January 7.
1936: Guy d'Hardelot/Helen Rhodes nee Helen Guy (77) French composer, pianist, and teacher. Born at Chateau d'Hardelot, near Boulogne-sur-Mer. This old castle, from which she took her pen name, was once occupied by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Most of her life, she was engaged in teaching singing and diction at her home in London, and many of her pupils attained success. In 1896 she toured the US with Calvé. Her first real success as a composer was won with "Because", though her song "Sans Toi" had previously been favorably received. Among her other successes may be mentioned "I Know a Lovely Garden", "I Think", "I Hid My Love", "Dawn", and "A Bunch of Violets" (?) b. August ?? 1858
1946: Adamo Didur (72) Polish operatic bass vocalist; he studied in Lwów with Valery Wysocki. He later worked with Franz Emmerich in Milan. His concert debut came in Milan in a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. He went on to sing extensively in opera in Europe and appeared at New York's Metropolitan Opera from 1908 to 1932 (?) b. December 24th 1874.
1964: Cyril Davies (32) English musician, born in Denham, Buckinghamshire, he was one of the first UK blues harmonica players and blues musicians. He began his career in the early '50s, first within Steve Lane's Southern Stompers, then as part of an acoustic skiffle and blues group with Alexis Korner. He began as a banjo and 12-string guitarist before becoming Britain's first Chicago-style blues harmonica player. In 1962, he and Alexis Korner opened a club called the Ealing Club in London, adding bassist Jack Bruce, saxist Dick Heckstall-Smith and drummer Charlie Watts, to form the electric band Blues Incorporated, and they recorded the album R&B from the Marquee. Many budding young musicians visited the Ealing Club and 'guested' with Blues Incorporated, including Rod Stewart, Paul Jones, Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, Eric Burdon, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Ginger Baker (frequently reported as of leukaemia, but some accounts suggest pleurisy and others small cell lung cancer) b. January 23rd 1932.
1967: Carl Schuricht (86) German conductor, in 1909 he succeeded Siegfried Ochs as director of the Rühlscher Oratorienverein in Frankfurt-am-Mein and at 31 was appointed musical director of the municipal orchestra in Wiesbaden; festivals of modern music (Richard Strauss, Reger, Mahler, Delius and Arnold Schoenberg) made Wiesbaden an internationally-renowned centre for music. In later years during the late 40s and 50s Carl conducted throughout Switzerland, at the re-opening of the Salzburg Festival in 1946, in Paris, and at the festivals of Holland, Lucerne, Aix-en-Provence and Montreux. He regularly conducted the South German Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1950 to 1966. When the Vienna Philharmonic made their first tour to the USA in 1956, he share the conducting during the six-weeks with André Cluytens (?) b. July 3rd 1880.
1980: Larry Williams (44) American singer, saxophonist, keyboards, and pianist born in New Orleans, Louisiana; best known for writing and recording some Rock'n'Roll standards from 1957 to 1959 for Specialty Records, including "Bony Moronie" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy". He also began acting in the 1960s, appearing on film in Just for the Hell of It-1968, The Klansman-1974, and Drum-1976 (tragically died from a gun-shot wound in his LA, California home. The death was deemed suicide, though there was much speculation otherwise. No suspects were ever arrested or charged) b. May 10th 1935.
1981: Chink Martin/Chink Abraham (94) American jazz tubist born in New Orleans; he played guitar before settling on tuba. He played with Papa Jack Laine's Reliance Brass Band around 1910, and worked in various other brass bands in the city in the 1910's. In 1923, he traveled to Chicago and played with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, as well as with the Halfway House Orchestra, the New Orleans Harmony Kings, and the New Orleans Swing Kings. In the 1930s, he worked as a staff musician at WSMB radio. He continued to play tuba for his entire career, though he also picked up double-bass from the 1930s onward. He played with dozens of noted New Orleans jazz musicians, appearing on record with Sharkey Bonano, Santo Pecora, Pete Fountain, Al Hirt, and others, and released one album under his own name on Southland Records in 1963 (?) b. June 10th 1886.
1998: Owen Bradley (82) American record producer and pianist who, along with Chet Atkins and Bob Ferguson, was one of the chief architects of the 1950s and 60s Nashville sound in country music and rockabilly. He learned piano at an early age, and began playing in local nightclubs and roadhouses when he was a teenager. At 20, he got a job at WSM-AM radio, where he worked as an arranger and musician and in 1942, he became the station's musical director. As well as becoming a recording artist, he enjoyed record production and in 1952, he and his brother Harold built their own recording studio where they began to record singers such as Ernest Tubb and Kitty Wells. By 1956, they had moved to larger premises and had their famed Quonset hut studio on 16th Avenue South, Nashville. It was here that Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent recorded some of their earliest sessions. Owen also recorded several of the new country artists of the time, including Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins. The area surrounding the old Quonset hut became known as Music Row. It was here that, over the years, the recording industry of Nashville developed. He did, in fact, record both pop and country artists. He also appeared as a musician, not only on some of Decca recording sessions but he actually played with Chet Atkins on Elvis Presley's RCA session, on the recording of Heartbreak Hotel. Between 1958 and 1968, he was the country A&R director for Decca and was then promoted to be the label's vice president in Nashville. Owen was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1974. He retired from production in the early 1980s, but continued to work on the selected projects, such as k.d. Lang's acclaimed 1988 album, Shadowland (?) b. October 21st 1915.
2001: James Carr (58) American R&B and soul singer, born in Coahoma, Mississippi, and began singing in church and was performing in gospel groups. He first made the R&B charts in 1966 with "You've Got My Mind Messed Up", followed by his most famous song "The Dark End of the Street". A resurgence in interest in his music, spurred by his portrayal in Peter Guralnick's 1986 book Sweet Soul Music, helped return Carr to the recording studio, but he didn't have any further chart success (sadly James died after a battle with lung cancer) b. June 13th 1942.
2002: Jon Lee (33) Welsh musician and the original drummer for the successful British rock band Feeder. Born in Newport, Wales, he was inspired to play the drums, having acquired a drum kit in his teens, he teamed up in the early 1990s with Grant Nicholas to form a band called "Temper Temper". Without much in the way of success, the two took to London to set up a new band called "Hum", but the true turning point came when a Japanese bassist called Taka Hirose answered an ad in "Loot" magazine to form a new band called "Reel" and a record contract with the Echo Label followed in November 1994 when their name was "Real". From here the band changed their name to Feeder named after Grant's goldfish (sadly suicide, found hanged at his Miami home) b. March 28th 1968.
2004: John Guerin (64) American top session drummer; self-taught on drums, percussion and keyboards, an extremely successful "crossover" artist, frequently bridging the gaps between jazz and rock with his expansive drum vocabulary. Born in Hawaii and raised in San Diego, he began performing with Buddy DeFranco in 1960. In the late 60s he moved to LA where his talented drum work was utilised by artists including Frank Sinatra, George Harrison, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, The Byrds, Peggy Lee, Them, Thelonious Monk, Lou Rawls, Ray Conniff, George Shearing, Ella Fitzgerald, Linda Ronstadt, Nelson Riddle and countless others. In jazz and pop, he is one of the most recorded drummers of all time. Among his many contributions to motion picture and TV scores, John's most celebrated work was on the soundtrack for Clint Eastwood's 1988 film biography of Charlie Parker, titled Bird. He also played on the original title tune for the television series Hawaii Five-O. In more recent years Guerin worked with Tyrell, Oscar Peterson, John Faddis, Jimmy Heath, Ray Charles, Sonny Rollins, Justin Morell, Andreas Pettersson, David Basse, David Garfield, Gary Lemel, and Mike Melvoin (pneumonia) b. October 31st 1939.
2009: Alex van Heerden (34) South African trumpeter, vocalist, accordionist, producer, composer, historian and explorer; a self-taught musician that started to play trumpet at the age of 17. As well as his solo career, he worked with Robbie Jansen in Jansen's jazz group Sons of Table Mountain. Later he studied his own ethnic music and in the process became aware of the influence of ghoema, vastrap (a SA dance form) and other Coloured music on boeremusiek. He also worked together with Swedish musician and producer Håkan Lidbo, creating electronic music. He was on the verge of co-launching a second album with Cape Town jazz musician Hilton Schilder, with who he had toured parts of Europe and Hong Kong with on several occasions, and a second CD with Gramadoelas, the band he co-founded (died in a car accident in Cape Town) b. November 23rd 1974
2010: Eric Shark/Thomas Sam Davis (59) British singer with the Liverpool based band, Deaf School. Eric had been in poor health for several years and was waiting for a lung transplant, but he continued to play a part in Deaf School concerts until September, when he sat at a table at the side of the stage, with microphone in hand and oxygen mask and cylinder close by (lung disease) b. ????
2011: Phil Kennemore (57) American bassist he was a member of Y&T, who were formerly known as Yesterday And Today, and played with the hard rock band at every stage of their 36-year history since 1974, helping the band sell over four million albums in the process. He appeared on all of their 21 albums, including the classic albums In Rock We Trust, which featured their biggest hit ‘Summertime Girls’, and Mean Streak, and the band’s most recent studio record Facemelter which was released last year. Y&T is one of the San Francisco Bay Area's own innovators of the hard rock sound. World-renowned headliners on their own, the band also remained the most requested support act on the hard rock road, touring with icons Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, and more (sadly died after his brave fight with lung cancer) b. 1954
2013: Tom Ebbert (93) American trombonist and former member of the Dukes of Dixieland, a New Orleans "Dixieland" style revival band formed in 1948. Born in Pittsburgh, Tom spent more than five decades of his career playing swing, ballroom and polka music at burlesque houses and jazz joints in New Orleans' French Quarter. Tom played with the traditional New Orleans jazz ensemble, the Dukes of Dixieland, and was a regular at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe and Preservation Hall before moving to Petersburg, Ind., days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. (sadly died complications from Alzheimer's disease) b. 1920

January 8.
1970: Giannis Christou (44)Greek composer, born in Heliopolis, Egypt, of Greek parents. In 1948 he gained an MA in philosophy after having studied with Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell in Cambridge. During that time he also studied music with Hans Redlich and studied orchestration with Angelo Francesco Lavagnino in Rome in '49, also that year he composed Phoenix Music for orchestra and First Symphony. His last works from 1967 to 1970 include Anaparastasis I (The baritone),
Anaparastasis III (The pianist), Oedipus Rex and also Oresteia which was unfinished (Tragically died on his birthday in a car accident in Athens, Greece) b. January 8th 1926.
1975: Richard Tucker/Rubin Ticker (61) American operatic tenor; a highly regarded operatic tenor throughout his career, and is generally considered by vocal-music historians and critics as being the greatest American-born, American-trained tenor of his era. On December 15th 1945, under the baton of Emil Cooper, Richard made his debut as Enzo in La Gioconda. The debut, one of the most successful in the annals of the Metropolitan, foretold his 30-year career as the leading American tenor of the postwar era (He died of a heart attack while resting before an evening performance in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is the only person whose funeral has been held on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. In tribute to his legacy at the Met, the city of New York designated the park adjacent to Lincoln Centre as Richard Tucker Square) b. August 28th 1913.
1979: Sara Carter (80) American country musician; known for her deep and distinctive singing voice, she was the lead singer on most of the recordings of the historic Carter Family act in the 1920s and 1930's. She married A. P. Carter on June 18, 1915. Sara was inducted as part of The Carter Family in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970, in 1993, her image appeared on a U.S. postage stamp honoring the Carter Family and in 2001 she was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor (??) b. July 21st 1898.
1986: Pierre Fournier (88) French cellist, he graduated from the Paris Conservatory at 17, in 1923. He was hailed as "the cellist of the future" and won praise for his virtuosity and bowing technique. In the period 1925-1929 he was a member of the Krettly Quartet, led by Odette's brother Robert Krettly. He became well known when he also played with the Concerts Colonne Orchestra in 1925 and began touring all over Europe. Pierre taught at the École Normale de Musique in Paris and the Paris Conservatoire from 1937 to 1949. He made his first tour of the United States in 1948 and played to great acclaim in New York and Boston. After 1956, he made his home in Switzerland, and taught privately at his home in Geneva until his death: the British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber was among his pupils (?) b. June 24th 1906.
1991: Steve Clark (30) English co-lead guitarist for British heavy metal band Def Leppard. Born in Sheffield, he started playing guitar at aged 11 and was soon playing in a local band, Electric Chicken, before joining Def Leppard in 1978 where he was nicknamed "The Riffmaster". He contributed to half of the songs on the band's 1992 album Adrenalize prior to his death, he is also showcased on the 1979 EP Def Leppard and albums, On Through the Night, High 'n' Dry, Hysteria, Pyromania, Adrenalize, and Retro Active (sadly died from a drug overdose) b. April 23rd 1960.
1998: Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE (93) English composer was one of the foremost British composers of the 20th century he was a student in the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition with Charles Wood and C. H. Kitson, he also studied conducting with Adrian Boult and Malcolm Sargent. As a composer his works comprised of five string quartets, four concerti, four symphonies, five operas and a number of vocal and choral works. Michael was knighted in 1966, and awarded the Order of Merit in 1983. He remained very active composing and conducting. His opera, New Year, received its premiere in 1989. Then came Byzantium, a piece for soprano and orchestra premiered in 1991. His autobiography, Those Twentieth Century Blues also appeared in 1991. A string quartet followed in 1992. In 1995 his ninetieth birthday was celebrated with special events in Britain, Canada and the US, including the premiere of his final work, The Rose Lake. In that year a collection of his essays, Tippett on Music, also appeared (While in Stockholm for a retrospective of his concert music, he developed pneumonia. He was brought home, but died soon after) b. January 2nd 1905.
1996: Howard Taubman (88) American music and theatre critic, born in Manhattan; he began working for The New York Times and joined the Music Department there in 1930 and became music editor in 1935. For about a year, from 1944-1945, he served in the Army and worked in Italy as a writer for Stars and Stripes. In the 1950s, he acted as the ghostwriter for opera singer Marian Anderson’s autobiography My Lord, What a Morning. In 1960, he took the post of Chief Drama Critic for the Times and from 1966 until he retired in 1972, Howard was a critic-at-large for the Times. He wrote several books including How to Bring up your Child to Enjoy Music, How to Build a Record Library, The Maestro: The Life of Arturo Toscanini, Music on My Beat: An Intimate Volume of Shop Talk, Music as a Profession, and Opera: Front and Back (?) b. July 4th 1907.
2002: David McWilliams (56) Northern Irish singer, songwriter, guitarist born in Belfast and moved to Ballymena at the age of 8. He began playing guitar and writing songs in his early teens and he started a local dance band, the Coral Showband. He is maybe best known for his 1967 song "Days of Pearly Spencer". Although he never had a 'hit' in England, he was very popular on continental Europe, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and also Japan. (heart attack) b. July 4th 1945.
2003: Ron Goodwin (77) British composer and conductor; he learned the piano from an early age and studied trumpet in London at the Guildhall School of Music. His first job was as copyist and arranger for publishing companies and bands, including work with the BBC. Through documentary music he was introduced to music for movies, and worked as a ghostwriter for Phil Green, Stanley Black, Geraldo and Peter Yorke among others. He later worked as a conductor in recording sessions for popular music artists, including Petula Clark. His many film scores include Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy, and 2 movies featuring Morecambe and Wise, as well as Norman Wisdom films. He composed the music for Lancelot and Guinevere, four Miss Marple movies, Force 10 From Navarone, The Spaceman and King ArthurWalt Disney's One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing, among others. Ron won three Ivor Novello Awards, including one for lifetime achievement in 1994. He was given honorary Freedom of the City of London (?) b. February 17th 1925.
2009: Deborah Riedel (50) Australian operatic soprano, generally regarded as one of the greatest voices ever produced in Australia. She sang with such companies as the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; the Rome Opera; the Vienna State Opera, and many others. She won the inaugural Givenchy French Operatic Award in 1994. Her American debut that year was as Amina in La sonnambula in San Diego. She also appeared with the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera. Her work in Australia included roles in The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Maria Stuarda, Norma, La traviata, Il trovatore, La bohème, Tosca, Faust, The Tales of Hoffmann, Turandot and others. Internationally she sang the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier and Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes. In 2004, she was Sieglinde in the first Wagner Ring Cycle ever staged in Australia, by the State Opera of South Australia (sadly lost to cancer) b. July 31st 1958.
2011: Elfa Secioria (51) Indonesian jazz pianist, born in Garut, West Java; he showed great keyboard talents from the age of 5, and was already performing before appreciative crowds with his own jazz trio by age 8. Before his 20th birthday this musical genius had completed courses in symphonic music, musical arrangement, music theory and musical history. His songs and his performances, time and again, won Indonesia top honors at the ASEAN Song Festival, Tokyo Song Festival, Golden Kite Festival-Kuala Lumpur, World Song Festival-Tokyo. His educational and musical directing abilities also earned his groups world titles in international choral and marching band competitions. Elfa's best-selling recording "From Indonesia with Love" remains the definitive compendium of modern arrangements of traditional national songs gathered from Sabang to Merauke (?) b. February 20th 1959.
2012: Dave Alexander aka Omar Sharriff/Omar Hakim Khayam (73) American blues singer and self taught pianist, born in Shreveport, Louisiana and grew up in Marshall, Texas. He joined the US Navy in 1955, then moved to Oakland, California in 1957, where he played with Big Mama Thornton, Jimmy Witherspoon, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and Albert Collins. In 1968, he recorded 'Oakland Blues', his first songs for the World Pacific label. He performed at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1970, and played at the San Francisco Blues Festival, many times from 1973 onward. His songs include "The Hoodoo Man (The Voodoo Woman & The Witch Doctor)", "Cold Feelin", "St. James Infirmary", "Blue Tumbleweed", "Sundown", "Sufferin' With The Lowdown Blues", "Jimmy, Is That You?", "So You Wanna Be A Man" "Strange Woman", and "The Dirt On The Ground" (Tragically, Dave died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Marshall, Texas) b. March 10th 1938.
2011: Derek 'Chow' Boyes (66) England organist and keyboardist born in Scarborough; he played with The Buzz, David Bowie and The Truth (Chow died unexpectedly) b. June 13th 1944.
2012: Alexis Weissenberg (82) Bulgarian classical pianist, born in Sofia; he gave his first public performance at the age of eight. After escaping to what was then Palestine in 1945, where he he was studying, he went to the Juilliard School in 1946 to study. In 1947 he made his New York debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra. His more notable interpretations were those of Liszt Sonata in B minor, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, Johannes Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1, as well as his Piano Concerto No. 3, also his readings of Schumann, and many works by Frédéric Chopin. Alexis was also a composer of much piano music and a musical, Nostalgie, that was premiered at the State Theatre of Darmstadt in October 1992 (?) b. July 26th 1929.

January 9.
1939: Johann Strauss III (72) Austrian conductor and violinist, whose father was Eduard Strauss, whose uncles were Johann Strauss II & Josef Strauss, and whose grandfather was Johann Strauss I. He was unofficially entrusted with the task of upholding his family's tradition after the disbandment of the Strauss Orchestra by his father in 1901. Despite his keen interest in composing, he was better remembered as a conductor. His only stage work, the three-act operetta Katze und Maus, composed in 1898, premiered in Vienna on 23 December 1898, at the Theatre an der Wien. He also conducted from the violin in the style of the Vorgeiger and of his family. In 1903, he elevated the Strauss family to a new age of development when the Deutsche Grammophon AG of Germany recorded his conducting of the Johann Strauss Orchestra on eight single-sided records of works by his family. Principally, he was the first conductor in the Strauss family to actively conduct works to be recorded by prominent recording companies (?) b. February 16th 1866.
1962: Leroy Shield (68)American film score and radio composer, born in Waseca, Minnesota; he started at RCA Victor's National Broadcasting Company, where he composed and conducted on-air musical pieces. Around 1922 he was a Victor house musician, conducting and providing piano accompaniment on many hundreds of popular and USF Victor recordings. He also worked as a part-time employee for the Hal Roach film studio, composing countless background themes that became associated with such Roach comedy series as Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang, ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd, and Charley Chase. One of his compositions for the 1930 Our Gang 1930 short Teacher's Pet, "Good Old Days," became the theme song of the series. His 1930 song "Beautiful Lady" was used as the theme song for the Pitts and Todd films () b. October 2nd 1893.
1970: Jani Christou (44) Greek composer, born in Heliopolis, Egypt, of Greek parents and educated at the English School in Alexandria. He took his first piano lessons from the important Greek pianist Gina Bachauer. His earlier composing works up to the Second Symphony (with chorus, 1958), draw on Stravinsky, Berg and Mahler. Then he developed a style of ostinato patterning aimed at activating primordial emotions, as in the oratorio Tongues of Fire, 1964. Later works, called Anaparastasis (‘Re-enactments’), move away from traditional notation to provide psychic rituals for the performers. (Tragically died in a car accident in Athens) b. January 9th 1926.
