Chris Anderson, a jazz pianist whose sophisticated and personal approach to harmony made him a pronounced influence on many other players, notably Herbie Hancock, died in Manhattan on Monday. He was 81.

The cause was complications of a stroke, said Al Sutton, a longtime friend and archivist of Mr. Anderson’s recordings, who said that he left no immediate survivors.

Mr. Anderson had a thoughtful and rewardingly deliberative style; he could give the impression of creating new harmonic sequences in the course of an improvisation. He often drew his repertory from the standard songbook, including music by Duke Ellington, one of the few jazz pianists he claimed as an inspiration.

Mr. Anderson was born in Chicago with limited vision and the congenital condition known as brittle bone disease. By age 20, as a result of cataracts, he was completely blind.

By then Mr. Anderson, a self-taught pianist, was already working steadily in Chicago. His style endeared him to both visiting luminaries and local musicians. In 1950, when Charlie Parker played the Pershing Ballroom, Mr. Anderson was in the band. Mr. Hancock studied with him as a young man and later described him as a “master of harmony and sensitivity.”

Mr. Anderson settled in New York in 1961 after working there with the singer Dinah Washington. Within the next two years he broke both hips, restricting his ability to work. So his reputation grew mainly among musicians, including the pianist Barry Harris, who regularly featured him as a guest in his concerts, and the drummer Billy Higgins, with whom he would eventually record.

Mr. Anderson made just a handful of albums, and some of these — on the Alsut label, set up by Mr. Sutton for this purpose — were not widely distributed. But his sporadic appearances, usually in a solo or duo setting, drew followers as well as friends.