in festival fields across the globe, and a couple of line-up changes, Angus was there, centre stage.

"He had never missed a gig until this July when illness forced his hand, but he returned to the stage to complete Shooglenifty's run of August festival appearances."

Arts agency creative Scotland tweeted that they were "very sad to hear of the loss of one of Scotland's best-loved musical figures".