1981: Kazimierz Serocki (58) Polish composer and one of the founders of the Warsaw Autumn contemporary music festival. Between 1946-51 he performed many times as a concert pianist in Poland and abroad, but for the rest of his career, he was focused exclusively on composition. His output is concentrated in two main spheres: orchestral music and vocal-instrumental pieces to Polish texts selected with fine discrimination. He was vice-president of the central administration of the Polish Composers' Union from 1954-55. He received a number of Polish and foreign awards, including several State Prizes, among them one in 1952 for his music to the film Young Chopin. He also received a prize at the UNESCO competition in 1959, for the Sinfonietta and the award of the Minister of Culture and Fine Arts in 1963 for the whole of his work (?) b. March 3rd 1922.
1982: Vido Musso (69) Italian-born jazz tenor saxophonist, clarinetist and bandleader born in Carini, Sicily, best-known for his many contributions to the big bands of Gene Krupa, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton and Woody Herman. His family moved to the United States in 1920. He began on clarinet before switching to tenor sax. He is most associated with Stan Kenton who he first worked with in 1930. He reached his peak of notoriety with Kenton from 1945 to 1947. Perhaps his most notable work with the Kenton orchestra was his "Come Back to Sorrento". (Vido died in Rancho Mirage, California) b. January 7th 1913.
1995: Peter Cook (57) English comedian, writer, and satirist, who is widely regarded as the leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s. There is a cult following among some Cook fans for a little-remembered project that he was involved with in the 1970s. This was his participation – playing multiple roles – on the 1977 concept album Consequences, written and produced by former 10cc members Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. A mixture of spoken-word comedy and progressive rock music with an environmental subtext, Consequences started out as a single that Godley and Creme planned to make to demonstrate their new invention, an electric guitar effect called The Gizmo. The project gradually grew into a triple LP boxed set. The comedy sections of the album were originally intended to be performed by an all-star cast including Spike Milligan and Peter Ustinov, but after meeting Peter Cook, Godley and Creme realised that Peter could perform most of the parts himself (internal haemorrhaging) b. November 17th 1937.
2009: Dave Dee/David Harman (65) British singer with Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich; In his early days he was a policeman, as such he was at the scene of the automobile accident that took the life of American rocker Eddie Cochran and injured Gene Vincent in April 1960. Dave had taken Cochran's guitar from the accident and held it until it could be returned to his family. He formed a group in 1961 called Dave Dee And The Bostons. They soon changed their name to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich — an amalgam of their nicknames. They had top 10 UK hits with "Hideaway", "Hold Tight", "Bend It", "Save Me", "Touch Me, Touch Me!", "Okay" and "Zabadak".and a No.1 hit "The Legend of Xanadu". which became a worldwide hit. As well as from performing in Britain, they also played in Hamburg at Star-Club and Top Ten Club, and in Cologne at Storyville. In September, 1969, he left the group for a solo career.(prostate cancer) b. December 17th 1943.
2009: Jon Hager (67) American country musician, one half of The Hager Twins, also known as the Hager Brothers, with his identical twin Jim, they were a duo of American country music singers and comedians who first gained fame on the TV series Hee Haw. The twins first sang in the church choir. then as s teenagers, they sang on a Saturday morning WGN-TV series. Both brothers served in the United States Army and performed at Officers' Clubs and NCO Clubs in the United States and Europe. After leaving the military, the Hager brothers moved to California and performed at the Ledbetter's Night Club in Los Angeles with The Carpenters, The New Christy Minstrels, John Denver, Steve Martin and Kenny Rogers. They also worked at Disneyland, which is where Buck Owens saw them perform and signed them to contracts. In addition to Owens, the brothers served as opening acts for Tex Ritter, Wynn Stewart, Billie Jo Spears and Lefty Frizzell. (heart attack) b. August 30th 1941.
2011: Debbie Friedman (58) American songwriter, composer and singer of songs with Jewish religious content. Born in Utica, New York but moved with her family to Minnesota at age 5, she is best known for her musical version of “Mi Sheberach”, the prayer for healing, which is used by hundreds of congregations across America. Between 1971 and 2011 she recorded more than 19 albums, useing English and Hebrew lyrics and wrote for all ages. Some of her other songs include "The Aleph Bet Song", "Not By Might", For Hanukkah, "Miriam's Song", for Passover, and "I am a Latke", also for Hanukkah. In 2004, A Journey of Spirit, a documentary film about Friedman, was produced by Ann Coppel. In 2007, Friedman accepted an appointment to the faculty of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's School of Sacred Music in New York where she instructed both rabbinic and cantorial students (a sufferer of Multiple Sclerosis, Debbie sadly died from pneumonia) b. 1952.
2012: Bridie Gallagher (87) Irish singer, born in Creeslough, came to fame in 1956 with her recording of A Mother's Love's A Blessing and achieved international acclaim with her legendary rendition of The Boys From County Armagh. During her career, which spans over six decades, she has appeared in many leading venues across the globe, making songs such as 'The Homes of Donegal' famous. Bridie also holds the record for the largest number of people in attendance in the Albert Hall London, a record that was never equalled as it went on to be come an all seater venue. Bridie played in many other of the world's best known theatre's including Sydney Opera House and Carnegie Hall in New York. Bridie sang mainly ballads or as they later became known as Country and Irish. She had her own Radio Show on RTÉ, as well as many appearances on television RTÉ, BBC, UTV, and coast to coast in the United States (?) b. September 7th 1924.
2012: Ernie Carson (74) American Dixieland jazz cornetist, pianist, and singer. He was born in Portland, Oregon and played with the Castle Jazz Band in the mid-50s prior to a stint in the U.S. Marines. Following this he worked in L.A. with Dave Wierbach, Jig Adams, Ray Bauduc, Pat Yankee, and Turk Murphy, and led several of his own groups from the 70s, including the Capital City Jazz Band and a new version of the Castle Jazz Band. After more than twenty years of playing based in Atlanta, he moved back to Oregon in 1995 (?) b. December 4th 1937.

January 10.
1941: Frank Bridge (61) English composer; born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903. He played the viola in a number of string quartets, most notably the English String Quartet, and conducted, sometimes deputising for Henry Wood, before devoting himself to composition, receiving the patronage of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. He privately tutored a number of pupils, most famously Benjamin Britten, who later championed his teacher's music and paid homage to him in the Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge-1937, based on a theme from the second of Frank's Three Idylls for String Quartet-1906. One of his most famous works is a piece for violin called Moto perpetuo, written 1900, revised 1911. Other frequently performed works are the Adagio in E for organ, Rosemary for piano, and the masterful Cello Sonata in D minor 1913–17. The Scherzetto for cello and piano was rediscovered in the library of London's Royal College of Music by the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber (He died in Eastbourne) b. February 26th 1879.
1969: John Brownlee (69) Australian operatic baritone, born in Geelong. He became a junior naval cadet in the Royal Australian Navy, serving during World War I. After which he entered a singing contest in Ballarat, winning first prize. Several singing engagements followed. One of these, a performance of Messiah, was attended by Nellie Melba, who convinced him to go to Paris for serious study with Dinh Gilly. His debut took place at Covent Garden on 8th June 1926, in the performance of La bohème in which Melba made her farewell appearance. That autumn he was engaged by the Paris Opera, the first time a British subject had been made a permanent member of that company; his Paris debut was in Thaïs in 1927. On 17 February 1937, he appeared for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera. The opera was Rigoletto. Besides making important appearances elsewhere, Brownlee remained a regular at Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, and the Met, making his last performance there in March 1957. His greatest successes were in the Mozart repertory, particularly at the Glyndebourne Festival. An Australian scholarship in his name was first awarded after his death in 1969 (?) b. January 7th 1900
1972: Al Goodman (81) Russian born conductor, songwriter, stage composer, musical director, arranger, and pianist. He was first introduced to musical comedy by the late Earl Carroll who persuaded him to collaborate in producing his musical, So Long Letty. This success, followed by the hit, “Sinbad”, which he produced with Al Jolson, led to positions as orchestra conductor for many Broadway productions including the highly successful Flyin’ High, The Student Prince, and Blossom Time. In all, during this period of his career, he directed over 150 first-night performances and became one of the Great White Way's most popular conductors. He also wrote some memorable songs such as "When hearts Are Young", "Call Of Love" and "Twlilight". (?) b. August 12th 1890.
1976: Howlin' Wolf/Chester Arthur Burnett (65) American blues guitarist, singer, and harmonica player, born in White Station, Mississippi; he was an experimental bluesman who formulated a wide range of moods and possibilities for his songs. His raw, rasping, fierce voice, combined with his imposing physical presence and wild stage abandon, made him unforgettable. His influence stretched far beyond the realm of the blues, and many songs popularized by him such as "Smokestack Lightnin'," "Back Door Man" and "Spoonful", have become standards of blues and blues rock. He is portrayed by Eamonn Walker in the 2008 motion picture Cadillac Records. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed 1956 Smokestack Lightning, 1960 Spoonful and 1962's The Red Rooster by Howlin' Wolf of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll and his Smokestack Lightning was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance." (died from complications arising from kidney disease) b. June 10th 1910.
1978: Don Gillis (65) American composer, conductor and teacher born in Cameron, Missouri; the composition which has gained him most recognition is his orchestral Symphony No. 5½, A Symphony for Fun. His music drew upon popular material, particularly emphasizing jazz, which he considered a revitalizing element in American music. He became production director for the radio station WBAP, later moving to NBC where he became producer for the NBC Symphony Orchestra during the tenure of its conductor Arturo Toscanini. He held several teaching posts at academic institutions in the southern United States during his career, and also helped to found the Symphony of the Air orchestra. (?) b. June 17th 1912.
1985: Anton Karas (79) Austrian zither player, born in Vienna, he is best known for his soundtrack to Carol Reed's The Third Man. By the end of 1949, a half million copies of "The Harry Lime Theme" had been sold, an unprecedented amount for the time. The success of the score also caused a surge in zither sales. Anton went on his first world tour in 1950. He went on tour again in 1951, travelling to Montreal and Las Vegas, followed by a number of other tours, including Japan in 1962, 1969 and 1972, where he performed for emperor Hirohito. In 1954, he opened his own Heuriger which was fashionable among Hollywood celebrities like Orson Welles, Gina Lollobrigida, Curd Jürgens, Hans Moser, Paul Hörbiger, Marika Röck or Johannes Heesters. (?) b. July 7th 1906.
1987: Marion Hutton/Marion Thornburg (67) American singer and actress; elder sister of actress Betty Hutton. Both sisters sang with the Vincent Lopez Orchestra. She was discovered by Glenn Miller and was invited to join the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1938. She remained with Miller on and off until the orchestra disbanded in 1942. After Glenn Miller joined the Army in 1942, she went with fellow Miller alumni Tex Beneke and the Modernaires on a theatre tour. The next important event in her entertainment career was a role in In Society with Abbott and Costello in the mid-1940s. Marion appeared with the Desi Arnaz orchestra in October 1947 at the Radio City Theatre in Minneapolis. As the 1940s wound down, so did Marion's career. Her last film role was in 1949, acting in the Marx Brothers' Love Happy (sadly lost her battle with cancer) b. March 10th 1919.
1991: Robert 'Bob' Wallis (56) English jazz trumpeter born in Bridlington, East Yorkshire; as a youth he joined the Salvation Army, before discovering jazz. He played with a few bands including Acker Bilk's band, before he joined up with Hugh Rainey's All Stars at the time Ginger Baker was their drummer. Shortly afterwards the band changed its name to The Storyville Jazzmen and was fronted by Bob. In 1963, after several hits, being television regulars, and having a summer season at the London Palladium, Bob and his band broke up. He played with one or two other bands before moving to the Continent eventually settling in Zurich with a residency at the Casa Bar. He spent most of his remaining years, in Europe, still playing with versions of the Storyville Jazzmen (sadly died after a long battle with illness) b. June 3rd 1934.
1997: Kenneth Pickett (54) British singer and founder member of "The Creation", an English freakbeat band, formed in 1966. The most popular of 11 Creation singles was "Painter Man", which made the Top 40 in the UK charts in late 1966, and No.8 in the German chart in April '67. Their style was originally loud pop art, but developed into a more typically mid 60s psychedelic rock sound, which has been retroactively described as freakbeat. He had previously been in The Mark Four with John Dalton, who left the band to join The Kinks. The band split in '67, but re-formed in the mid '80s, releasing a single and recording an album in a more contemporary rock style. The reformed band continued to tour, with various line-up changes, capitalising on their cult notoriety with the underground mod and garage rock audiences (heart attack) b. September 3rd 1942.
2001: Bryan Gregory (46) American guitarist, songwriter and founder member with the punk rock band, The Cramps. He was known for his oozing guitar sound, wild stage antics, long hair with a skunk stripe over his eye, and acne scarred face. He appeared on The Cramps first two albums "Gravest Hits" and "Songs The Lord Taught Us". He went on to play in Beast from 1980-1984, The Dials from 1992-1995 and also played in a band called Shiver. (sadly died of a heart attack) b. February 20th 1954.
2005: Margherita Carosio (96) Italian operatic soprano born in Genoa was one of the leading sopranos at La Scala in Milan for over 20 years. In 1924, still only 16, she made her operatic debut in the taxing role of Lucia di Lammermoor at Novi Ligure and in 1928, she sang Musetta and Feodor to Chaliapin's Boris Godunov at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, but did not return to London until after the second world war. Her expressive and expertly produced voice is preserved in many Parlophone and Ultraphon recordings made before World War II, as well as a memorable series made for HMV in London, beginning in 1946. She was still singing leading roles in her early sixties and was considered one of the leading bel canto sopranos of her day (?) b. June 7th 1908.
2008: Dave Day/Dave Havlicek (66) American banjoist, rhythm guitarist with garage rock band The Monks, a pre-punk band, made up of former American GI's, primarily active in Germany in the mid to late 60s. They reunited in 1999 and have continued to play concerts, although no new studio recordings have been made. The Monks stood out from the music of the time, and have developed a cult following amongst many musicians and music fans. (died four days after suffering a heart attack) b.1941
2008: Rod Allen/Rodney Bainbridge (63) British lead singer and bassist with The Fortunes; he came to international acclaim in 1965, when "You've Got Your Troubles" broke into the American and British Top Ten charts. An archetypal English beat group, originally a trio called The Cliftones, they signed to Decca in the UK in 1963. Their first single as The Fortunes, "Summertime, Summertime," was oddly credited to both groups. Their follow-up in 1964, "Caroline", was used as the signature tune for the influential pirate radio station, Radio Caroline. In 1966, their manager Reginald Calvert was shot dead in a dispute over pirate radio stations, after which they had several more hit singles in UK and USA. Rod fronted an ever changing version of The Fortunes from 1963 up to his death (liver cancer) b. March 31st 1944.
2009: Ana Isabel "Anabel" Ramirez Bosch (32) Filipino singer who fronted several Filipino rock bands. She started singing while at high school, when she became a regular at Club Dredd in Quezon City. She soon became a lead singer for Tropical Depression, a popular Filipino rock band in the late 1990s. She also sang for the rock bands Elektrikoolaid, Spy and Analog (She was stricken with a brain aneurysm on New Year's Day 2009, and lapsed into unconsciousness) b. January 25th 1976
2010: Mano Solo/Emmanuel Cabut (46) French singer born in Châlons-sur-Marne; at 17 he co-founded and played guitar in punk rock group, les Chihuahuas, before launching his solo career and singing his own compositions in the early nineties. His first album, La Marmaille Nue/"The Naked Children", was released in 1993 and sold 100,000 copies in the first year. 1995 saw his 2nd album, Les Années Sombres/"The Dark Years" which also went gold in its first months. He went on to record 8 more albums, the last being Rentrer au port in 2009. Mano also sang regularly at the Tourtour theatre in Paris, alongside singers Marousse and P'tit Louis (aneurysm rupture) b. April 24th 1963.
2010: Jayne Walton Rosen/Dorothy Jayne Flanagan (92) American singer born in San Antonio; from an early age she performed as a singer after graduating from Brackenridge High School. She sang professionally around the country and eventually joined the Lawrence Welk Orchestra performing ballads throughout the Midwest and in New York. During The Lawrence Welk Show's first year on the air, the Welk hour instituted several regular features. To make Welk's "Champagne Music" tagline visual, the production crew made a "bubble machine" that spouted streams of large bubbles across the bandstand. Whenever the orchestra played a polka or waltz, Welk himself would dance with the band's female vocalist, the "Champagne Lady", Jayne was his first "Champagne Lady" to appear on the televised show. After 6 years, she left the band to pursude a solo career (?) b. August 28th 1917.
2011: Margaret Whiting (86) American pop singer born in Detroit; at the age of only seven she sang for singer-lyricist Johnny Mercer, with whom her father had collaborated on some popular songs. In '42, Mercer started Capitol Records and signed Margaret, one of Capitol's first recording contracts. Her first recordings were as featured singer with various orchestras, such as "That Old Black Magic", with Freddie Slack and His Orchestra in 1942, "Moonlight in Vermont", with Billy Butterfield's Orchestra in 1943 and "It Might as Well Be Spring" with Paul Weston's Orchestra in 1945. That same year she debuted under her own name with "All Through the Day" followed by "In Love In Vain", "Guilty", "Oh, But I Do", "A Tree in the Meadow", No.1 hit "Slippin Around" and others. She had a No.1 hit single again in 1966, with "The Wheel of Hurt" and carried on recording until the early 1970's (?) b. July 22nd 1924.
2011: Boško Petrovic (75) Croatian vibraphonist, music producer and The founder of the popular jazz band 'Zagreb Jazz Quartet', which was performed within Miljenko Prohaska, Krešimi Remeta, D. and Sylvia Kajfeš Glojnaric, and its value confirmed in Europe. He is the author of many radio and television show, the organizer of numerous music festivals, while at the same time acting as a producer and educator. During his musical career, has won numerous awards and is also a multiple winner of the prestigious Croatian discography awards' Porin'. His discography includes dozens of albums, which include his first recordings with Bosko Petrovic Quartet and members of the Quincy Jones Orchestra, and co-operation with great jazz musicians such as Clark Terry, Ernie Willkins and Art Farmer, Joe Pass, Buck Clayton, Joe Turner, Buddy de Franco, Kenny Drew, NHO Pedersen, and Alvin Queen. He recorded with numerous Zagreb Soloists Quartet Boilers, Eastern European and Californian jazz soloists, orchestras and Gerry Mulligan Oliver Nelson, pianist and Davor Kajfes Neven Franges, while at the same time popularizing ethnic repertoire. As a guest performance at the world's most prestigious jazz festivals such as Montreux , Monterey, Detroit, and Berlin. Bosko is a member of the International Biografical Association and the International Who is Who in Music (?) b. February 18th 1935.
2011: María Elena Walsh (80) Argentine pianist, poet, composer, and writer; at 15 years old she had some of her poems published in the "El Hogar" magazine and La Nación newspaper. In 1947, before graduating from art school, she published her first book, “Otoño Imperdonable,” a selection of poems which received recognition from other Latin American writers. Maria graduated in 1948, traveled to North America and Europe, then moved to Paris for four years in the early 1950s. While there, she performed in concerts featuring Argentine folklore. Returning to Argentina, she wrote numerous TV scripts, plays, poems, books and songs. Her work has often contained an underlying political message, as in the song "El País del Nomeacuerdo" / "The Country of Idontremember", which was later used as the theme song for The Official Story, the winner of the 1985 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (?) b. February 1st 1930.

January 11.
1947: Eva Tanguay (67) Canadian-born singer and entertainer who billed herself as "the girl who made vaudeville famous", making her first appearance on stage at the age of eight. With her parents' assistance, she pursued a show business career, working her way through a variety of amateur contests that eventually landed her a spot with a comedy troupe before making her vaudeville debut in New York City in 1904. She went on to have a long-lasting vaudeville career and eventually commanded one of the highest salaries of any performer of the day earning as much as $3,500 a week at the height of her fame around 1910. Eva only made one recording "I Don't Care" in 1922 for Nordskog Records. In addition to her singing career, she also starred in two film comedies that, despite the limitations of silent film, used the screen to capture her lusty stage vitality to its fullest. The first, titled Energetic Eva was made in 1916 and the following year she starred opposite Tom Moore in The Wild Girl. Eva was said to have lost more than $2 million in the Wall Street crash of 1929 and in the 1930s, she retired from show business. Cataracts caused her to lose her sight, but Sophie Tucker, a friend from vaudeville days, paid for the operation that restored her vision. In 1953 Mitzi Gaynor portrayed Eva in a fictionalized version of her life in the Hollywood motion picture, The I Don't Care Girl (?) b. August 1st 1879.
1952: Aureliano Pertile (67) Italian tenor singer; considered to have been one of the most exciting Italian operatic artists of the inter-war period, and one of the most important tenors of the 20th century.After singing in regional Italy and South America, he first sang at the premier Italian opera house, La Scala, Milan, in 1916. He then participated in Met performances of Louise in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. Thereafter he returned to Italy, where he established himself as the leading tenor at La Scala from 1927 to 1937, and becoming a favorite of the conducter Arturo Toscanini. He also sang at the Royal Opera House in London from 1927 to 1931, and at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 1923-29. His final stage appearances were in 1946, in Pagliacci. He then taught at the Milan Conservatory until his death (He died in Milan) b. November 9th 1885.
