“Music has been a wonderful outlet for me, emotionally and spiritually,” Mr. Greene said.

Weeks after the massacre, he slowly began accepting invitations to play publicly, as long as the performances were close to his Connecticut home. He returned to Western Connecticut State University, where he teaches jazz.

Slowly, Mr. Greene said, the spirit of Ana’s “beautiful life” began comforting and inspiring him to begin writing music again. Then there were the many musician friends, like Harry Connick Jr., who helped console him. One result is a new album called, appropriately, “Beautiful Life,” a work inspired by and dedicated to Ana’s life.

“I want it to give a sense of how she lived,” said Mr. Greene, who recently performed some of the music from the album at a jazz club on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The nearly completed album, whose proceeds will go partly toward charities set up in Ana’s name, exemplifies a decision by the family not to let the pain of Ana’s death keep them from discussing her life, he said.

“It’s a way for us to keep Ana alive, and keep her on the tip of our tongues,” he said. “I don’t want to avoid talking about it because one problem we have in our culture is that if something is difficult, we don’t talk about it.”

To appreciate Mr. Greene’s sheer technical virtuosity, one can turn to the 70 recordings he has made during a career playing with the likes of Jackie McLean and Horace Silver, as well as Mr. Hubbard. Mr. Greene’s playing on the record has taken a more soulful and spiritual turn, he said, to make music that is “reflective of her nature,” with songs that are ruminative and reflective.