Tributes were paid last night to an Oxford musician murdered in a road rage attack in Hollywood.

Rod Poole, 45, was stabbed to death after a seemingly innocuous dispute in a Los Angeles restaurant car park after a night out with his wife Lisa Ladaw-Poole.

The guitarist was a founder member of a group called the Oxford Improvisors Cooperative in the early 1980s and colleagues spoke of their shock at his death.

A revived version of the Cooperative still plays regularly in Oxford and members said they would be holding a tribute to Mr Poole, who was born in the city, at its next gig.

Mr and Mrs Poole had been to a concert and were walking towards the Hollywood outlet of the Mel's Drive-In chain when a car nearly struck them.

Mr Poole remonstrated with the driver, Angela Sheridan, before she and her husband Michael got out of the vehicle, said Los Angeles police.

The pair are alleged to have punched Mr Poole before Michael Sheridan stabbed Mr Poole several times.

The musician was taken to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centercorr but died 20 minutes after the attack.

Detective Larry Cameron, of Los Angeles police, said the minor dispute a week ago turned into murder, and added: "This was incredibly dumb."

The Sheridans are now being held in police custody.

Last night Pete McPhail, one of two original Cooperative members who played with Mr Poole and is now part of the new incarnation, said: "It is very sad.

"It is pretty shattering news. Even people who did not know Rod have been affected. Any death amongst a community of people you work with and know is pretty shocking.

"Rod was quite young when he played with us. He was very serious about his playing and he worked very hard on his guitar.

"He was beginning to get quite successful in the States."

He added: "He was a very gentle person, which is one of the things that makes his death particularly shocking.

"He was not the type of person who would get involved in antagonism."

Mr Poole emigrated in 1989. He released a handful of albums in the States.

Mr McPhail, 56, of Cowley, said he had been told Mr Poole - who also worked as a children's guitar teacher - may have been planning to move back to England.

Mrs Ladaw-Poole is planning to bring her husband's ashes back to the UK.

The original Cooperative disbanded in the 80s but was reformed in 2001.

Current member Dominic Lash met Mr Poole once and he said: "He was very much a name we are aware of as being part of everything in the 80s.

"There is a sense he was part of what we are doing, so it has affected us.

Mr Lash added: "Something at the next Oxford Improvisors Cooperative will be dedicated to him as a tribute in memorial."