1954: Oscar Nathan Straus (83) Austrian Viennese composer of operettas and film scores and songs. He also wrote about 500 cabaret songs, chamber music, and orchestral and choral works. In 1939, following the Nazi Anschluss, he fled to Paris, where he received the honour of a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, and then to Hollywood. After the war, he returned to Europe, and settled at Bad Ischl. Oscar's best-known works are Ein Walzertraum/A Waltz Dream, and Der tapfere Soldat/The Chocolate Soldier. The waltz arrangement from the former is probably his most enduring orchestral work (?) March 6th 1870.
1957: Rose Sutro (86) American pianist born in Baltimore, she was one half of a piano duo with her sister Ottilie Sutro. They both studied in Berlin at the Royal Hochschule für Musik under Karl Heinrich Barth, and made their debut in London in July 1894. Their American debut was with the Seidl Society in Boston on November 13th of the same year, in a Bach concerto. They toured in the United States and Europe (?) b. September 15th 1870.
1958: Alec Rowley (65) English composer and writer on music. He studied at London's Royal Academy of Music with Frederick Corder, and later taught at Trinity College in the same city. He frequently performed and broadcast piano duets with Edgar Moy, and was widely known for his compositions for amateur forces. His seven choral songs, A Sailors Garland, are full of good music, and he wrote many pieces for solo piano and solo organ. He was for many years the organist of St Alban's Church, Teddington and was a contributor to 'The Rotunda', the house magazine of Henry Willis & Sons Ltd. (?) b. March 13th 1892.
1961: Elena Gerhardt (77) German mezzo-soprano singer born in Connewitz. She was associated with the singing of German classical lieder, of which she was considered one of the great interpreters. She left Germany to live in London in 1934. Elena graced many of the major opera houses in Europe and America (?) b. November 11th 1883.
1968: Rezso Seress (78) Hungarian singer, pianist, songwriter; being Jewish, he was taken to a labour camp by the Nazis during WW2. He survived the camp and after spells of employment in the theatre and the circus, where he was a trapeze artist, he concentrated on songwriting and singing after an injury. His most famous composition was "Szomorú Vasárnap" (Gloomy Sunday) written in 1933, which gained infamy as it became associated with a spate of suicides. The first suicide was that of Joseph Keller, a cobbler, in Budapest in February 1936. His suicide note contained the words of Gloomy Sunday. Following this event, 17 additional people took their lives in a way related to the song. Over 100 others are rumoured to have done the same worldwide. The song was banned in many places and has been banned from BBC radio until recently when it was lifted. (He survived the Nazi forced labour in the Ukraine, although beaten heavily many times, the composer survived the Holocaust, but sadly his mother didn't. Rezso tragically committed suicide by jumping out of a window) b. November 3rd 1889.
1987: Albert Ferber (75) Swiss-English pianist Although best known as a concert pianist and recording artist, he had a brief association with the theatre and the cinema, conducting theatre orchestras during the 1940s for productions such as The Beggar's Opera. A little later he appeared as pianist in the Brian Hurst film The Mark of Cain 1947, and composed scores for two films, The Hangman Waits in 1947 and Death in the Hand in 1948, both directed by the Australian, Albert Barr-Smith. After this his performing activities prevented further composition until near the end of his life when he wrote a set of six songs to texts by Paul Verlaine. As a pianist for over 4 decades he worked with the likes of Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Josef Krips and the Hallé Orchestra, and further work with Sir Adrian Boult, Sergiu Celibidache, Jascha Horenstein and Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt. His career took him to most parts of the world, although he had a special affinity with South American countries. In the UK he made regular recital appearances in London at the Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls and continued to broadcast for the BBC until illness ended his performing career (?) b. March 29th 1911.
1995: Josef Gingold (85) Russian-American violinist and teacher, born in Brest-Litovsk, and emigrated to NewYork City, in 1920, where he became one of the most influential violin teachers in the US. He gave the first performance of Ysaÿe's 3rd Sonata for Solo Violin. In 1937, he won a spot in the NBC Symphony Orchestra, with Arturo Toscanini as its conductor; he then served as the concertmaster and occasional soloist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and later was the Cleveland Orchestra's concertmaster. His recording of Fritz Kreisler's works was nominated for a Grammy Award. Some of the numerous honors he received during his lifetime include the American String Teachers Association Teacher of the Year; the Chamber Music America National Service Award; the Fredrick Bachman Lieber Award for Distinguished Teaching at Indiana University; Baylor University's Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teachers; and the American Symphony Orchestra League's Golden Baton Award. Josef also taught at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music for more than thirty years, until his death and was a founder of the quadrennial Indianapolis Violin Competition (?) b. October 28th 1909.
1996: Ike Isaacs (73) Burmese-British jazz guitarist born in Rangoon, Burma, best known for his work with Stephane Grappelli. He started playing professionally while he was a chemistry student at university. In 1946 he moved to England, where he freelanced for many years; he played in the BBC Show Band, as well as playing with George Chisholm and Barney Kessel. In the 1960s and 1970s he played with Stephane Grappelli extensively. He also played with Digby Fairweather, Len Skeat, and Denny Wright in the group Velvet in the 1970s, before moving to to Australia in the 1980s, where he taught at the Sydney Guitar School (?) b. December 1st 1919.
1998: Klaus Tennstedt (71) German musician and conductor from Merseburg. He studied violin and piano at the Leipzig Conservatory. He became concertmaster of the orchestra at the Halle Municipal Theatre in 1948. However, a finger injury stopped his career as a violinist, and afterwards he worked as a coach to singers at the same theatre. He then directed his talents toward conducting. In 1958, he became music director of the Dresden Opera, and in 1962, music director of the Schwerin State Orchestra and Theatre. He worked at many of the major orchestras around the world including the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra (?) b. June 6th 1926.
1999: Barry Pritchard (55) English vocalist, guitarist and founder member of the beat harmony group The Fortunes, formed in Birmingham in 1963. They first came to prominence and international acclaim in 1965, when "You've Got Your Troubles" broke into the US and UK Top 10s. Afterwards they did a succession of hits including "Here It Comes Again" and "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again"; continuing into the 1970s with more globally successful releases such as "Storm in a Teacup" and "Freedom Come, Freedom Go" (sadly Barry died from a heart attack) b. April 3rd 1944.
1999: Fabrizio de André (58) Italian singer-songwriter born in Genoa, he started playing the violin first, then the guitar, and joined a number of local jazz bands. In 1961 Fabrizio recorded his first two songs, "Nuvole barocche"/"Baroque Clouds" and "E fu la notte"/"And There Was Night". In the following years he wrote a number of songs which soon becoming classic hits: "La guerra di Piero" /"Peter's War", "La ballata dell'eroe"/"The Hero's Ballad", "Il testamento di Tito"/"Titus's Will", "La Ballata del Michè"/"Mike's Ballad", "Via del Campo"/"Field Street", "La canzone dell'amore perduto"/ "Song for the Lost Love", "La città vecchia"/"Old Downtown", and "Carlo Martello ritorna dalla battaglia di Poitiers"/"Charles Martel on His Way Back from Poitiers" among others and went on over to release 26 albums his career (sadly died from lung cancer) b. February 18th 1940.
2003: Mickey Finn (55) British percussionist and sideman to Marc Bolan in his band Tyrannosaurus Rex, and later, the 1970s glam rock group, T.Rex. He can be heard on the album, "A Beard of Stars" released in March 1970. After Bolan and T.Rex's demise, he played sessions for The Blow Monkeys and The Soup Dragons. During the late 80s and early 90s, he made a few guest appearances with the London rock band, Checkpoint Charlie, fronted by Mick Lexington. He returned to the mainstream music scene in 1997, fronting a new, version of T. Rex... Mickey Finn's T. Rex, playing old T. Rex songs (alcohol related kidney and liver problems) b. June 3rd 1947.
2002: Gene Dinwiddie (65) American saxophone player; later nicknamed "Brother", he born in Louisville and played with various bands and jammed with the likes of Roscoe Mitchell and Amina Claudine Myers, for over a decade and a half before he got a big break in 1967. This happened when Paul Butterfield inspired by his mentor Junior Parker, formed a "big band". Soon after he asked Gene, by then a highly respected blues and jazz man, to arranged the brass section to join the band. This included Brother Gene himself, Trevor Lawrence, David Sanborn, Steve Madeo, they made a huge impact on the band, and brought them media attention. Gene appeared at both legendary festivals, the '67 Monterey Pop Festival, and at Woodstock in 1969, where his outstanding performance in "Love March" helped make it an instant hit... >>> READ MORE <<< (?) b. September 19th 1936
2003: Bill Russo (74) American trombone player, teacher and considered by many to be one of the greatest jazz composer and arranger. Born in Chicago, he played trombone in dance and jazz bands, and began writing and arranging while still in his early teens. In 1947 he formed his own rehearsal band while a student, under the name of Experiment in Jazz. In the '50s he wrote ground breaking orchestral scores for the Stan Kenton Orchestra, one of the more famous works he wrote for the Kenton Orchestra is Halls Of Brass. In the early 1960s Bill moved to England, where he founded the London Jazz Orchestra, and was a contributor to the Third Stream movement that tried to close the gap between jazz and classical music. He returned to the US in 1965, where he founded Columbia College's music department, he started the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, which was dedicated to preserving and expanding jazz and was the Director of Orchestral Studies at Scuola Europea d’Orchestra Jazz in Palermo, Italy. He also composed music, including operas, symphonies, choral works, as well as a rock cantata "The Civil War". In his long career Bill composed more than 200 pieces for jazz orchestra, and there were more than 30 recordings of his work, including work with Duke Ellington, Leonard Bernstein, Cannonball Adderley, Yehudi Menuhin, Dizzy Gillespie, Seiji Ozawa, Billie Holiday, and others. In addition to playing, composing, arranging, conducting and teaching, he also wrote and/or co-wrote 3 books on music: Composing for the Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Composition and Orchestration, and Composing Music: A New Approach. In 1990, Bill received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award for his amazing contribution to music (?) b. June 25th 1928.
2004: Max Duane Barnes (67) American counrty music singer with the Golden Rockets, songwriter; his songs have been recorded by George Jones, Vince Gill, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Vern Gosdin, the Kendalls, Randy Travis, Pam Tillis, Keith Whitley, Waylon Jennings, John Anderson and Eddy Raven, among others. Max was a two-time winner of the Country Music Association's prestigious Song of the Year prize: in 1998 for "Chiseled In Stone," co-written with Gosdin, and in 1992 for "Look At Us," co-written with Gill. He was inducted to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992 and American Old Time Country Music Hall Of Fame along with his sister Ruthie Barnes Steele in 2006. He was also a BMI Award-winning songwriter and a writing partner of Harlan Howard, Merle Haggard, Vince Gill, his son Max T. Barnes, and sister Ruthie (pneumonia) b. July 24th 1936.
2005: Jimmy Griffin (61) American singer, guitarist, and award winning songwriter who grew up in Memphis, but was born in Cincinnati. In the 1960s, Jimmy teamed with songwriter Michael Z. Gordon to write songs for such diverse singers as Ed Ames, Gary Lewis, Bobby Vee, Brian Hyland, Leslie Gore, The Standells, Sandy Nelson and Cher. The pair won a BMI award for 'Apologize'. In 1968, he teamed with David Gates and Robb Royer to form the band Bread. They had No.1 Hot 100 hit, with the song "Make It With You". Other hits by Bread included "Everything I Own", "Baby I'm-a Want You", and "If". Although Jimmy was a significant contributor to Bread's albums as a writer and singer, every one of the group's 13 songs that made the Billboard Hot 100 chart was written and sung by Gates, a situation that created huge friction between the two. After the release of Guitar Man in '72, Bread went on hiatus, they reformed in '76 for one final album, Lost Without Your Love. In 1970, Griffin and Robb Royer, under the pseudonyms Arthur James and Robb Wilson, wrote the lyrics for Fred Karlin's music for the song "For All We Know," featured in the film Lovers and Other Strangers. It won the Academy Award for Best Song. In 1977, he released a third solo album, James Griffin, after which in 1982 he teamed with Terry Sylvester on the album Griffin & Sylvester in 1982 and was a member of Black Tie which released When The Night Falls in 1985. Jimmy then joined The Remingtons with Richard Mainegra and Rick Yancey. They released their first single in 1991, followed by the albums Blue Frontier and Aim for the Heart. Their single, "A Long Time Ago" went top-10 on Billboard's country chart in 1992. Jimmy and Gates put aside their past differences for a Bread reunion tour in 1996–1997 with Botts and Knechtel. In early 2004, Griffin recorded a duet with Holly Cieri of his Oscar winning song 'For All We Know' (sadly he lost his fight with cancer) b. August 10th 1943.
2005: Spencer Dryden (67) Amercan drummer and half brother to Charlie Chaplin. He was born in New York City and moved to LA as an infant. In mid 1966 Spencer was recruited to replace Skip Spence as the drummer in leading San Francisco psychedelic band Jefferson Airplane, staying with the band until 1970. He then joined up with The New Riders of the Purple Sage, performing and recording with them from late 1970 until 1977, at which point he became the manager of the band. After leaving the New Riders, he went on to play a lengthy stint with The Dinosaurs and Barry Melton's band before retiring from drumming in 1995. In 1996, Spencer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the rest of Jefferson Airplane.(He died from colon cancer, sadly in relative obscurity) b. April 7th 1938.
2005: Miriam Beatrice Hyde AO, OBE (91) Australian composer, pianist, poet and educator. She composed over 150 works for piano, and other instrumental and orchestral works and performed as a concert pianist with eminent conductors including Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir Bernard Heinze and Geoffrey Simon. One of her best known pieces is the piano solo Valley of Rocks. In 1981 she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and in 1991 was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). She was awarded an honorary doctorate by Macquarie University in 1993, and in 2004 received an award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music at the Australian Performing Rights Association and Australian Music Centre Classical Music Awards. She was appointed Patron of the Music Teachers' Association of South Australia and established the Miriam Hyde Award for the Association. Her 90th birthday was celebrated with concerts and broadcasts throughout Australia. (?) b. January 15th 1913.
2007: Puchi Balseiro (81) Puerto Rican singer, guitarist, composer, songwriter, radio & television personality born in Santurce, San Juan. Her best known compositions were: "En La Soledad"/In Solitude and "Tu y mi Canción"/You and my Song. "En la Soledad", was a hit song in the 1970s for Tito Rodríguez, although there were previous versions sung by Chucho Avellanet, Julio Angel, and Flor de Loto, among others. She was also a producer, script writer and host of various radio & television shows, hosting her own television show, broadcasted by WIPR-TV, titled: Usted y mi Mundo/You and My World. Among many other things she also originated, produced, and directed the: "Festivales del Filin"/The Feeling Festivals (?) b. November 1st 1926.
2009: Andy DeMize/ Andrew Martinez (25) American drummer from Hacienda Heights, California was influenced by drummers Wade Youman and John Bonham. Andy joined the pop punk group Up Syndrome in October 2001, before he and Tony "Slash" Red-Horse formed The Rocketz in December 2003. In May 2006, he replaced James Meza as the drummer for the Nekromantix. He made his album debut with the group on Life Is a Grave & I Dig It! (killed in a car accident while travelling south on Route 57 outside of Fullerton, California at roughly 85 miles per hour when the driver, Osvaldo Orozco lost control) b. March 11th 1983.
2010: George Garanian (75) Russian jazz saxophonist and bandleader, born in Moscow. George was one of the first Russian musicians who attracted attention of Western world as part of the jazz from the USSR. He belonged to the first generation of Russian jazzmen who started to perform after World War II. As a musician, alto saxophonist, conductor and composer he was the leader of country's best big bands: Melodia through 1970s and 1980s; and Moscow Big Band from 1992 to 1995. He also led the Municipal Big Band in the Southern Russian city of Krasnodar. (sadly died from a cardiac arrest) b. August 15th 1934.
2010: Mick Green (65) British rock and roll guitarist born in in Matlock, Derbyshire. He began his career playing with Johnny Kidd & The Pirates in the early 1960s, then joined Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas in 1964. His ability to play lead and rhythm guitar simultaneously influenced a number of British guitarists to follow, including Pete Townshend and Wilko Johnson, the original guitarist for Dr. Feelgood. Mick's song "Oyeh!" was on Dr. Feelgood's debut album, Down by the Jetty; and a song he co-wrote, "Going Back Home" appeared on Dr. Feelgood's 1975 Malpractice and the live album, Stupidity in 1976. Mick reformed The Pirates in the mid 1970s as well as being a member of the band, Shanghai, who released two albums, in 1974 and 1976, and supported Status Quo on their Blue for You tour. In the 1980s and 1990s Mick played with amongst others, Bryan Ferry, Van Morrison and Paul McCartney, as well as playing with The Pirates with whom he continued to gig well into the 2000s. In 2008, Green performed regularly with the Van Morrison band, and played guitar on five of the tracks on Van Morrison's 2008 album, Keep It Simple. (sadly Mick died from heart failure) b. February 22nd 1944.
2011: John Modinos (84) Cypriot opera baritone, born near Limassol, and emigrated to the United States after WWII, where he completed a formal education in music. His career spanned four decades and included numerous operatic performances, including a total of 223 appearances in Verdi's "Rigolleto" (heart failure) b.1927
2012: David Whitaker (80) English composer, songwriter, arranger and conductor born in Kingston upon Thames. He collaborated with some of the most prestigious British and French artists including Air, Etienne Daho, Marianne Faithfull, Claude François, Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall, Johnny Hallyday, The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Page (Death Wish II), Saint Etienne, Simply Red, Sylvie Vartan and others like Lee Hazlewood, Kings of Convenience and Francesco De Gregori. He composed Hammer Films atmospheric score for the 1971 production of Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde, other films included Scream & Scream Again; Run Wild, Run Free; Vampira; The Sword and the Sorcerer; Shadow Run, and others. David also recorded several sessions with the BBC Radio Orchestra at the Maida Vale Studios, London in the early 80s, featuring a mixture of his own compositions and arrangements, to high-acclaim. He was nominated in 2001 for the César Award for Best Music Written for a Film with the French movie With a Friend Like Harry/Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien (?) b. January 6th 1931.
2013: Jimmy O'Neill (73) American disc jockey and television host (Shindig!), diabetes and heart complications
2013: Khushi Murali (45) Indian pop singer; in a career spanning over a decade, he sang over 100 songs. Some of his hit numbers are from films "Khushi", "100 percent Love", "Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu" and "Mr Perfect". (he suffered a heart attack and tragically died while travelling to Kakinada from Secunderabad on the Gautami Express. He was on his way to perform in the Kakinada Beach Festival) b. 1967
2013: John Wilkinson (67) American rhythm guitarist from Springfield; he first met Elvis Presley when he was only 10 years old when he sneaked into Elvis's dressing room. In his teens he developed a name for himself as a singer and guitarist, performing with such groups as The Kingston Trio, The Goodtime Singers, Greenwood County Singers, and The New Christy Minstrels. In 1968, Elvis saw him perform on a TV show in Los Angeles and asked him to join the TCB Band which he was forming. John went on to play over 1,200 shows as Presley's rhythm guitar player until the legendary singer's death in 1977. In 1989 John suffered a stroke that left him unable to play the guitar, but he continued singing with fellow musicians, he traveled the U.S. and Europe, appearing with the old TCB band and others, singing and paying tribute to Elvis. He also made a living in retail and airline services management (sadly John died fighting cancer) b. July 3rd 1945.
2013: Jimmy O'Neill (73) American radio rock DJ and TV host born in Enid, Oklahoma. At 15 he took a high school class in broadcasting and, as one of the two top students, won a chance to have his own two-hour show on the local radio station. By the time he was 20 he had become Los Angeles' top-rated radio deejay and was only 24 when he catapulted to national celebrity as the host of "Shindig!," one of the earliest rock 'n' roll shows on prime-time television, that featured frenetic dancers and showcased such acts as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Righteous Brothers. He also ran nightclubs for teenagers, including one called Pandora's Box on the Sunset Strip and hosted a youth-oriented TV talk show, "The Jimmy O'Neill Show," on KCOP-TV /Channel 13. (Jimmy died in his sleep, sadly he had been suffering with diabetes and heart problems) b. January 8th 1940.

January 12.
1921: Gervase Elwes (55) English tenor, born in Billing, Northampton; he first trained as a lawyert, spending some years in Brussels, where he began formal singing lessons at the age of 28. However he had to overcome a social convention of resistance to one of his class his making a professional career as a singer, and not until the early 1900s, in his late thirties, did he gave his first professional performances in London, opposite Agnes Nicholls, in Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar by Engelbert Humperdinck at the St James's Hall, with the Handel Society under J. S. Liddle in late April 1903, and immediately afterwards he appeared at the Westmorland Festival. He went on to be an international star and much loved artist where ever he performed (he tragically died in a horrific railroad accident in Boston, USA while at the height of his career) b. November 15th 1866.
1934: Pawel Kochanski (47) Polish violinist, composer and arranger born in Orel, Russia; he studied violin first with his father and then at age 7 in Odessa with Emil Mlynarski. From 1909 to 1911 he taught at the Warsaw Conservatory as professor of violin. In 1909 he and Arthur Rubinstein gave the first performance of Karol Szymanowski's Violin Sonata in D minor. He went on to play in all the major opera houses and recital halls around Europe, America and Sth America. In 1921, he made a sensational debut in the Brahms Violin Concerto at the Carnegie Hall, and was immediately in demand and in April 1922 he was playing in Buenos Aires. As well as all his international appearances, Pawel also taught at the Juilliard School in New York City, from 1924, heading the violin faculty, until his death (sadly died from cancer) b. September 14th 1887.
1971: Captain John Handy (70) American jazz alto saxophonist & clarinetist; he played clarinet in New Orleans bands from the 1920s, including in his own Louisiana Shakers. He switched to alto saxophone in 1928, and was little-known outside of Louisiana until the 1960s, when he began playing frequently with Kid Sheik Cola and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and recorded for GHB Records, RCA, and Jazz Crusade. He is also well known for playing in the December Band along side "Kid" Thomas Valentine, "Big" Jim Robinson, Sammy Rimington, Bill Sinclair, Dick Griffith, "Mouldy" Dick Mccarthy and Sammy Pen. His solo in Ice Cream is one of the most well known in New Orleans Jazz (?) b. June 24th 1900.
1983: Anthony "Rebop" Kwaku Baah (37) Ghanaian percussionist born in Konongo; he met up with the UK band Traffic while they toured Sweden, and played with them from 1971-74, appearing on the albums The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory, On the Road, and Welcome to the Canteen. In 1973 he played in Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert along with Eric, Pete Townshend, Rick Grech, Ronnie Wood, Jimmy Karstein, Jim Capaldi, and Steve Winwood. After Traffic broke up, he played on Steve Winwood’s self-titled debut solo '77 album. Also in 1977, he joined the German band 'Can' along with bassist Rosko Gee, playing with them until their breakup in '79, appearing on albums Saw Delight, Out of Reach and Can. In '83 he recorded a jazz fusion album with Zahara. Rebop also recorded 4 solo albums, the last being Melodies in a Jungle Mans Head in '83 (he sadly died of a brain haemorrhage during a performance in Sweden while touring with Jimmy Cliff's band) b.February 13th 1944.
2001: Luiz Floriano Bonfá (78) Brazilian guitarist and composer; born in Rio de Janeiro, he began teaching himself to play guitar as a child and he studied in Rio with Uruguayan classical guitarist Isaías Sávio from the age of 12. He was part of the burgeoning days of Rio de Janeiro's thriving jazz scene, it was commonplace for musicians and artists to collaborate in theatrical presentations. Luiz wrote some of the music featured in the film, including the numbers "Samba de Orfeu" and his most famous composition, "Manhã de Carnaval" of which Carl Sigman later wrote a different set of English lyrics titled "A Day in the Life of a Fool", which has been among the top 10 standards played worldwide, according to The Guinness Book of World Records. Luiz lived in the USA from the early 1960s until 1975. He worked with American musicians such as Quincy Jones, George Benson, Stan Getz, and Frank Sinatra, recording several albums while in there. Elvis Presley sang a Bonfá composition, "Almost in Love", in the 1968 MGM film "Live a Little, Love a Little" (sadly died from prostate cancer) b. October 17th 1922.
2003: Maurice Gibb (53) British singier and songwriter in the internationally famed group, The Bee Gees, formed with his brothers Robin and Barry. The trio got their start in Australia, and found major success when they returned to England. The Bee Gees became one of the most successful pop groups of all time and have been awarded 9 grammys among their many other awards; have been inducted into 8 Hall of Fames and have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (sadly died from heart attack during abdominal surgery) b: December 22nd 1949.
2004: Randy VanWarmer (48) American singer, songwriter, composer; best remembered for his hit "Just When I Needed You Most." It reached No.8 in the UK and No.4 in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979. There are several cover versions of this song, including those by Dolly Parton and Smokie. He wrote several songs for the group The Oak Ridge Boys including "I Guess It Never Hurts To Hurt Sometimes." His final album was released posthumously only in Japan and was a tribute to Stephen Foster (died after a long battle with leukaemia) b: March 30th 1955.
2007: Alice Coltrane (69) American jazz pianist, organist, harpist, composer, and wife of the late saxophone legend John Coltrane. After his death she continued to play with her own groups, moving into more and more meditative music, and later playing with her children. She was one of the few harpists in the history of jazz. Her essential recordings were made in the late 1960s and early 1970s for Impulse! Records. (sadly Alice died due to respiratory failure) b. August 27th 1937.
2009: Alejandro Sokol (48) Argentine rock musician with bands Sumo and Las Pelotas. He was the bassist, and then the drummer of rock band "Sumo" introducing British post-punk to the Argentine scene, with almost the whole lyrics in English. In 1987 he formed the band "Las Pelotas" together with fellow ex-Sumo Germán Daffunchio. After 17 years with the band, he left to form his own group, "El Vuelto S.A.", featuring his son Ismael Sokol, Nicolás Angiolini and Gustavo Bustos on guitars, Sebastián Villegas on bass and Damián Bustos playing drums. (died in the bus depot in Río Cuarto, Córdoba province, of cardio-respiratory failure, when waiting for a bus to take him to Buenos Aires back from the Traslasierra district) b. January 30th 1960.
2010: Jimmy O/ Jean Jimmy Alexandre (35) Haitian Hip Hop artist, rapper and songwriter, born in Port-au-Prince and lived in New York City. He was involved with Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti Foundation, a grass-roots charitable organization established by Wyclef Jean in 2005. As a musician, Jimmy O helped develop new talent and artists in Haiti. Jimmy was also preparing to release his debut album. (Tragically he was crushed in a vehicle during the 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti) b. March 9th 1974.
2010: Brian Damage/Brian Keats (46) American punk and rock drummer born in New York
he played in the bands Genocide and Verbal Abuse, before in October of 1983 Glenn Danzig invited him to join The Misfits. His first and only performance with The Misfits, a Halloween show in Detroit, Brian was so drunk he could not perform properly, it also turned out to be the band's farewell show. After The Misfits, Brian remained in New York City playing drums for Hellbent, The Kretins, The Hellhounds, The Diamondbacks, The Skulls, Angels In Vain, Princess Pang, and Raging Slab. He later moved to LA where he played and/or recorded with Baron Jive, The Light Bachwood Movement, Wink, Pressurehed, Sylvain Sylvain, Link Protrudi And The Jaymen, Paul Inman, Marioux, Low Pop Suicide, 3 Day Wheely, Bortek, Susanna Hoffs, Doppler, The Fuzztones, and Tramdriver as well as playing live performances with Kathy Fisher, Sages & Seers, African Violet, Tim Harrington, $100 Band, Jason Falkner, Woozy, and Dave Vanian and the Phantom Chords and recorded sessions demos with Zoe Poledouris And Bubble Gun, Bijou Phillips, Swirl 360, Tallulah, Marie Wilson, Michael Hately, Kim Richey, Billy Idol, Tom Anderson, Leah Andreone, and Colony (complications of colon cancer) b. February 11th 1963.
2010: Dewey Tucker (24) American bassist and smooth jazz bassist who has world toured and been playing with Lauryn Hill over the last few years and played with Oakland hip-hop group the Coup. He was also a member of the Greater St. Paul Baptist Church band in Oakland. (Dewey was found dead in his vehicle Tuesday night, having been killed in a random shooting on his way to band practice in Oakland) b. ??.
2010: Yabby You/Vivian Jackson (63) Jamaican reggae singer and producer born in Kingston, Jamaica. At 17, Yabby was so malnourished that he had to be hospitalized, he eventually left with severe arthritis and crippled legs. While he could not work in certain jobs, he had a musical talent and taking divine inspiration from the sounds of nature around him, and with the help of friends, in 1972 he founded a harmony trio, the Prophets. Their debut single "Conquering Lion," was a classically styled reggae song with a deep personal message. They made a few more singles which appeared on Yabby's successful debut album, also called Conquering Lion. He was closely affiliated with King Tubby, whose dubs often appeared on the B-sides of his singles. Yabby's success allowed him to branch out as a producer, and he began working with both upcoming and more established artists including Wayne Wade, Michael Rose, Tommy McCook, Michael Prophet, Big Youth, Trinity, Dillinger and Tapper Zukie, while continuing to release his own material (died after suffering a brain aneurysm) b. August 14th 1946.
2012: Sadao Bekku (89) Japanese classical composer, born in Tokyo; his works include five symphonies, film scores, a flute sonata, a piano concerto, choral work, art songs, and the opera, Prince Arima. His work took strong influences from jazz. His most famous works include the film score, Matango in '63 (Sadao passed away with pneumonia) b. May 24th 1922.
2012: Rosalind "Lindy" Runcie née Turner (79) British pianist and wife of the late Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury. She gave piano recitals in both the UK and the USA and according to a 1983 article of the Wrexham Evening Leader, she had raised over £60,000 for charity through her recitals. She also taught piano privately and at St Albans School and St Albans High School for Girls (?) b. January 23rd 1932.
2013: Precious Bryant née Bussey (71) American country blues, gospel, and folk musician; born in Talbot County, she was noted for playing Piedmont fingerstyle guitar. Her uncle, George Henry Bussey, taught her to play guitar and by the age of 9, she was playing regularly in the church. She went on to do numerous tours in the USA and abroad, including notable appearances at the Blues to Bop Festival in Switzerland and the Alabama Folk Festival in Montgomery. Precious released two solo albums; her 2002 debut, Fool Me Good, was nominated for two Blues Music Awards, in the categories of 'Acoustic Blues Album of the Year' and 'Best New Artist Debut'. In 2006 she was nominated for another similar award for 'Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year' (sadly Georgia died after a six week battle with complications from diabetes and congestive heart failure) b. January 4th 1942.

January 13.
1864: Stephen Collins Foster (37) American songwriter; born in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, known as the "father of American music", he was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century. His songs such as "Oh! Susanna", "Old Black Joe", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home"/"Swanee River", "Hard Times Come Again No More", "My Old Kentucky Home","Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", and "Beautiful Dreamer", remain popular over 150 years after their composition. While in Cincinnati, Stephen penned his first successful songs, among them "Oh! Susanna" which would prove to be the anthem of the California Gold Rush in 1848–1849. In 1849, he published Foster's Ethiopian Melodies, which included the successful song "Nelly Was a Lady", made famous by the Christy Minstrels. Many of his songs were of the blackface minstrel show tradition popular at the time. He sought, in his own words, to "build up taste ... among refined people by making words suitable to their taste, instead of the trashy and really offensive words which belong to some songs of that order". Although many of his songs had Southern themes, Foster never lived in the South and visited it only once, by river-boat voyage, on his brother Dunning's steam boat, the Millinger, down the Mississippi to New Orleans, in 1852 (suffering a fever Stephen sadly died from a head injury 3 days after a tragic accident in his hotel room) b. July 4th 1826.
1963: Sonny Clark/Conrad Yeatis (31) American hard bop pianist. An underappreciated jazz artist during his time, his work has become much more widely known after his death. He is known for his unique touch, sense of melody and complex, hard-swinging style . He frequently recorded for Blue Note Records, on which he played as a sideman with many of the most important hard bop players, including: Kenny Burrell, Donald Byrd, Paul Chambers, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Art Farmer, Curtis Fuller, Grant Green, Philly Joe Jones, Clifford Jordan, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Art Taylor, and Wilbur Ware. He also recorded sessions with jazz luminaries Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Billie Holiday, Stanley Turrentine, and Lee Morgan. As a band leader, his albums Sonny Clark Trio, with Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones, and Cool Struttin' , and Sonny Clark Trio with George Duvivier and Max Roach are considered among his finest. (heroine overdose) b. July 21st 1931
1971: Robert Still (60) English composer, educator and amateur tennis player, born in London; his compositions include songs, 4 symphonies, a piano concerto, violin concerto, instrumental & chamber works, orchestral works, motets and an opera. An archive is held at the Jerwood Library in Greenwich, London. He remained predominantly tonal, using dissonance to great effect. (Robert died suddenly of a heart attack) b. June 10th 1910.
1971: William T. Lewis (65) American jazz clarinetist and bandleader, born in Cleburne, TS. He attended the New England Conservatory of Music, then played in Will Marion Cook's orchestra. When Cook's band was taken over by Sam Wooding, William traveled with him on his tours of Europe, Sth America, and Nth Africa, remaining until Wooding disbanded in 1931. Following this he set up his own band, Willie Lewis and His Entertainers, which featured some of Wooding's old players and played with great success in Europe. Among those who played under William were Herman Chittison, Benny Carter, Bill Coleman, Garnet Clark, Bobby Martin, and June Cole. (?) b. June 10th 1905
1974: Raoul Jobin/Joseph Roméo (67) French-Canadian operatic tenor, particularly associated with the French repertory. He made his professional debut 28 May 1930 in Liszt's oratorio Christus at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera on February 19, 1940, as des Grieux in Manon. He remained with the company until 1950, where he sang many roles alongside such singers as Lily Pons, Bidu Sayao, Licia Albanese, Rise Stevens, under conductors such as Wilfrid Pelletier and Thomas Beecham, among many others. He made regular appearances in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, etc., also appearing in Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires. He had been created Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1951, and he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1967 (?) b. April 8th 1906.
1979: Marjorie Lawrence (71) Australian international soprano, born at Deans Marsh; she was particularly noted as an interpreter of Richard Wagner's operas. She was the first soprano to perform the immolation scene in Götterdämmerung by riding her horse into the flames as Wagner had intended. Afflicted by polio from 1941, her autobiography was filmed in 1955 as Interrupted Melody. Marjorie later served on the faculty of the School of Music at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. In 1946 she was awarded the cross of the Légion d'honneur for her work in France. In 1976 she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire on the recommendation of the Government of Australia (sadly died from heart failure) b. February 18th 1907.
1979: Donny Hathaway (33) Grammy Award-winning American soul pianist and keyboardist. He first worked as songwriter, session musician and producer. Working first at Chicago's Twinight Records and later did the arrangements for The Unifics ("Court of Love" and "The Beginning Of My End"), he also participated in projects by The Staple Singers, Jerry Butler' Curtis Mayfield and Aretha Franklin. After becoming a "house producer" at Mayfield's label, Curtom Records, he recorded his first single in 1969, a duet with singer June Conquest called "I Thank You Baby".He signed with Atlantic Records in 1969, and with his first single "The Ghetto, Part I" in 1970, Rolling Stone magazine marked him as a major new force in soul music. His collaborations with Roberta Flack took him to the top of the charts and won him the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the duet "Where Is the Love" in 1973. (apparent suicide, falling from a 15th floor New York City hotel window) b. October 1st 1945.
1980: André Kostelanetz (78) Russian-American popular music orchestra leader arranger and a pioneer of easy listening music. Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, he escaped in 1922 after the Russian Revolution and arrived in America that same year. In the 1920s, Andréconducted concerts for radio, then in the 1930s, he began his own weekly show on CBS, André Kostelanetz Presents. He was known for arranging and recording light classical music pieces for mass audiences, as well as orchestral versions of songs and Broadway show tunes. He made numerous recordings over the course of his career, which had sales of over 50 million and became staples of beautiful music radio stations. For many years, Andre also conducted the New York Philharmonic in pops concerts and recordings, in which they were billed as Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra. Outside the US, one of his best known works was an orchestral arrangement of the tune "With a Song in my Heart", which was the signature tune of a long-running BBC radio program, at first called Forces Favourites, then Family Favourites, and finally Two Way Family Favourites (?) b. December 22nd 1901
1983: Barry Galbraith (63) US jazz guitarist; he moved to New York City in the 1941 and found work playing with Babe Russin, Art Tatum, Red Norvo, Hal McIntyre, and Teddy Powell. He played with Claude Thornhill in 1941-42 and again in 1946-49 after serving in the Army. He did a tour with Stan Kenton in 1953. He did extensive work as a studio musician for NBC and CBS in the 1950s and 1960s; among those he played with were Miles Davis, Michel Legrand, Tal Farlow, Coleman Hawkins, John Lewis, Hal McKusick, Oscar Peterson, Max Roach, George Russell, and Tony Scott. He also accompanied the singers Anita O'Day, Chris Connor, Billie Holiday, Helen Merrill, Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington on record. In 1961 he appeared in the film After Hours. In 1963-64 he played on Gil Evans's album The Individualism of Gil Evans, and in 1965 he appeared on the Stan Getz/Eddie Sauter-led soundtrack to Mickey One. (?) b. December 18th 1919.
1993: Camargo Guarnieri (85) Brazilian composer; his complete name is "Mozart Camargo Guarnieri" (his father gave famous composer’s names to all his sons). Camargo studied piano and composition at the São Paulo Conservatório, and subsequently worked with Charles Koechlin in Paris. Some of his compositions received important prizes in the United States in the 1940s, giving Guarnieri the opportunity of conducting them in New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago. A distinguished figure of the Brazilian national school, he served in several capacities; conductor of the São Paulo Orchestra, member of the Academia Brasileira de Música, and Director of the São Paulo Conservatório, where he taught composition and orchestral conducting. In 1936 he was the first conductor of the Coral Paulistano choir. His œuvre comprises symphonies, concertos, cantatas, two operas, chamber music, many piano pieces, and over fifty canções. (?) b. February 1st 1907.
2001: Michael Cuccione (16) Canadian actor and singer (so sadly died of respiratory failure, due to cancer which he had been bravely battling since he was 9 years old) b. January 5th 1985.
2001: Stanley Freeman (80) American composer, lyricist, musical arranger, conductor, and studio musician. Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, he studied classical piano in college and earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Hartford. After serving in WWII, he joined Tex Beneke's big band, eventually leaving to perform as a pianist and later a comic in nightclubs. His work as a studio musician included sessions with Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Percy Faith, Mabel Mercer, and Rosemary Clooney, for whom he played harpsichord on her hit "Come on-a My House". He also conducted Broadway concerts for Marlene Dietrich in 1967 and 1968 and provided arrangements for three of Michael Feinstein's Broadway outings, as well as composing special musical material for Carol Burnett and Mary Tyler Moore. Stanley's solo recordings include Piano Sweethearts, Piano Moods, Come on-a Stan's house: Stan Freeman at the Harpsichord, Fascination, Manhattan, At the Blue Angel, and Everybody's Twistin'. He and Arthur Malvin shared the Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Special Musical Material for the mini-musical Hi-Hat (died of emphysema) b. April 3rd 1920.
2005: Nell Rankin (81) American mezzo-soprano and opera singer; her breakthrough, though, came in 1950, when she became the first American singer to win the first prize at the International Music Competition in Geneva. This y led to her debuts at La Scala and at the Vienna State Opera, both as Amneris, in 1951, and to her Met debut in the same role later that year. Debuts at Covent Garden and the San Francisco Opera followed in 1953. On both occasions, she sang the title role in "Carmen.". Although a successful opera singer internationally, she spent most of her career at the Metropolitan Opera where she worked from 1951-1976. She was particularly admired for her portrayals of Amneris in Verdi's Aida and the title role in Bizet's Carmen. After she retired from the Metropolitan Opera, Rankin devoted herself to teaching, first at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, from 1977 to 1984, and then privately in New York City until she retired in 1991 (?) b. January 3rd 1924.
2007: Michael Brecker (57) Influential and versatile American tenor saxophonist who won 11 Grammys over a career that spanned nearly four decades. He was responsible for some of the most superior jazz fusion of the 1970s and 1980s: alongside his trumpeter brother Randy in their group, the Brecker Brothers; and on the solo albums he led from 1987 onwards. As well as recording 29 albums as a leader, he was also one of the most ubiquitous, and certainly the most distinguished, of studio musicians, appearing on albums by Frank Zappa, Bette Midler, Bruce Springten, Carly Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, Bonnie Tyler, James Taylor, Luther Van dross, Tina Turner, Ringo Starr, Billy Joel, Rick James, Jan Akkerman, Herbie Hancock, John Lennon, Andy Gibb, Steely Dan, Elton John, Aerosmith, Diana Ross, Frank Sinatra, Lou Reed and so many more (leukemia) b. March 29th 1949.
2008: Sergei Larin (51) Lithuanian tenor born in Daugavpils, Latvia; after completing a degree in French philology in Gorky and undergoing voice training in Lithuania, he made his debut at Lithuania's opera and ballet theatre in 1981, singing Alfredo in La Traviata. Nearly a decade of performances at various Soviet venues passed before he made his debut in the West. His international career started after he signed a contract with the Opera Theatre of Bratislava and moved to Slovakia, following which he made a sensational debut at the Vienna State Opera. His Covent Garden debut took place in 1991, where he sang Don José in Bizet's Carmen, while Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca served for his debuts at both Paris and the Metropolitan Opera (?) b. March 9th 1956.
2009: Mansour Rahbani (83) Lebanese composer and lyricist; he studied Eastern music, musical scores, melodies, harmony, counterpoint, orchestration and musical analysis. With his brother Assi, they formed the Rahbani brothers and took their new artistic direction to the Lebanese Radio in 1945. The two brothers went on to join the ranks of the Near East Radio, where they composed many artistic works as well as a series of sketches entitled “Sabeh and Makhoul”. The Rahbani Brothers also extended their activities to the world of cinema, and composed the music for three illustrious films: Biyaa el Khawatem/The Ring Seller, Safar Barlek/Exile, and Bent el Hares/The Guardian’s Daughter. After Assi's death Mansour went on to write and produced many theatrical plays, including Summer 840, The Will, The Last Days of Socrates, He Rose on the 3rd Day, The Maronite Mass, Abu Tayeb al Mutanabbi, Moulouk al Tawaef, The Last Day, Hekm al Rehyan, Gibran and the Prophet, Zenobia, and The Return of the Phoenix, is his last master piece (?) b. 1925
2009: Gary Kurfirst (61) American music manager; an influential figure in late 20th and early 21st century pop music as a promoter, producer, manager, and record label executive. A longtime business associate and partner of Chris Blackwell, Gary's reach spanned new wave, reggae, punk, rock, and pop. His clients as manager included the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, the B52s, the Eurythmics, and Jane's Addiction. Prior to his managerial career, he promoted a wide variety of artists. Kirfirst also produced four films, including Stop Making Sense, True Stories, and a documentary about the Ramones (died while vacationing in the Bahamas) b. 1947
2009: Pedro "Cuban Pete" Aguilar (81) Puerto Rican dancer, referred to as "the greatest Mambo dancer ever", by Life magazine and Tito Puente. His nickname, "Cuban Pete" was given him in 1949 in the famous dance hall "Palladium", New York in reference to the mambo classic song Cuban Pete by Desi Arnaz, and it was endorsed by Arnaz himself. He won numerous prizes in Latin dancing during the Mambo era, together with his dance partner Millie Donay. He is a recipient of many prestigious awards for his work. He is the only Latin dancer recognized in the Latin Jazz exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution (sadly taken by a heart attack) b. June 14th 1927.
2010: Jim Korthe (39) American vocalist and drummer, he grew up in San Pedro, California. At 16, Jim became a drummer for Phantasm, his first touring band. In the 1980s and 1990s, he and his friend Tom McNerney started Dimestore Hoods, a rap metal band that earned a recording contract from MCA records. He named his third band 3rd Strike, they released their debut and only album, Lost Angel in May, 2002. They toured with Ozzfest and Warped Tour to promote their album, but broke up shortly after. Their song "Into Hell Again" was featured on the Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life soundtrack (sadly, found dead of natural causes in his home) b. June 20th 1970.
2010: Teddy Pendergrass (59) American soul singer, born in Kingstree, South Carolina, he left school early to join a band called the Cadillacs as their drummer. The band merged with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes when Melvin invited Teddy to become the lead singer after being impressed with his vocal talent and passion for music. With the Blue Notes he enjoyed many hits including I Miss You, Wake Up Everybody , and the two million seller If You Don't Know Me By Now . Embarking on a solo career he enjoyed a string of hit singles and albums throughout the 1970s, including The Whole Town's Laughing At Me, Close the Door, Love T.K.O and Turn Off The Lights. Tragically, in 1982 a car crash left Teddy paralysed from the waist down. He performed on 13 July '85, at the historic Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, then continued to record throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Five times Grammy Award nominee, Teddy retired in 2006, but he did briefly returned to performing to take part in the 2007, Teddy 25: A Celebration of Life, Hope & Possibilities , an awards ceremony that marked the 25th anniversary of his accident, raised money for his charity, The Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, (Teddy underwent surgery for colon cancer and had difficulty recovering from the disease from which sadly, he eventually died) b. March 26th 1950.
2010: Jay Reatard/Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr (29) American garage punk drummer, musician and singer born in Lilbourn, Missouri, at 15, he was signed by Eric Friedl to Goner Records. Re-naming himself Jay Reatard, Jimmy called his first project The Reatards, which at that time included only himself as a solo performer alternating between playing guitar, singing, and beating on a bucket to provide a percussive rhythm and his first release was a 7” EP called Get Real Stupid. In 2001 Lindsey began recording with Alicja Trout and Rich Crook as the Lost Sounds. He went on to play in various bands and projects and he released six limited, 7" singles throughout 2008 with Matador. Soon after the release of the first single and write-ups in NME, Spin Magazine and Rolling Stone, Jimmy began playing larger shows and various music festivals all over the world. (Sadly found dead at his home in Memphis. An autopsy was performed but a cause of death had not yet been determined. Jimmy had been suffering from flu-like sympoms) b. May 1st 1980.
2010: Edmund Leonard Thigpen (79) American jazz drummer, born in Chicago, and raised in LA; he first worked professionally in New York with the Cootie Williams orchestra from 1951 to 1952 at the Savoy Ballroom. Ed worked with Dinah Washington, Gil Melle, Oscar Pettiford, Charlie Rouse, Eddie Vinson, Paul Quinichette, Ernie Wilkins, Lennie Tristano, Jutta Hipp, Johnny Hodges, Dorothy Ashby, Bud Powell, and the Billy Taylor trio from 1956 to 1959. After which he joined the Oscar Peterson Trio in 1959. In 1961 he recorded with the Teddy Edwards–Howard McGhee Quintet in LA. After leaving Oscar he recorded one album as a leader, Out of the Storm of 1966, then toured and recorded with Ella Fitzgerald from 1967 to 1972, before settling in Copenhagen, Denmark. Here Ed worked with artists, including Alice Babs, Kenny Drew, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Ernie Wilkins, Svend Asmussen, Clark Terry, Milt Jackson, Monty Alexander and Thad Jones and he was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame. (?) b. December 28th 1930
2011: Tommy Crain (59) American guitarist, born and raised in Nashville, he played in various local bands, the best being Flat Creek Band in which his brother Billy also played guitar. This group eventually disbanded and Tom formed a group called Buckeye. Tommy joined the Charlie Daniels Band in 1975. His unrestrained guitar work became an integral part of the band’s sound. He played on more than 20 CDB albums and is credited with co-writing more than 60 of the band songs including their 1979 No.1 country hit and Grammy-winning "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". Other CDB classics are "Cumberland Mountain Number Nine," "Blind Man" and "Franklin Limestone". He left the band in 1990 to be with his family, but re-emerged in 2004 with his Crosstown Allstars band. He also joined Daniels’ band onstage on occasion (?) b. January 16th 1951.
2012: Sándor Fehér (38) Hungarian violinist, who loved to teach and died a true hero. He had been working as an entertainer on Costa Concordia cruise liner when it hit ground, instead of saving himself he helped to calm and put life jackets on frightened crying children. He came from a musical family, both his father and grandfather played the violin, and he started playing the violin when he was six years old. In 1998 he graduated from the Franz Lizst Academy in Budapest, where he studied with László Dénes. Sándor taught violin lessons to students ages six through 20 and believed strongly in a method devised by his teacher Dénes, as well as by Rudolf Nemeth and Judit Szaszne-Reger, called Violin ABC. (tragically Sándor drowned, he was the first victim from the Costa Concordia disaster to be identified) b. 1973
2012: Dilys Elwyn-Edwards (93) Welsh-language composer, lecturer and accompanist. She studied at Cardiff University and received her BMus degree. She taught music at the university for the next three years. She received the Open Scholarship in Composition from the Royal College of Music in London where she studied composition. Dilys was known for her soft, melodic art songs for voice in both Welsh and English. Charlotte Church and Aled Jones have recorded Caneuon y Tri Aderyn /Three Welsh Bird Songs; Y Gylfinir /The Curlew; Tylluanod /Owls and her most famous song, of dozens, Mae Hiraeth yn y Môr /There is longing in the sea, R. Williams Parry's sonnet set to music (?) b. August 19th 1918.

January 14.
1949: Joaquín Turina (66) Spanish composer born in Seville where he was educated as well as in Madrid. He lived in Paris from 1905 to 1914 where he took composition lessons from Vincent d'Indy at his Schola Cantorum, and studied the piano under Moritz Moszkowski. Like his fellow countryman and friend, Manuel de Falla, while there he got to know the impressionist composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy. Along with de Falla, he returned to Madrid in 1914, working as a composer, teacher and critic. In 1931 he was made professor of composition at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. His notable pupils included Vicente Asencio and Celedonio Romero. Joaquín's works include the operas Margot -1914 and Jardín de Oriente -1923, the Danzas fantásticas -1920, La oración del torero, chamber music, piano works, guitar pieces and songs. Much of his work shows the influence of traditional Andalusian music (?) b. December 9th 1882.
1952: Artur Kapp (73) Estonian composer, born in Suure-Jaani, Estonia, then part of the Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire. Some of his most enduring works are the 1899 overture Don Juan and the 1900 cantata Paradiis ja Peri/"Paradise and Peri", both of which are large scale works that prominently feature the organ. He is possibly best recalled for his oratorio Hiiob/"Job" and Metsateel/"On A Road Through The Woods", a piece for solo voice. His work is abundant and diverse and covers many classical genres. He wrote five symphonies, five concertos, overtures, four orchestral suites, in addition to the above (?) b. February 28th 1878.
1965: Jeanette MacDonald (61) American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the '30s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One Hour With You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in grand opera, concerts, radio, television and also made a few nightclub appearances at The Sands and The Sahara in Las Vegas in 1953, The Coconut Grove in Los Angeles in 1954, and again at The Sahara in 1957. She was one of most influential sopranos of the 20th century, introducing grand opera to movie-going audiences and inspiring a generation of singers. (heart problems). b. June 18th 1903.
1978: Robert Heger (91)German conductor and composer born in from Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine; he studied at the Conservatory of Strasbourg, under Franz Stockhausen, then in Zurich under Lothar Kempter, and finally in Munich under Max von Schillings. After early conducting engagements in Strasbourg he made his debut at Ulm in 1908 or 1909. He held appointments in Barmen-1909, at the Vienna Volksoper-1911, and at Nuremberg-1913, where he also conducted Philharmonic concerts. He progressed to Munich and then to Berlin in 1933-1950, after which he returned to Munich. Robert also conducted at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from 1925-1935, and again with his Munich company in 1953, when he gave the first London performance of Richard Strauss's opera Capriccio (?) b. August 19th 1886
1986: Daniel Balavoine (33) French singer born in Alençon, Orne; he was a chorus-singer in the musical La Révolution française, then as a backing singer at the concerts of Patrick Juvet. The latter gave him the opportunity to record his songs on an album. This break enabled him to be noticed as a singer-songwriter by Léo Missir, artistic director at Barclay Records with whom he formed a very strong and lasting bond. (while flying over the Paris-Dakar motor rally, he died, along with Thierry Sabine and three other people, when their helicopter crashed into a dune in Mali, Africa) b. February 5th 2010.
1992: Jerry Nolan (45) American drummer, from Brooklyn and best known for his work with The New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers. He played with Wayne County's 'Queen Elizabeth', Billy Squier's "Kicks" and was the only male member of Suzi Quatro's Detroit-based band Cradle, and was also a member the power trio "Shaker", before joining The New York Dolls in the autumn of 1972 to replace Billy Murcia. He played on the Dolls' first two albums, New York Dolls and Too Much Too Soon. Jerry left the Dolls together with Johnny Thunders in the spring of 1975 to form The Heartbreakers. Jerry and his wife lived in Sweden, off and on, through the 1980s. There he also recorded a solo single of an older Heartbreakers' song "Take A Chance With Me". Johnny Thunders also moved to Sweden with his girlfriend, Susanne, and their collaboration continued periodically, until Thunders' death in 1991 (while being treated for bacterial meningitis and bacterial pneumonia, Jerry suffered a stroke and went into a coma from which he never recovered. He spent his final weeks on a life support system) b. May 7th 1946.
1995: Sir Alexander Gibson (68) British conductor born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland and studied music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, as well as in London, Salzburg and Siena, Italy. At the time of his appointment in 1957 as musical director of Sadler's Wells, he was the youngest ever to have taken that position. He founded Scottish Opera in 1962 and was music director until 1986. Through his artistic achievements the Theatre Royal, Glasgow was bought from Scottish TV and in 1975 made the home theatre of Scottish Opera and Ballet, the first national opera house in Scotland. In 1987, he was appointed conductor laureate of Scottish Opera and held this title till his death. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1967, was knighted in 1977 and became president of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where in his memory, the Alexander Gibson School of Opera was opened in 1998. It was the first purpose-built opera school in Great Britain. (died from complications following a heart attack) b. February 11th 1926.
2010: Bobby Charles/Robert Charles Guidry (71) American songwriter born in Abbeville, Louisiana; at aged 15, he was so inspired by Fats Domino, he began to pioneer the south Louisiana musical genre known as swamp pop. His compositions include the hits "See You Later, Alligator," which he initially recorded himself as "Later Alligator", covered by Bill Haley & His Comets; "Walking to New Orleans", written for Fats Domino; his "(I Don't Know Why I Love You) But I Do" was a 1950s classic which Clarence "Frogman" Henry had a major hit with. His composition "Why Are People Like That?" was on the soundtrack to the 1998 movie Home Fries. On November 26, 1976, he was invited to play with The Band at their farewell concert, The Last Waltz, Bobby played "Down South in New Orleans". In September 2007, he was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame (sadly Bobby collapsed and died in his home near Abbeville) b. February 21st 1938.
2010: Chilton Price/Chilton Searcy (96) American violinist and songwriter born near Fern Creek, Kentucky, she studied music appreciation at the University of Louisville. During the '30s and '40s she played violin with the Louisville Orchestra. Chilton started her songwriting while working as a music librarian at the Louisville radio station WAVE, where country music performers Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart were regular performers. "Never Look Back", "Slow Poke" and "You Belong to Me" were lyrical among her hits (?) b. December 25th 1913.
2011: Trish Keenan (42) British lead vocalist and founder member of the UK electronic music band Broadcast founded in 1995. Their 1996 debut EP 'The Book Lovers' was featued on the soundtrack of the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Their debut album in 1997 'Work and Non Work', produced the singles Accidentals" and "Living Room". Other singles include Echo's Answer", "Drums on Fire", "Come On Let's Go" and "America's Boy" (sadly tragically died of complications with pneumonia following a lengthy stay in intensive care after she had been hospitalized and was said to be suffering from a strain of the H1N1 flu/swine flu) b. 1968.
2012: Robbie France (52) English drummer, producer, arranger, journalist, educator, and broadcaster. Born in Sheffield, and emigrated to Australia around 1970, where he studied at the National Academy of Rudimentary Drummers of Australia until 1974. He formed the jazz-fusion group, Carnival, performed at the Oz Jazz Festival, and supported John McLaughlin. He worked with Stevie Wright of the Easybeats, Marty Rhone, Ray Burgess, Tim Gaze, and most major Australian artists. He amassed over 1,000 television, radio, and advertising credits, including eight documentaries and four film scores, including Band on the Run, one of the most successful surfing films ever made. Robbie left Australia in 1982 to return to England, where he joined Diamond Head the following year. Part of the NWOBHM movement, they performed at Castle Donington Monsters of Rock, then went on to record their third album, Canterbury. In 1985 he toured and recorded with UFO... >>>READ MORE<<< (Robbie tragically died of a ruptured aorta, compications from surgery in his home town in Spain) b. December 5th 1959.

January 15.
1964: Jack Teagarden (58)American bandleader, trombonist, dixieland vocalist; he recorded with notable bandleaders and sidemen such as Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, Jimmy McPartland, Mezz Mezzrow, Glenn Miller, and Eddie Condon, and appeared in the movies Birth of the Blues, The Glass Wall, and Jazz on a Summer's Day. As a jazz artist he won the 1944 Esquire magazine Gold Award, was highly rated in the Metronome polls of from 1937to 1942 and again in 1945, and was selected for the Playboy magazine All Star Band, from 1957 to 1960 (sadly he died alone of pneumonia) b. Aug 20th 1964.
1980: David Whitfield (54) British singer born in Kingston Upon Hull, as a child he became a choir boy in St. Peter's Church and began a lifelong love of singing which made him Britain's most successful solo male star of the chart's early 1950s until the advent of Rock n Roll. He was the first UK male vocalist to earn a gold disc; the first UK vocalist ever to have a hit placed in the Top Ten of the US Singles Chart; the first artist from Britain to sell over one million copies of one disc in the US and the third to be awarded a gold disc;. He got his big break came as he appeared on the talent show Opportunity Knocks on Radio Luxembourg. The host of the show, Hughie Green got him a booking at the Washington Hotel in the West End of London where a talent scout from Decca records heard him singing and signed him to the label. His many hits include "Cara Mia" which topped the charts for 10 weeks, "Answer Me", "My September Love", "I'll Find You", "William Tell", and "A Scottish Soldier". Over 50 years on, he is still one of only six artists to have spent 10 or more consecutive weeks at Number One on the UK Singles Chart. (brain haemorrhage while on tour in Australia) b. February 2nd 1925.
1987: Ray Bolger/Raymond Wallace Bulcao (83) American actor, singer, and dancer maybe best known for playing The Scarecrow in the 1939 musical fantasy film "The Wizard of Oz". While working on the Vaudeville scene, as half of a team called Sanford and Bolger, in 1926, he was spotted by star maker, Gus Edwards, who hired him for the Broadway show "A Merry World." Numerous Broadway roles followed including the lead in the Rodgers and Hart 1936 classic "On Your Toes." The strength of that performance earned him a movie contract from MGM. Other Broadway credits include- Life Begins at 8:40, By Jupiter, All American, and Where's Charley?, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical and in which he introduced "Once in Love with Amy", the song often connected with him. He also had a big career in films and TV. Ray has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6764 Hollywood Boulevard for movies and at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard for television (Sadly lost to cancer) b. January 10th 1904.
1992: Dee Murray (45) English bass player; a talented musician whose gift for melody, placement, and an understated, yet profound technique, plus his standout work as a backing vocalist, puts him in an elite class among rock bassists. He was a member of the Spencer Davis band before joining Elton John. He was a key members of John's backing band, including the milestone album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. In 1975, after recording Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, Dee and Nigel Olsson were released from the band because John wanted to achieve a different sound. Dee and Nigel a continued working together, as session musicians in Los Angeles. They played on Rick Springfield's first United States album, Wait for Night in 1976. In 1977, Murray briefly joined Procol Harum on a US tour. Between '78 and '79, he worked as part of Alice Cooper's backing band. Both Dee and Nigel returned to the UK in 1981, and toured with John for another four years. (After a long brave battle with skin cancer, Dee died from a stroke) b. April 3rd 1946.
1993: Sammy Cahn (79) Four times Academy Award-winning American lyricist, songwriter and musician, best known for his romantic lyrics to tin pan alley and Broadway songs, as recorded by Frank Sinatra, Doris Day and many others. He played the piano and violin. His many songs lyrics include "Three Coins in the Fountain", "All the Way", "High Hopes", "Call Me Irresponsible", "I've Heard That Song Before", "I'll Walk Alone", "Anywhere", "I Fall In Love Too Easily", "It's Magic", "It's a Great Feeling", "Be My Love", "Wonder Why", "Because You're Mine", "I'll Never Stop Loving You", "(Love Is) The Tender Trap", "It's Been A Long, Long Time", "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow", "Love and Marriage", "Papa, Won't You Dance With Me", "Please Be Kind", "Rhythm Is Our Business", "Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)", "Teach Me Tonight", "The Things We Did Last Summer" (?).He became a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972 and later took over the presidency of that organization from his friend Johnny Mercer when Mercer became ill and in 1988 the Sammy Awards, an annual award for movie songs and scores, was started in his honor. ( died in Los Angeles, California. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery) b. June 18th 1913.
1994: Georges Cziffra (72) Hungarian-French pianist best known for his performances of Liszt's rhapsodies. Of gypsy descent, he was born in Budapest, but since the Soviet-led invasion of Hungary in 1956, he had lived in France. He also recorded many of Frédéric Chopin's compositions and those of Robert Schumann. He is also well-known for his rather-demanding transcriptions of several orchestral works for the piano - among them, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee (Sadly died from a heart attack) b. November 5th 1921.
1994: Harry Nilsson III (52) American singer-songwriter, born in Brooklyn, New York; as early as 1958 he was influenced by the likes of Ray Charles and the Everly Brothers and in his teens he formed a vocal duo with his friend Jerry Smith singing close harmonies in the style of the Everly Brothers. Harry came to the peak of his commercial success as a singer in the mid 1970s. When John Lennon and Paul McCartney held a press conference in 1968 to announce the formation of Apple Corps, John was asked to name his favorite American artist. He replied, "Nilsson". Paul was then asked to name his favorite American group. He replied, "Nilsson". On all but his earliest recordings, he is credited as 'Nilsson', such as "Without You", "I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City", "Everybody's Talkin'," "Coconut" and "Jump into the Fire". As a songwriter, many of his songs, including 'One' and 'Cuddly Toy' have been covered by artists including the Monkees, Three Dog Night and Aimee Mann. His musical legacy continues and his music is featured on dozens of soundtracks of films and TV programs, spanning the 1960s through to the present-day. He was honored with Grammy Awards for two of his recordings "Everybody's Talkin'" in 1969 and again in 1973, when he won the "Best Male Pop Vocal" for his hit "Without You"; received several more Grammy nominations for his album Nilsson Schmilsson (on the night he completed his last album, which as yet, has never been released, Harry sadly died in his sleep of heart failure) b. June 15th 1941.
1996: Les Baxter (73) American saxophonist, pianist; he composed and was arranger for the top swing bands of the '40s and '50s, but he is better known as the founder of exotica, a variation of easy listening that glorified the sounds and styles of Polynesia, Africa, and South America, even as it retained the traditional string-and-horn arrangements of instrumental pop. Les studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer. At the age of 23 he joined Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones, singing on Artie Shaw records such as "What Is This Thing Called Love?". He then turned to arranging and conducting for Capitol Records in 1950 and was credited with the early Nat King Cole hits, "Mona Lisa" and "Too Young", but both were actually orchestrated by Nelson Riddle. (kidney failure) b. March 14th 1922.
1998: Junior Wells/Amos Blakemore (63) American blues vocalist and harmonica player based in Chicago, famous for playing with Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison & appeared in the 1998 movie Blues Brothers 2000 (Junior Wells was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in the summer of 1997, tragically that fall, he suffered a heart attack while undergoing treatment, sending him into a coma. Sadly Wells stayed in the coma until he passed away) b. December 9th 1934.
1999: Marion Ryan (67) English singer, born in Middlesbrough, once called "the Marilyn Monroe of popular song", she was a pop singer of the 1950s in the early years of British Independent Television. She was the regular singer in the popular musical quiz "Spot the Tune", on Granada Television for seven years from 1956, with a total of 209 half-hour programmes, that featured several star hosts including disc-jockey Pete Murray, the Canadian pop singer Jackie Rae, the comedians Ken Platt, Ted Ray, and Peter Knight and his Orchestra. She made one brief appearance as herself in a feature film with singer Tommy Steele (died from heart failure) b. February 4th 1931.
2001: Bob Braun (71) American television host born in Ludlow, Kentucky; his daily 90-minute show was syndicated throughout the heartland of America, and featured a live bands, singers, and special guests (sadly taken by Parkinson's disease and cancer) b. April 20th 1929.
2003: Doris Fisher (87) American singer and songwriter; she sang with Big Bands, on the radio, with the Eddie Duchin Orchestra and led the group "Penny Wise and Her Wise Guys". As a songwriter her hit compositions included "You Always Hurt the One You Love", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", "Amado Mio", "Put the Blame on Mame" and "That Ole Devil Called Love". She also collaborated with Slim Gaillard on "Tutti Frutti". (?) b. May 2nd 1915.
2004: Terje "Valfar" Bakken (25) Norwegian lead singer and founder of the Norwegian Black/Folk Metal band Windir. Windir was started as a one-man project, but it was expanded into a full band with the release of a 3rd album, 1184. Valfar originally sang his lyrics in Sognamål, a dialect of Norwegian, but eventually switched to English. Their last full length album "Likferd" was released in 2003. (died from hypothermia, he went out on a walk heading towards his family's cabin at Fagereggi, but he never arrived. Three days later, authorities found his body at Reppastølen in the Sogndal valley. Valfar had been caught in a snow storm) b. September 3rd 1978.
2005: Victoria de los Angeles López García (81) Spanish Catalan operatic soprano and recitalist of the highest rank whose career began in the early 1940s and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. While she later made fewer appearances in opera, she continued to give recitals, focusing on mostly French and Spanish art songs, into the 1990s. She studied at the Barcelona Conservatory, graduating in just three years in 1941 at age 18. That year, she made her operatic debut as Mimì at the Liceu, but then resumed her musical studies. After winning first prize in the Geneva International Competition in 1947, she sang Salud in Falla's La vida breve with the BBC in London in 1948. She went on to perform around the globe at all the major opera houses. She made many widely acclaimed recordings, including those of La vida breve, La bohème, Pagliacci, and Madama Butterfly (Sadly died from heart failure) b. November 1st 1923.
2008: Bobby Ferrara/Robert Patrick Ferrara (42) American guitarist, shred guitarist and composer; self taught and a world class... READ MORE (sadly died from a fatal heart attack) b. July 22nd 1965
2009: Leroy "Hog" Cooper (80) American saxophone player born in Dallas, Texas. As a young man he played saxophone in his uncle’s jazz ensemble before beginning his formal studies at Tilottson College in Austin, Texas. After a two year stint in the 315th Army Band, he joined the Ray Charles Ensemble recording and concertizing around the world for two decades. Leroy's first recording session with Charles was “Them That Got”, “My Baby! (I Love Her, Yes I Do)” and “Who You Gonna Love?” in 1959. Having performed with numerous legendary jazz artists, he is renowned for his definitive performances on baritone, soprano and tenor saxophones. After leaving Ray, Leroy lived out a happy life in Orlando, Fla., where he played in the Disney band (?) b. August 31st 1928.
2011: Harvey James (58) Australian rock guitarist, born in Melbourne, he was a member of the bands Party Boys, Sherbet, Ariel and Mississippi. He joined the band Mississippi, but they broke up on a visit to the UK in 1973. Back in Australia, Harvey joined progressive rock group Ariel, with Mike Rudd and Bill Putt. He travelled to the UK with them in 1974, where they recorded their 2nd album ''Rock & Roll Scars''. He remained with Ariel until early 1975, by which time the band had added a fifth member, singer-guitarist Glyn Mason. But he shot to national prominence in Australia in early 1975, when he left Ariel to replace founding member Clive Shakespeare in the chart-topping Australian pop band Sherbet. His first recording with them was their biggest hit, "Howzat", which became an Australian No.1 and made the Top 5 in the UK Singles Chart. He remained with the group until they split in 1979. Harvey next co-founded the rock band The Party Boys in 1982, playing on their first two albums ''Live at Several 21sts'' and ''Greatest Hits (of Other People)'', before along with guitarist Clive Shakespeare reuniting Sherbet for several reunions. He also participated in a reunion of the second line-up of Ariel in 1998 (sadly lost his battle against lung cancer) b. September 20th 1952.
2012: Rafael Rincón González (89) Venezuelan singer, composer, bandleader and teacher, born in Maracaibo, As well as performing with the Trío los Melódicos, he founded the bands Los Hermanitos Rincón and El Grupo. He composed more than 600 songs, essentially waltzes, danzas, contradanzas, bambucos and gaitas; among the best known are: “Maracaibo florido”, “Besos inocentes”, “El platanero”, "Cosas del Ayer", “No te puedo Olvidar”, “Danza Zuliana”, “Lamento Goajiro”, “Maracaibera”, “Pregones Zulianos”, “Soberana”, “Mi gaitón”, and “Lago de Maracaibo”. He worked as a music teacher in different schools in which he formed choirs and school music groups, which was an impoertant part of his life (?) b. September 30th 1922.
2012: Fumio Nunoya (64) Japanese singer born in Hakodate; he was the lead singer the band The Bickies and the Psychedelic rock band Blues Creation, releasing made a self-titled album of American blues covers, featuring songs written by Sonny Boy Williamson, Memphis Slim, Chester Burnett, J. Mayall-E. Clapton, Blind Willie Johnson, Willie Dixon and Otis Rush, in 1969; he had formed both of theses bands with Kazuo Takeda. Fumio was also the singer with the band Dew and the band Taboo which he formed with the future Happy End star, Eiichi Otaki (sadly Fumio died from a cerebral hemorrhage) b. January 25th 1947
2013: Yuli Turovsky (73) Russian-born Canadian conductor and cellist born in Moscow. His name is mostly associated with the I Musici de Montréal Chamber Orchestra, which he founded in 1983 and led until his death (sadly died from complications due to Parkinson's disease) b. June 7th 1939.
2013: Ivo Varts (51) Estonian progressive rock drummer; he was a founding member of perhaps the Soviet Union's first punk band, Propeller, formed in 1979. The band was banned by Soviet authorities after their cancelled stadium gig in September 1980 turned into a youth riot with overturned trams and the destruction of police cars. As of October 1st 1980, the band's very name was forbidden, and all recordings that Estonian Radio had were destroyed (the band kept the originals though). Their only CD was recorded in the spring/summer of 1980 and released in 1995 by Fugata Ltd. Over his long career Ivo has played with many other bands including Disturbed, Kaseke, Hook, In Spe, Orange, Mahavoki and Compromise Blue. Since 2000 he had taught at Rocca al Mare School and leader of a drum circle (tragically he died from complications after a fall) b. December 1st 1961.

January 16.
1957: Arturo Toscanini (89) Italian celloist and conductor, born in Parma, Emilia–Romagna; he won a scholarship to the local music conservatory, where he studied the cello. He joined the orchestra of an opera company, which he toured South America in 1886. He went on to be one of the most acclaimed musicians and conductors of the late 19th century and 20th century, he was renowned for his brilliant intensity, his restless perfectionism, and his phenomenal ear for orchestral detail. Over his long career he worked with many top orchestras around the world. As music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra he became a household name through his radio and TV broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire. Artuo was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987 (sadly died of a stroke) b. March 25th 1867.
1963: Ike Quebec (44) American tenor saxophone player, dancer and pianist, born in Newark, New Jersey; he switched to tenor sax as his primary instrument in his early 20s, and quickly earned a reputation. He recorded for Blue Note records in the 40's, and also served as a talent scout for the label, helping pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk come to wider attention and due to Ike's exceptional sight reading skills, he was an uncredited impromptu arranger for many Blue Note sessions. (sadly died of lung cancer) b. August 17th 1918.
1969: Vernon Duke/Vladimir Dukelsky (65) Russian-American composer, songwriter; at 11, he was accepted at the Kiev Conservatory where he studied composition with Reinhold Glière and musical theory with Boleslav Yavorsky. In 1919, his family escaped from the turmoil of civil war in Russia and spent a year and a half with other refugees in Constantinople. In 1921 they obtained American visas and sailed to New York. Vernon is best known for "Taking a Chance on Love" lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche, "I Can't Get Started" lyrics by Ira Gershwin, "April in Paris" with lyrics by E. Y. ("Yip") Harburg, and "What Is There To Say" for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934, also with Harburg. He wrote the words and music for "Autumn in New York" in 1934. Vernon collaborated with lyricists such as Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin, Ogden Nash and Sammy Cahn and his works have been performed and recorded by Tony Bennett, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Wynton Marsalis, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra and Thelonious Monk (died in Santa Monica, California during a lung cancer operation.) b. October 10th 1903.
1972: David Seville/Ross Bagdasarian (52) American Grammy Award winning pianist, singer, songwriter, actor and record producer, born in Fresno, California as a young man, he performed in the Broadway cast of The Time of Your Life and his first musical success was the song he wrote with Saroyan, "Come on-a My House," recorded by Rosemary Clooney in 1951. He was better known by the stage name David Seville, as David Seville, Ross had a number-one hit in the summer of 1958 with the "Witch Doctor," which was his first experiment with speeding an audio track to get a distinctive, squeaky, high-pitched voice, followed by "The Bird on My Head" which wasn't a hit. Then for the 1958 Christmas season came "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" with The Chipmunks, for which he won two Grammy Awards in 1959: Best Comedy Performance and Best Recording for Children. He named the three Chipmunk characters after record executives: Simon Waronker, Ted Keep (Theodore), and Alvin Bennett. (heart attack) b. January 27th 1919.
1990: Fritz "Freddy" Brocksieper (78) German jazz drummer and percussionist; he was a founder member of Charlie and his Orchestra, in 1940, which was led by frontman Karl Schwedler. They made over 90 recordings between March 1941 and February 1943. After the WW2 Freddy went on as a freelance musician and to lead his own bands (?) b. August 24th 1912.
1991: Cladys "Jabbo" Smith (82) American jazz trumpeter and singer; at 6 he went into the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, Sth Carolina where he learned trumpet and trombone, and by age 10 was touring with the Jenkins Band. At age 16 he left the Orphanage to become a professional musician, at first playing in bands in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New Jersey before making his base in Manhattan, New York City from about 1925 through 1928, where he made the first of his well regarded recordings. In the 1930s, he made Milwaukee, Wisconsin his main base, before dropping out of the public eye. Jabbo made a comeback in the late 1960s; many young musicians, fans, and record collectors were surprised to learn that the star of those great 1920s recordings was still alive. Jabbo once again successfully played with bands and shows in New York, New Orleans, Louisiana, London, and France through the 1970s and into the 1980s (?) b. December 24th 1908.
2000: Will "Dub" Jones (71) American singer born in Shreveport, Louisiana; bass vocalist for The Coasters and The Cadets. His best known vocals was on The Cadets' biggest hit "Stranded In The Jungle". In 1956, he sang on The Crescendos' recording "Sweet Dreams" and in '57, he sang with Jesse Belvin & The Space Riders on the single "My Satellite" / "Just To Say Hello." He had also recorded with Cora Washington, billed as Cora And Dub. Will joined The Coasters in 1958, and his bass vocals are show cased on The Coasters' hits "Yakety Yak" and "Charlie Brown". Will also recorded with later versions of The Coasters on the '76 album The World Famous Coasters and with Billy Guy's group of Coasters in 1977 (sadly died from the effects of diabetes) b. May 14th 1928.
2000: John Morris Rankin (40) Canadian pianist and fiddle player and a member of The Rankin Family along with his siblings, Heather, Cookie, Jimmy, and Raylene, a Canadian celtic family group from Mabou, Nova Scotia. The group won many Canadian music awards, including 15 East Coast Music Awards, six Juno Awards, four SOCAN Awards, three Canadian Country Music Awards and two Big Country Music Awards. Their many hits included "Orangedale Whistle", "Fare Thee Well Love", "Gillis Mountain", 'Movin' On', 'Long way To Go', "North Country" and "Roving Gypsy Boy" (tragically killed in a car accident in Margaree Harbour, Nova Scotia) b. April 28th 1959.
2001: Virginia Lee O'Brien (51) American actress and singer known for her comedic roles in MGM musicals of the 1940s. Among the films she appeared in during her time at MGM were The Big Store with the Marx Brothers, Ship Ahoy with Eleanor Powell and Red Skelton, Thousands Cheer, Du Barry Was a Lady with Skelton and Lucille Ball, The Harvey Girls with Judy Garland and Ziegfeld Follies. After appearing once again with Red Skelton in 1947's Merton of the Movies, and a guest appearance the following year in the short Musical Merry-Go-Round (undisclosed causes) b. April 18th 1919
2002: Eddie Meduza/Errol Leonard Norstedt (53) Swedish singer-songwriter, composer and guitarist working mainly in the rockabilly genre. Many of his songs are about alcohol, women, cars, and often with obscene lyrics especially while under the guise of E.Hitler. Sometimes they were politically oriented, many aimed at the Swedish Social Democrats. He was a popular performer of Raggare music (alcohol abuse related) b. June 17th 1948.
2004: Czeslaw Niemen/Czeslaw Juliusz Wydrzycki (64) Polish singer, songwriter, multi-musician; one of the most important and original Polish singer-songwriters and rock balladeers of the last quarter-century, singing mainly in the Polish language. He made his debut in the early 1960s, singing Polish rock and soul music. He possessed an unusually wide voice range and equally rich intonation. He was an ardent composer and a keyboard player. After his first successful concerts in France, he started to use the pseudonym Niemen. In the early 70s, Niemen recorded 3 English language albums on the CBS label. In 1974 he recorded Mourner's Rhapsody with Jan Hammer and Rick Laird from Mahavishnu Orchestra. In the seventies, Niemen turned to jazz-rock fusion and electronic music - Katharsis album. In 1972 he also contributed with a song performed by him in "Wesele"/The Wedding 1972 film. Later, Niemen also composed film soundtracks and theater music. In the 1990s he showed interest in art painting and computer graphics. He died of cancer in Warsaw. (sadly lost his battle with cancer) b. February 16th 1939.
2007: Thornton James "Pookie" Hudson (72) American lead singer and songwriter for the doo wop group The Spaniels, who lent his tenor vocals to hits like "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight" and influenced generations of later artists. Some historians of vocal groups consider Pookie to be the first true leader of a vocal group, because the Spaniels pioneered the technique of having the main singer solo at his own microphone, while the rest of the group shared a second microphone (sadly died after a fight with cancer) b. June 11th 1934.
2009: Gordon "Whitey" Mitchell (76) American jazz musician and comedy writer; he began on tuba and clarinet before choosing bass as his first instrument. He played with Elinor Sherry and Shep Fields in the early '50s before serving in the Army during the Korean War. From 1954 he worked freelance in New York City, playing with the likes of Gene Krupa, Tony Scott, J.J. Johnson, Kai Winding, Lester Young, Charlie Ventura, Herbie Mann, Betty Roche, Oscar Pettiford, Gene Quill, Mat Mathews, Joe Puma, Johnny Richards, Peter Appleyard, Andre Previn, and Benny Goodman. He released an album under his own name in 1956, and worked with Red and Blue Mitchell in 1958 as "The Mitchells" on a Metrojazz release. 1965 saw him in Hollywood as a television writer and producer. He worked on shows such as Get Smart, All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Odd Couple, Mork and Mindy, and several Bob Hope television specials. In 1995 he moved to Palm Desert, California, where he had his own radio show (sadly lost his battle with cancer) b. February 22nd 1932
2010: Carl Smith (82) American country singer-songwriter and musician born in Maynardville, Tennessee. At 15, he started performing in a band called Kitty Dibble and Her Dude Ranch Ranglers. By age 17, he had learned to play the string bass and spent his summer vacation working at WROL-AM in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he performed on Cas Walker's radio show. Carl went on to become one of country's most successful male artists during the 1950s, with 30 Top 10 hits. His success continued well into the 1970s, when he had a charting single every year except one. His many hits included "Let's Live a Little", "Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way", "(When You Feel Like You're in Love) Don't Just Stand There", "Are You Teasing Me", "Hey Joe", "Back Up Buddy", "There She Goes", "You Are the One" and "Ten Thousand Drums" He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Carl was was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2003. (natural causes) b. March 15th 1927
2011: Augusto Algueró (76) Spanish composer and conductor, born in Barcelona, he split his student days in the Municipal Conservatory with Medical School, and also started his professional musical career in the early 1950s aged just 16. His most famous compositions are Penélope, which he wrote specially for Joan Manuel Serrat, as well as Noelia for Nino Bravo, Tómbola for Marisol and La chica ye-ye for Concha Velasco. In all, during the course of his career, Augusto wrote more than 500 songs and about 200 musical scores for films and television. (sadly Augusto died of a cardiac arrest) b. February 23rd 1934.
2011: Steve Prestwich (56) Australian drummer born in Liverpool, UK, where he was a member of the folk/rock band, Sandy, in 1970. The following year he relocating to Australia with his family when he was 17. He was the founding and long-term drummer for rockers Cold Chisel which he formed in Adelaide, in 1973. Steve wrote the Cold Chisel's songs, "When the War Is Over" and "Forever Now", from the 1982 album Circus Animals. He had a short spell in Little River Band from 1984–1986. He toured America and released two albums with them, "When the War Is Over" and "Forever Now". Steve also released two solo albums, ''Since You've Been Gone'' and ''Every Highway'' which was released in October 2009 (sadly died from a brain tumor) b. March 5th 1954.
2012: Gustav Leonhardt (83) Dutch harpsichordist, keyboardist and conductor born in 's-Graveland, and he studied organ and harpsichord at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel from 1947 to 1950. He made his first recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach's works for harpsichord in the early 1950s. He went on to become one of Holland's most renowned musicians and conductors. Among the awards given to him were the Medal of Honour for the Arts and Sciences from the Netherlands, presented to him by Queen Beatrix in 2009, and the 1980 Erasmus Prize, he shared with Nicolaus Harnoncourt, honouring their recording of the complete Bach cantatasgave. Gustav gave his last public performance on December 12th 2011 at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris, and cancelling all his 2012 engagments, he announced his retirement due to ill health (?) b. May 30th 1928
2012: Jimmy Castor (71) American funk and R&B saxophonist and singer born in New York City. He wrote and recorded "I Promise to Remember" in 1956, prior to replacing Frankie Lymon in The Teenagers in 1957 and then switching to the saxophone in 1960. He had a solo hit with "Hey Leroy, Your Mama's Callin' You" in 1966. Jimmy also played sax on Dave "Baby" Cortez's hit "Rinky Dink". He formed the Jimmy Castor Bunch in 1972 and signed with RCA. As leader of The Jimmy Castor Bunch in the 1970s, and also as a solo artist, he has released several successful albums and singles. The group reached the peak of their commercial success in 1972 with the release of their album, It's Just Begun, which featured two hit singles: the title track and "Troglodyte (Cave Man)," which was a large hit in the U.S., peaking at No.6 in the Billboard Hot 100. He continued the trend in 1975 with "The Bertha Butt Boogie" and later recorded "E-Man Boogie", "King Kong", "Bom Bom", "Potential" and his 1988 hit "Love Makes a Woman" (sadly Jimmy died from heart failure) b. June 23rd 1940



January 17.
1969: Grazyna Bacewicz (59) Polish composer and violinist. She is only the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century. She studied with Sikorski at the Warsaw Conservatory and with Boulanger in Paris, simultaneously studying the violin: she wrote much for her own instrument, including 7 concertos and solo and accompanied sonatas. Most of her music is neoclassical, but in the early 1960s she began to incorporate elements of the new Polish style exemplified by her contemporary Lutoslawski, and in 1965 she adopted an avant-garde idiom. Her large output includes four symphonies, piano music, ballets and songs.(?) b. February 5th 1909
1970: Billy Stewart (33) American R&B singer; with a highly distinctive scat-singing style, popular in the early 1960s. Born in Washington DC, he was 12 years old when he began singing with his brothers Johnny 11, James 9 and Frank 4 as the 4 Stewart Brothers, and later went on to get their own radio show every Sunday for five years at WUST radio station in Washington, D.C. After that, as a teenager, he joined his mother's group, the Stewart Gospel Singers. He occasionally sang with The Rainbows, a D.C. area vocal group led by the future soul star, Don Covay. It was also through The Rainbows that Stewart met another aspiring singer, Marvin Gaye. Bo Diddley has been credited with discovering Billy playing piano in Washington, D.C. in 1956 and inviting him to be one of his backup musicians. This led to a recording contract and he went on to have hits such as "Reap What You Sow", "Strange Feeling", "Do I Love You", "Summertime" and "Sitting in the Park". Billy was inducted into the Washington Area Music Association Hall of Fame in 1982 (Tragically Billy and three of his band were killed when their car crashed off a bridge into the Neuse River in New Bern, North Carolina) b. March 24th 1937.
1992: Charlie Ventura (75) American swing-oriented tenor saxophonist and bandleader born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; he is noted for his attempt at popularizing bebop during the tail end of the music's mid- to late-'40s heyday. He had his first successes as a featured soloist with Gene Krupa after joining the band in 1942. In 1945 he won the Down Beat readers' poll in the tenor saxophone division. In the late 1940 he ran a few successful ensembles and went on to be known for "Bop for the People" with Jackie Cain, and Roy Kral. After the 1950s he did few recordings and led another big band, a highly acclaimed group called the Big Four with Chubby Jackson, Buddy Rich, and Marty Napoleon. He also briefly ran his own night club in Philadelphia and he continued to work with Krupa into the '60s. Charlie worked with Jackie Gleason in Las Vegas and fronted various groups in the '70s and '80s (sadly Charlie died fightimg cancer) b. December 2nd 1916.
1993: Barbara Buczek (53) Polish composer born in Kraków (?) b. January 9th 1940.
1994: Georges Cziffra (72) Hungarian virtuoso pianist; he became noted at 5 years, improvising on popular tunes in bars and circuses. An attempted escape from Soviet-dominated Hungary led to imprisonment and communist forced labour in the period 1950–1953. In 1956, on the eve of the Hungarian insurrection, Georges escaped with his wife and son to Vienna where his recital at the Brahmsaal caused a sensation. News of this event reached the magazine The New Yorker. His Paris debut the following year caused a furore, his London debut at the Royal Festival Hall in Liszt's first concerto and Hungarian Fantasy similarly, an enraptured orchestra and audience applauding and cheering for over twenty minutes. His meteoric career continued with concerts throughout Europe and debuts at the Ravinia Festival and Carnegie Hall New York with Thomas Schippers. He always performed with a large leather wristband to support the ligaments of his wrist which were stretched while being tortured in prison and also as a memento of his years in labour (died of a heart attack resulting from series of complications from lung cancer) b. November 5th 1921.
1996: Harry Robinson/Henry Robertson (63) Scottish musician, bandleader, music director and composer, born in Elgin, Morayshire. He produced and composed the music of Hawk the Slayer-1980, Prisoners of the Lost Universe-1982 and Jane and the Lost City-1988 to mention a few. He wrote a number of film scripts, television series and books, including The Electric Eskimo, The Boy Who Never Was, Sammy's Super T-Shirt and was a regular composer for Hammer Film Productions. He was also the musical director of the British television pop music programmes, Six-Five Special-1957 and Oh Boy!-1959 ITV. He arranged and conducted the stage shows, Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be-1960 and Maggie May-1964 and also co-wrote the West End hit musical Elvis. Harry was the conductor for the United Kingdom entry in the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest. He also wrote highly acclaimed string arrangements for English folk singers, such as Nick Drake, notably, "River Man", from Drake's debut album, Five Leaves Left and Sandy Denny. He created and wrote the music of Virtual Murder and also wrote and producted the chart topping Hoots Mon (?) b. 19 November 1932
1998: David "Junior" Kimbrough (67) American Mississippi bluesman, although he began playing guitar in his youth, and counted Lightnin' Hopkins as an early influence, he only came to national attention in 1992 with his debut album ''All Night Long'', followed by "Sad Days, Lonely Nights" in 1993. He recorded seven more albums before his death. Music journalist Tony Russell stated "his raw, repetitive style suggests an archaic forebear of John Lee Hooker (sadly David died of a stroke) b. July 28th 1930.
2000: Philip Jones (71) British trumpeter and leader of an internationally famous brass chamber music ensemble, born in Bath; in 1944 he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. He formed the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble in 1951, they grew from four members to ten and larger for special projects. The most usual formations were the quintet, two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba; and the ten-piece, four trumpeters one sometimes doubling piccolo, trumpet and sometimes doubling flugel horn, horn, four trombones and tuba. He became principal trumpet for most major London orchestras: The Royal Philharmonic 56-60, the Philharmonia 60-64, the Philharmonic 64-65, the New Philharmonia 65-67 and the BBC Symphony 67-71. He also held posts at the Royal Northern College of Music and Trinity College of Music, where he was Principal until his retirement in 1994. He was chairman of the Musicians Benevolent Fund in 1995 and awarded the OBE in 1977 and the CBE in 1986 (?) b. March 12th 1928.
2003: Balint Vazsonyi (66) Hungarian pianist, global recitalist, soloist with leading orchestras, and political journalist. From 1945-56 he attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from which he earned an Artist Diploma. He made his debut in Budapest at age 12 with the F Minor Concerto of J.S.Bach. He went on to make performance history in playing chronological cycles of all 32 piano sonatas by Beethoven over two days in New York, Boston, and London. After being based in London for 14 years, in 1978-84 Balint was invited to be Professor of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington School of Music where, as well as having a private piano studio, he conducted all Doctoral Seminars in Piano Literature. During the last 6 years of his life, he became a commentator in Washington, D.C. on the state of American politics. (?) b. March 7th 1936.
2008: Carlos/Jean Chrysostome Dolto (64) French singer; one of France's popular chart selling singers in the 70's and 80's with hits like "Tout nu, tout bronzé", "Rosalie", "Papayou", "T'as l'bonjour d'Albert" and "Le tirelipimpon". He was renamed Carlos in 1958, in homage to the percussionist Carlos "Patato" Valdes. In 1980, he became a spokesman for the Oasis brand fruit drink, with his song "Rosalie" being used in their television advertisements. In 1988, he was named the mascot of the amusement park Mirapolis, open in the Val-d'Oise, which quickly went bankrupt. He ran for office in the local elections in Courdimanche in 1989, but was not elected. He regularly participated in the radio program Grosses Têtes of Philippe Bouvard and had his own cartoon, Around the World in 80 Dreams, in 1992. He was also the narrator of the French version of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. From 2000 to 2007, he directed documentary films for the series Le Gros homme et la Mer (The Fat Man and the Sea), for the stations Odyssée and Voyage (lost to cancer) b. February 20th 1943.
2009: Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson/Susanna Foster (84) American film actress and singer; she was taken to Hollywood at the age of 20 by MGM, who sent her to school and groomed her for an acting and singing career. Two of her classmates at this school were Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. She had appeared in 12 films, but is best known for her role as Christine in the 1943 film, The Phantom of the Opera (Died unexpectedly at The Lillian Booth Actor's Home in Englewood, New Jersey where she had been residing since 2003) b. December 6th 1924
2011: Don Kirshner (76) American song publisher and rock producer known for his managing songwriting talent as well as successful pop groups, such as The Monkees and The Archies. He achieved his first major success in the late '50s and early '60s as co-owner of the influential New York-based publishing company Aldon Music with partner Al Nevins, which had under contract at various times several of the most important songwriters of the so-called "Brill Building" school, including Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Jack Keller. As a producer-promoter, he was influential in starting off the career of singers and songwriters, including Bobby Darin, Neil Diamond, Carole King, and Sarah Dash of Labelle, as well as discovering the occasional rock act such as Kansas. Don was hired by the producers of The Monkees to provide hitworthy songs to accompany the television program, within a demanding schedule. He quickly corralled songwriting talent from his Brill Building stable of writers and musicians to create catchy, engaging tracks which the band could pretend to perform on the show. September 1973 he hosted his own syndicated weekly rock-concert program called Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. With its long-form live performances, as compared to rehearsed, often lip-synced performances that were the staple of earlier television shows like Shindig!, it was a new direction for pop music presentation. The last show aired in 1981, the year that MTV was launched. Don received the 2007 Songwriters Hall of Fame Abe Olman Publishing Award (sadly die of heart failure) b. April 17th 1934.
2012: Johnny Otis/Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes (90) Pioneering rhythm and blues singer, talent scout, disc jockey, composer, arranger, author, record producer, vibraphonist, drummer, bandleader, pastor and commonly referred to as the "Godfather of Rhythm and Blues", was born Ioannis Veliotes, in Vallejo, a predominantly black neighborhood in California, where he started out playing drums in a variety of swing orchestras, including Lloyd Hunter's Serenaders, and Harlan Leonard's Rockets, after which he founded his own band in 1945 and had one of the most enduring hits of the big band era, "Harlem Nocturne". Other of his hits included "Double Crossing Blues," "Mistrustin' Blues", "Cupid's Boogie", "Gee Baby", "All Nite Long" "Mambo Boogie", "Sunset to Dawn" and "Ma He's Making Eyes At Me". In the late 1940s ... >>> READ MORE <<< (?) b. December 28th 1921.
2013: Lizbeth Webb/Betty Webb/Elizabeth Holton (86) English soprano and stage actress born in Reading. She began her career as a teenage band vocalist under the name Betty Webb, singing to the troops during World War II and freelancing with British bands such as those of Geraldo, Albert Sandler, Henry Hall, Louis Levy and, particularly, Jack Payne. She was also a regular on programmes such as Happidrome, Workers Playtime, Kaleidoscope, "Music Hall", Variety Bandbox, Four and Twenty, The Forces Show with Diana Dors, Jack Buchanan and Bob Monkhouse, Follies of the Air with Sonnie Hale, Home At Eight with Hermione Gingold and Richard Attenborough and Friday Night Is Music Night. Among the conductors she sang with were George Melachrino, Mantovani, Richard Tauber, Harry Rabinowitz, Stanley Black, Max Jaffa, Charles Mackerras, both Eric and Stanford Robinson and Vilém Tauský. She then pursued a career in West End musicals, playing such roles as Lucy Willow in Bless the Bride, Linda in Ivor Novello's Gay's the Word, Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls and title role of The Merry Widow. In 1953, she featured in the Royal Command Performance in front of the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth (?) b. January 30th 1926.
2013: Homayoun Khorram (82) Iranian violinist and composer; he began his music career as a violinist at the age of 10 by participating in master Abolhassan Saba violin and Radif classes. After four years he entered the State National Radio Orchestra as a violin soloist and afterwords as a concert maestro. He composed many songs for notable singers including Hossein Ghavami, Marzieh, Hayedeh, Shajarian and made over a hundred pieces for violin and orchestra, charmezrabs, overtures in collaboration with outstanding contemporary artists including Javad Maroufi, Jalil Shahnaz, and Farhang Sharif (sadly died fighting cancer) b. June 30th 1930.
2013: Claude Black (80) American jazz pianist, born in Detroit; he began his jazz career in 1948 playing in various bands and in 1952 he was drafted into the Army, where he spent much of that time playing music. When he was discharged he met bassist Clifford Murphy and they formed a musical partnership that lasted more than 40 years. A big break came in 1965 when he began to tour with Aretha Franklin. He has also performed with Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, Fats Waller, Wes Montgomery among many others. As the house pianist for Murphy’s Place for more than two decades he worked with younger musicians, teaching them the personal and musical skills he had learned over the years (sadly Claude died fighting cancer) b. 1933.
2013: Sophiya Haque (41) English actress, singer, video jockey and dancer born in Plymouth. She started as the lead vocalist in the band Akasa; they signed a deal with Warner Bros in 1988. Subsequently she worked as a video jockey for MTV Asia for seven years and Channel V. In 2002, Sophiya returned to the UK to star in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bombay Dreams. In 2005, she starred in the West End theatre musical production of The Far Pavilions and in 2012 she starred in Wah! Wah! Girls (?) b. June 14th 1971.
2013: Claudio Leo (40) Italian guitarist; he was a co-founder and guitarist with the Italian gothic metal band based in Milan, Lacuna Coil in 1994. He was an integral part of the Lacuna Coil line up in the early stages, then named Sleep of Right and appeared on the band's demo tape when they were called Ethereal and also recorded their 1998 self-titled EP, Lacuna Coil. He left the band in 1998 and along with fellow guitarist Raffaele Zagaria, formed the gothic rock band Cayne, releasing their debut full length album "Old Faded Pictures" in 2001. Claudio's final album, a self-titled album with the band, will released, posthumously, on February 14th (Claudio had reportedly been battling a serious disease, from which he has sadly died) b. 1973
2013: Nic Potter (61) English bassist born in Swindon; at 16, he joined a late lineup of The Misunderstood, and recorded on their 1969 LP Golden Glass. When Van der Graaf Generator decided to reform after a brief hiatus, Nic replaced their earlier bassist Keith Ellis. He first appeared on the album "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other", also playing some electric guitar on a few tracks in addition to his usual bass. He left the band in 1970 during the recording of their next album, ‘H to He, Who Am The Only One’, on which he recorded 3 tracks. He then joined Rare Bird, with whom he recorded two LPs in 1972 & 73. Though no longer a member of Van Der Graaf, he continued to play on Hammill’s solo recordings, 14 in all between 1971-94 and eventually returned to the band in 1977 to play on two more LPs. During the ’80s and ’90s he released nine solo albums and continued session work with Hammill and others, including Jeff Beck, Paul Kossoff and Chuck Berry (Nic was admitted to University College Hospital suffering from pneumonia, of which he sadly died) b. October 18th 1951.

January 18.
1984: Vassilis Tsitsanis (69) Greek singer, songwriter and bouzouki player. He became one of the leading Greek composers of his time and is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern Rebetika. He wrote more than 500 songs and is still remembered as an extraordinary bouzouki player, he also played the mandolin, violin (sadly he died on his birthday at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London following a lung operation) b. January 18th 1915.
1997: Keith Diamond (46) Americn songwriter and producer who worked with artists such as Donna Summer, Michael Bolton, Mick Jagger, and Don Johnson. He also produced and wrote Billy Ocean's "Suddenly," "Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)," "Loverboy," and "Mystery Lady," as well as producing and managing groups such as Starpoint and Fredrick Thomas. He also produced and co-wrote James Ingram's album entitled "Always" in 1986, at the request of Quincy Jones who was tied up with scoring the film Color Purple. (heart attack) b. 1950
1990: Mel Appleby (23) British singer, born in Hackney, London; initially worked as a glamour model before joining her sister Kim to form the duo Mel & Kim which recieved success between 1986 and 1988 before Mel succumbed to terminal illness. Their hits included "Showing Out (Get Fresh at the Weekend)", "Respectable", "F.L.M", "That's the Way It Is", "More Than Words Can Say" and "I'm the One Who Really Loves You" (Mel had an operation to remove a large tumour on her liver in 1985, the cancer returned to her spine in mid 1987. She sadly died from pneumonia following treatment for her spinal cancer) b. July 11th 1966.
2007: Brent Liles (43) American bass player in the rock bands Social Distortion from 1981-1984 and Agent Orange from 1988-1992. Brent also briefly played guitar for the bands Chaotic Stature and Easter. He also appeared in the 1984 documentary Another State of Mind. There is a notable scene in this film where he gives orange juice to an out of control fan on the stage. His songwriting credits include "Mass Hysteria" with Social Distortion and "Broken Dreams" with Agent Orange. He was known for playing a Rickenbacker fretless bass, which is rarely seen in punk rock (died after being hit by a truck while cycling) b. September 7th 1963.
2008: Frank Lewin (82) American composer and music theorist, born in Breslau, Germany. He and his family escaped from Germany in 1939, spent a year in Cuba, and went to America in 1940. He studied composition with at the Baldwin Conservatory, New York; Southern Methodist University; in Logan, Utah; and the Yale School of Music, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree in 51. Frank composed and edited music for feature, documentary, and television films, including dozens of original scores for The Defenders and The Nurses. He wrote music for plays from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams, and composed scores for historical dramas by Paul Green and others, in various parts of the country. He also wrote a number of concert compositions including two operas, l orchestral works, concertos for viola and harmonica, song cycles, and choral music. Frank was also a professor at the Yale School of Music from 1971 to 1992, teaching composition for film; and at the Columbia University School of the Arts from 1975 to 1989, where he taught the course "Music in Modern Media" (?) b. March 27th 1925.
2010: Kate McGarrigle (63) Canadian folk singer, born in Montreal, but grew up in the Laurentian Mountains village of Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts, Quebec. Kate wrote and performed as a duo with her sister Anna McGarrigle. Kate and Anna's 1975 self-titled debut album was chosen by Melody Maker as Best Record of the Year. Their albums Matapedia in '97 and The McGarrigle Hour in '99, won Juno Awards. In 1993, Kate was made a Member of the Order of CanadaIn and in 1999 Kate and Anna both received Women of Originality awards and in 2006 SOCAN Lifetime Achievement awards. Kate is also the mother of singers Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright (sadly died of clear cell sarcoma) b. February 6th 1946... Read More
2011: Purushottam Das Jalota (84) Indian singer, a legend in music circles, he was one of the most celebrated exponents of devotional singing and considered as the great master of Bhajans (sadly died at home 2 weeks after suffering a heart attack) b. ????
2011: Cristian Paturca (46) Romanian composer born in Bucharest, he was the composer of a song called, Imnul Golanilor/The Hooligans’ Hymn, that inspired Romanians in their struggle against vestiges of the Communist government. The president of Romania, Traian Basescu, awarded Cristian the National Cross in April for faithful service (he died after a long brave battle with tuberculosis) b. September 10th 1964.


January 19.
1576: Hans Sachs (71) German singer, poet, playwright and shoemaker; in 1513 he took up an apprenticeship to become a mastersinger at Munich. He is considered the most talented and famous of the meistersingers, he wrote over 6000 pieces of various kinds. The strict rules and the craftsmen's approach to poetry of the mastersingers produced a kind of poetry that was not really palatable for later ages. His carnival plays, comedies that were meant to be played during carnival, are considered his best works and are still played today (?) b. September 5th 1494.
1971: Harry Shields (71) American jazz clarinetist, born in uptown New Orleans, Louisiana, the younger brother of noted clarinetist Larry Shields. Harry spent almost his whole career in New Orleans. He played with the bands of Norman Brownlee, Sharkey Bonano, Tom Brown, Johnny Wiggs, and others. Many fellow musicians regarded Harry as superior to his more famous brother, Larry. Johnny Wiggs commented that he was the only clarinetist he'd heard who could always play the right note without fail (?) b. June 30th 1899.
1972: Michael Rabin (35) American violinist of Romanian-Jewish descent. He began to learn the violin at 7 and studied with Galamian in New York and at the Meadowmount School of Music, then the Juilliard School. He went on to appear with a number of orchestras before his Carnegie Hall debut on 29 November 1951 in the Paganini D major Concerto, with Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting the New York Philharmonic at the age of 15. He first appeared in London on 13 December 1954, aged only 18, playing the Tchaikovsky Concerto in D at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Michael played in a bel canto style and toured widely, playing in all the major cities of the U.S., Europe, South America and Australia. He performed for many years on the "Kubelik" Guarnerius del Gesu of 1735 (he died from a head injury from a fall at his New York apartment) b. May 2nd 1936.
1977: Yvonne Printemps (82) French singer and actress born in Ermont, Paris; she made her debut at the age of 12 in a revue at La Cigale in Paris. She was dancing at the Folies Bergère at age 13. Nicknamed Printemps by her fellow chorus members because of her sunny disposition, she started in operetta, appearing in such works as Les Contes de Perrault-1913 and Le Poilu -1916. Her voice and stage presence made her a great star at a young age, appearing as a teenager with the greatest stars of the day, Maurice Chevalier and Mistinguett. Yvonne performed in Paris and at London's West End before going to America to star on Broadway. She appeared in nine motion pictures, including the starring role in both the stage and screen versions of Trois Valses. In 1994, the government of France placed her image on a postage stamp (?) b. July 25th 1894.
1982: Elis Regina (36) Brazilian singer born in Porto Alegre and went on to become one of the most ferociously talented singers to emerge from Brazil. She began her career as a singer at age 11 on a children's radio show, O Clube Do Guri on Rádio Farroupilha. In 1959, she was contracted by Rádio Gaúcha and in the next year she travelled to Rio de Janeiro where she recorded her first LP, Viva a Brotolândia. Her recordings sold well and she was soon a teenage star. Elis's career showed no signs of slowing as the 1970s came to a close; some of her best records were recorded during this time, and one album simply called Elis & Tom, recorded in Los Angeles with Antonio Carlos Jobim, has been called by many journalists and musicians one of the greatest Brazilian pop records ever made. (Sadly she was found dead of alcohol and cocaine intoxication. A few days after her death, a memorial concert was held in São Paulo featuring many of Brazil's most famous singers. Over 100,000 grieving Brazilians came to pay their final respects to this highly gifted singer) b. March 17th 1945.
1990: Alberto Semprini (81) English pianist; born in Bath, Somerset, he was famous for appearances on the BBC, mainly on radio. He showed early talent for both the piano and cello and graduated in 1928 from the Verdi Conservatory in Milan, having studied composition and conducting as well as honing his skills at the piano. His initial fame came from headlining a light music programme, Semprini Serenade, which he introduced with the words: "Old ones, new ones, loved ones, neglected ones". It first aired on BBC Radio in 1957 and continued for around 25 years. His 'house band' was the New Abbey Light Symphony Orchestra. Alberto also wrote a number of original compositions on the lighter side of the musical repertoire, including Mediterranean Concerto, which he used as the theme tune for his radio show. (?) b. March 27th 1908.
1995: Gene MacLellan (56) Canadian composer and singer born in Val-d'Or, Quebec, he grew up in Toronto, Ontario. Among his notable compositions were "Snowbird", made famous by Anne Murray, "Put Your Hand in the Hand," made famous by the band Ocean, "The Call", "Pages of Time" and "Thorn in My Shoe". Elvis Presley, Joan Baez and Bing Crosby were among the many artists who recorded his songs and in he won a Juno Award in 1971 as best songwriter. Gene was a frequent guest on Don Messer's Jubilee and later a regular cast member of Singalong Jubilee with Anne Murray and Bill Langstroth. In 1996 Gene was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. (reportedly suicide) b. February 2nd 1938.
1998: Carl Perkins (65) American singer, guitarist, songwriter, a pioneer of rockabilly music, his influence as the quintessential rockabilly artist has played a big part in the development of every generation of rockers to come down the path since, from Jimi Hendrix to the Beatles' George Harrison to the Stray Cats' Brian Setzer. Born in Tiptonville, Tennessee, he was crowned "the King of Rockabilly", his best known song is his self penned "Blue Suede Shoes" which was the first record by a Sun label artist to sell a million copies. Other songs include "Turn Around", "Gone Gone Gone" "Dixie Fried", "Put Your Cat Clothes On", "Right String, Wrong Yo-Yo", "You Can't Make Love to Somebody", "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby", "That Don't Move Me", "Boppin' the Blues" "Jive After Five", "Rockin' Record Hop", "Levi Jacket (And a Long Tail Shirt)", "Pop, Let Me Have the Car", "Hambone", "Pink Pedal Pushers", "Anyway the Wind Blows", "Pointed Toe Shoes", and "Sister Twister" among many others. Carl was inducted into the Rock and Roll, the Rockabilly, and the Nashville Songwriters Halls of Fame; and was a Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipient (sadly died after suffering two strokes) b. April 9th 1932.
2006: Wilson Pickett (63) American R&B, rock and roll and soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100. Among his best known hits are "In the Midnight Hour", "Land of 1,000 Dances", "Mustang Sally", and "Funky Broadway". The impact of Pickett's songwriting and recording led to his 1991 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ...READ MORE... (heart attack) b. March 18th 1941.
2007: Murat Nasyrov (37) Russian pop singer and composer born in Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union, (tragically jumped off a balcony, for reasons unknown. There were reports that it was the result of ingesting the hallucinagenic drug LSD, possibly dissolved in some alcohol he drank a few hours before his death, although the postmortem examination of a body did not reveal any traces of alcohol or drugs) b. December 13th 1969.
2007: Denny Doherty (66) Canadian singer-songwriter and guitaristDenny was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1960, aged 19, Denny co-founded a folk group called The Colonials in Montreal, Quebec. When they got a record deal with Columbia Records, they changed their name to The Halifax Three, and had a minor hit, "The Man Who Wouldn't Sing Along With Mitch" In 1963, Doherty struck up a friendship with Cass Elliot when she was with a band called "The Big Three". Shortly after a tour together ...READ MORE... (sadly died of kidney failure following surgery on a abdominal aneurysm) b. November 29th 1940.
2008: John Stewart (68) American songwriter singer and musician, he demonstrated an early talent for music, learning the guitar and banjo, and composing his first song "Shrunken Head Boogie" when he was just ten years old. He formed a school garage band known as "Johnny Stewart and the Furies." Influenced by the icons of the day, Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, the Furies toured southern California colleges and coffee houses, releasing one single, "Rockin' Anna," which was a minor, regional hit. John is better known for his contributions to the American folk music movement of the 1960s while a member of The Kingston Trio from 1961to 1967. As a songwriter he wrote the song "Daydream Believer," which was a huge number one hit for the Monkees, followed by the hit "Gold" for Fleetwood Mac. Among the dozens of songs he has written and recorded many have been covered by artists from Pat Boone to The Four Tops to Joan Baez. (massive stroke or brain aneurysm) b. September 5th 1939.
2012: Dave Millen (66) English lead guitarist for the pop/beat group from Preston, Lancashire, The Puppets. They backed artists such as Brenda Lee, The Ronettes, Dee Dee Sharp, Gene Vincent, Vince Eager, Marty Wilde, Michael Cox, Duffy Power, Jess Conrad Crispian St. Peters, Billy Fury and Millie (?) b. January 29th 1943
2012: Anthony Gonsalves (84) Indian film music composer born in the village of Majorda; during the mid-1950s, attempted to merge the symphonies of his Goan heritage with the Hindustani melodies and rhythms in films of the day. In 1958, he founded the Indian Symphony Orchestra (not the Symphony Orchestra of India) featuring playback singers Lata Mangeshkar and Manna Dey as soloists. In 1965, he quit the film industry and went to the United States, via a travelling grant from Syracuse University in New York. He became a member of the American Society of Composers, Publishers and Authors, and later in returned to India, settled in his ancestral village of Majorda in Goa, and continued composing music (sadly died from pneumonia and hypotension) b. 1927.
2012: Winston Riley (65) Jamaican reggae musician and producer, born in Kingston, Jamaica. He started in the music industry at 16 years old in 1962, when he formed The Techniques harmony group, which recorded their first tracks for Byron Lee, and then later recorded for Duke Reid. In 1968, he left the group and formed his own Techniques record label, moving into production, producing artistes like Boris Gardiner, The Escorts, Alton and Hortense Ellis, and Johnny Osbourne. His own song, "Double Barrel", performed by Dave and Ansell Collins under Riley's own production, was one of the first international reggae hits, reaching No.1 in the Dutch and UK Singles Chart (On 1 November 2011, Winston was shot in the head at his home in Kingston. He had been the subject of several earlier attacks. Sadly he died after being in a coma since the shooting) b. May 14th 1943.
2012: Errol Scorcher/Errol Archer (55) Jamaican reggae DJ, he had several hits in the 1970s with tracks such as "Jolly Bus-Ting", "Engineers Affair" and "Peace Truce". In 1978 he joined Nicodemus, Nigger Kojak, and Mother Liza on Prince Jammy's Tapetone sound system, which soon became Jamaica's top system. His first album, Rasta Fire, was also released on the United Artists offshoot Ballistic, on which he was backed by The Revolutionaries. In '79 he had a hit with "Roach in a De Corner" and "Frog In a Water". He worked with Ansell Collins on a series of recordings including "Mosquitoes", which was also a hit. He also set up his own Scorcher label and began production work on both his own recordings and for artists such as Tony Tuff (?) b. 1956
2012: Giancarlo Bigazzi (71) Italian record producer, composer, lyricist, and the former bandleader of the group of Squallor. Born in Florence, he went on to write some of the greatest hit records of Italian pop music, including Red Roses; Blue-eyed Lisa; I love you; Gloria; You Can Give More; Seafarers, Self Control; Men Do Not Change; I Do Not Love Me; Fall In Love and Bella Bitch, as well as writing and composing for film and television. Also in 1971 he formed the band Squallor, for whom he was the principal lyricist. The band, which was active until 1994, had thier biggest success in 1985 with the album Touch the Apricot (?) b. September 5th 1940.
2013: Mehnaz Begum (55) Pakistani singer; she sang a variety of genres but specialized in ghazal, thumri, dadra, khayal, drupad and reciting salam, noha and marsiya. (sadly, Mehnaz died at Bahrain Airport while transiting from Karachi to Miami, US for medical treatment) b. 1958
2013: Ahmad Rafiq (64) Indonesian singer and actor, known for his Elvis-inspired stage costume and hip gyrating movements. He recordeded his first single, "Pandangan Pertama"/"First Sight" in 1978. The single was a huge hit and propelled his career in the Indonesian 70's dangdut scene. "Pengalaman Pertama" enjoyed popularity again in 2002, when it was remade by one of the popular Indonesian singers Chrisye and for a third time in 2007, "Pengalaman Pertama" was again remade by popular Indonesian rock band Slank in the original motion picture soundtrack of Indonesian movie "Get Married" (?) b. March 5th 1948
2013: John Braheny (74) American singer-songwriter born in Iowa; he released a solo album in 1970, Some Kind Of Change, and he also wrote songs for others, including "December Dream", which has been recorded by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys. Along with partner Len Chandler, John was the co-founder and director of the Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase (LASS), a national non-profit organization that provided exposure and encouragement to an impressive list of later-to-be-successful new writers and writer-artists from 1971-1996 including Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, Janis Ian, Warren Zevon, Karla Bonoff, Stephen Bishop, Wendy Waldman, and pop music's most successful contemporary songwriter, Diane Warren, for whom they critiqued over 150 songs when she was only 15 (?) b. 1938
2013: Frank Pooler (86) American choirmaster and composer, born in La Crosse, Wisconsin. In 1943, while still a high school student, he founded and directed the first children's choir at First (Norwegian) Lutheran Church. In 1953 he studied and worked with Scandinavian composers in Norway, Sweden and Denmark resulting in the English publication of more than 100 Scandinavian choral works. He has served as a guest conductor, clinician, lecturer and adjudicator throughout the continental United States, Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hawaii, and Alaska. His published compositions, arrangements and editions, over 500, have been widely performed in Europe and North America. In 2006 he was Honoree Award recipient at the American Choral Director Association Western Division convention in Salt Lake City, Utah (sadly died fighting lung cancer) b. March 29th 1926.

January 20.
1965: Alan Freed/Moondog (43) American disc-jockey commonly referred to as the "father of rock and roll”, he became internationally known for promoting African-American R & B music on the radio in the USA and Europe under the name of Rock and Roll. In 1949, he moved to Cleveland and, in April 1950, he joined WXEL-TV/Channel 9 as the afternoon movie show host. The next year, he got a job playing classical music on Cleveland radio station WJW. On July 11th1951, Alan started playing rhythm and blues records on WJW and called his show "The Moondog House" and billed himself as "The King of the Moondoggers". He had been inspired by an offbeat instrumental called "Moondog Symphony" that had been recorded by New York street musician Louis T. Hardin, aka "Moondog". In 1954, following his success on the air in Cleveland, Alan moved to New York City where he turned WINS into a rock and roll radio station, which it would remain until April 19th 1965 when it became a news outlet. He began recording a weekly half-hour segment of the Radio Luxembourg show called Jamboree that was aired on Saturday nights at 9:30 PM. Jamboree with Alan Freed was heard throughout the British Isles and much of Europe via the powerful AM nighttime signal of Radio Luxembourg, 208, and outside of Europe by a simultaneous relay via transmission on shortwave. It was at the height of Alan's career at the beginning of his new television series that various individuals decided to use him as a scapegoat for all that was wrong with the recorded music industry. His show, The Big Beat (which predated American Bandstand), on ABC, was suddenly canceled after an episode in which Frankie Lymon of Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers was seen dancing with a white girl. His career ended when accusations were made, and proven, that he had accepted payola, or accepted bribes from record companies to play specific records. He moved to the West Coast in 1960, where he worked at KDAY-AM in Santa Monica, California. In 1962, after KDAY refused to allow him to promote "rock and roll" stage shows, Freed moved to WQAM in Miami, Florida, but that association lasted 2 months (sadly died from liver cirrhosis) b. December 15th 1921.
1979: Gustav Winckler (53) Danish singer; he grew up in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, and in 1948 he won a talent competition at National Scala Theatre in Copenhagen, by 1950 he made regular appearances on Danmarks Radio and his first professional recording. Through the 1950s he recorded and toured in Denmark, Germany, under the name Gunnar Winkler and England under the name of Sam Payne. In 1957 he qualified in the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix to represent Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest, where he sung "Skibet skal sejle i nat"/"The ship is leaving tonight" with Birthe Wilke. They finished in third place and stunned television audiences with a 32-second long kiss at the end of their performance. He participated in the Danish Melodi Grand Prix twice afterwards, in 1964 with "Ugler i mosen", and then in 1966 with "Salami" (Car accident) b. October 13th 1925.
1990: Hayedeh/Masoumeh Dadehbala (47) Legendary Persian Pop and classical singer and diva with a contralto vocal range. In a career spanning more than two decades, she had countless hits and captured the hearts of millions around the world. Her songs included "Rouza-ye Roshan Khodahafez", "Shabeh Eshgh", "Gol Vajeh", "Ravi", "Bahaneh", "Eshareh", "Ghesseyeh Man", "Zendegi", "Nargeseh Shirazi" and many more. Two decades after her death, she is considered one of the most influential and iconic Persian vocalists of all time and still recognized as one of the most popular, famous and distinguished Iranian singers of the 20th century (sadly Hayedeh died from a heart attack) b. April 10th 1942.
1991: Stan Szelest (48) American piano/keyboard player from Buffalo, he formed the band Stan and the Ravens in 1958, which he played with for over 30 years, taking time out for many other musical projects. At aged seventeen years in early 1960, Ronnie Hawkins hired him to to play in the Hawks. At this point the Hawks were Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Fred Carter Jr, with Stan and Will Jones doubling on piano and keyboards. When Rick Danko became bassist in 1961, he became Danko's musical teacher. In the summer of 1984, Stan and Levon Helm played together again as members of the short-lived septet The Woodstock All-Stars. By the end of 1990 he became a member of the reunited Band. They were getting ready to record for CBS, writing songs, recording, and rehearsing with Garth Hudson in Woodstock, which would be Stans ladt recording. Some of his electric piano work can be heard on the Band album Jericho, where he also co-wrote the Richard Manuel tribute "Too Soon Gone". Stan also recorded with Roy Buchanan, Lonnie Mack, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jesse Ed Davis, Delbert McClinton and Northern Lights. (Sadly died of a heart attack in the recording studio) b. 1943
1996: Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan (68) American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger born in Queens Village, Queens, New York. Gerry is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history, playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz, but he was also a notable arranger, working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, and others. His pianoless quartet of the early 1950s with trumpeter Chet Baker is still regarded as one of the more important cool jazz groups. He was also a skilled pianist and played several other reed instruments. (died following complications from knee surgery, he had also been suffering from liver cancer) b. April 6th 1927.
1999: William "Bill" Albaugh (53) American drummer with the Lemon Pipers a psychedelic pop, bubblegum band from Cincinnati, Ohio known chiefly for their song "Green Tambourine", which reached No.1 on the Billboard chart in 1968 (?) b. 1948.
2000: Ray Jones (60) English bass player born in Liverpool; in 1963 Brian Epstein signed The Dakotas to be a backing band for Billy J. Kramer. Billy had been friends with John Lennon for some time and John gave the group a demo of a new song, "Do You Want to Know a Secret", which they perfected whilst working in Hamburg at the Star Club. On returning to Britain, the song was recorded at Abbey Road studios, with producer George Martin. It stormed up the charts and reached No.2 in the spring of 1963. This was followed by a No.1 hit "Bad to Me" c/w "I Call Your Name", and was awarded a gold disc, followed by another hit with "I'll Keep You Satisfied". In addition to backing Billy J on his hits, the group itself is perhaps best known for their instrumental single called "The Cruel Sea", which reached No.18 in the UK charts in July 1963. After a row with Brian Epstein, Ray left the Dakotas in July 1964. (?) b. October 22nd 1939.
2001: Nico Assumpção (46) Brazilian bass player born in São Paulo, he studied in both Brazil and America. In the USA, he played with several important musicians of the jazz scene, including Wayne Shorter, Sadao Watanabe, Larry Coryell, Fred Hersh, Larry Willis, Joe Diorio, John Hicks, Steve Slagle, Victor Lewis, Don Salvador and Charlie Rouse. Nico mastered various bass playing techniques, and became one of the pioneers of fretless and 6-string bass in Brazil when he returned 1981, the same year in which he released the first bassist solo album in the country, titled "Nico Assumpção". In 1982 he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he lived for the rest of his life, and turned into one of the most popular bassists of the country among musicians and artists for recording and shows, having played and/or recorded with Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, João Bosco, Maria Bethânia, Edu Lobo, César Camargo Mariano, Toninho Horta, Luiz Avellar, Wauke Wakabaiashi, Marco Pereira, Ricardo Silveira, Gal Costa, Hélio Delmiro, Maria Bethânia, Márcio Montarroyos, Raphael Rabello, Edu Lobo, Léo Gandelman and Victor Biglione, among others (?) b. August 13th 1954.
2009: David Newman (75) American jazz saxophonist, he left college to go on the road with Buster Smith, playing many one-nighters at dance halls. At one of these gigs, he met Ray Charles, there was an immediate bond between them. In 1954, he joined Ray's band as the baritone sax player, although more famous as a tenor saxophone and flute player, where he stayed for the next twelve years. He later joined Herbie Mann, with whom he played for another ten years. He has recorded over 38 albums under his own name and also played R&B and blues, recording with Aretha Franklin, Stanley Turrentine, B. B. King, the Average White Band, Jimmy McGriff, Natalie Cole, Eric Clapton, John Stein, Hank Crawford, Aaron Neville, Queen Latifah, Richard Tee, Dr. John, Cheryl Bentyne of The Manhattan Transfer and Doug Sahm (pancreatic cancer) b. February 24th 1933
2010: Joe Ptacek (37) American vocalist and founder member of the death metal band Broken Hope. Formed in the Chicago area in 1988, the band released five albums for Metal Blade Records before disbanding in 2002. The band had recently been discussing reforming. (sadly suicide, an apparent self inflicted gun shot) b. ????
2010: Nerlynn 'Lynn' Taitt (75) Jamaican reggae guitarist, born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago; before taking up the guitar aged 14, he got his start as a musician playing in local steel drum bands. He formed his own band, which was booked by Byron Lee to perform at the 1962 independence celebrations in Jamaica. He decided to stay in Jamaica, living in Kingston, and played in a number of bands including The Sheiks, The Cavaliers, The Comets and The Jets, and worked with Baba Brooks, The Skatalites and Tommy McCook and the Supersonics. Lynn Taitt and the Jets played on 100s of recording sessions for Jamaican producers such as Bunny Lee, Duke Reid, Joe Gibbs, Coxsone Dodd, and Sonia Pottinger, often performing up to five sessions a day. Their recording of "Take It Easy" was one of the first rocksteady singles and it reached number one in the Jamaican singles chart. He emigrated to Toronto, Canada in August 1968, to take up the position of arranger for the house band at the West Indian Federated Club. He remained active as a musician in Montreal, having recorded with such acts as The Kingpins "Let's Go To Work" CD in 1999 as well as performing live with the Montreal Ska All Stars and at the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 2002 and the Fabulous LoLo sings Rocksteady in 2006. He was the subject of the 2006 documentary Lynn Taitt: Rocksteady (sadly lost his battle with cancer) b. June 22nd 1934.
2012: Larry Butler (69) American multi-musician and music producer, born in Florida. At age ten he sang with Red Foley and before he was old enough to drive he had hosted his own radio show and co-hosted a live TV show in his market. He moved to Nashville and soon his unique style of piano playing supported such hits as "Hello Darlin" by Conway Twitty and "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro. He was in high demand as a Nashville session player and backed up such as Johnny Cash, Roger Miller, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Bobby Goldsboro, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich, Lynn Anderson and more. In 1973 he joined United Artists Records as head of the label's Nashville division. His leadership and vision brought in such acts as Kenny Rogers, Crystal Gayle, Dottie West and The Kendalls and established the label as one of the most successful and respected in Nashville. From the mid-1970s through the 1980s, he worked with Kenny Rogers. Many of his albums with Rogers went gold or platinum and accumulated many millions of sales around the world. These albums include Kenny Rogers-1976, The Gambler-1978, Gideon-1980, I Prefer The Moonlight-1987 and If Only My Heart Had A Voice-1993. Larry also participated in Rogers 2006 retrospective DVD The Journey. In 1984 Larry formed his own music company, Larry Butler Music Group, Inc. where he produced the likes of George Strait, Charlie Rich, Keith Whitley, Eddy Raven, Billie Jo Spears, Kenny Rogers, Don McLean, John Denver and Vern Gosdin. Larry is the only Nashville producer to win the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year (?) b. March 26th 1942.
2012: Etta James/Jamesetta Hawkins (73) American singer was born in Los Angeles, California, but due to her 14 year old mother being often absent, Etta lived with a series of caregivers, most notably 'Sarge' and 'Mama' Lu. She sang at the church from the age of 5 and at home was beaten and forced by Sarge to sing in the early hours at drunken poker games. In 1950 Mama Lu died, and Etta's real mother took her to the Fillmore, in San Francisco. Within a couple of years, Etta inspired by doo-wop, formed a girl group, called the Creolettes. Johnny Otis took the group under his wing, helping them sign to Modern Records and changing their name to the Peaches and gave Etta her stage name, reversing Jamesetta into Etta James.Through her career >>>READ MORE<<< (Etta sadly died fighting Alzheimer's disease and leukemia) b. January 25th 1938.