FEBRUARY: BIRTHDAYS and DEATHS, MUSICIAN BIRTHDATES, CELEBRITY DEATHS

February 1st
1971: Harry Roy (71) UK singer, swing clarinetist, bandleader; best remembered for having led a popular swing band in England and throughout portions of the British Empire during the 1930s ().
1981: Geirr Tveitt (72) One of Norway's most prolific composers. A talented pianist, Tveitt won considerable acclaim in continental Europe and elsewhere performing his own compositions. ()
1986: Dick James/Reginald Leon Isaac Vapnick (65) UK music publisher and the founder of the DJM record label and recording studios, as well as (with Brian Epstein) The Beatles' publisher Northern Songs. In his early days he was a part-time singer with The Stargazers (heart attack).
1989: Paul Robi (57) Lead singer of The Platters (pancreatic cancer)
2002: Hildegard Knef (76) German actress, singer, writer; enjoyed much success as a singer of German chansons, which she often co-wrote. The song she is mostly remembered for is "Für mich soll's rote Rosen regnen"/"It shall rain red roses for me". (breast cancer).

February 2
1594: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (67) Italian composer, organist; the most famous sixteenth-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. He had a vast influence on the development of Roman Catholic church music, and his work can be seen as a summation of Renaissance polyphony.(died in Rome of pleurisy).
1979: Sid Vicious/John Simon Ritchie (21) bass player, Sex Pistols. He had been partying in a New York flat to celebrate his release on $50,000 (£29,412) bail pending his trial for the murder of his former girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, the previous October. Guests said that Sid had taken heroin at midnight. (heroin overdose, possible suicide).
1999: David Richard McComb, (February 17, 1962 – February 2, 1999) was an Australian rock musician. He was the singer-songwriter of a prominent Australian post-punk band, The Triffids.
2002: Paul Baloff (41) Frontman and founder of the thrash metal band Exodus, also sang in several other ands such as Heathen, Hirax and Piranha.(stroke).
2007: Joe Hunter (79) pianist, keyboard player; Motown's first Funk Brother and first band leader, 3 time Grammy winner (died at his Detroit apartment, cause of death is not yet known, it is thought to be related to longtime diabetes, it seems he was trying to take some medicine when he died)
2007: Billy Henderson (67) Singer with the Spinners (complications from diabetes)
2007: Eric von Schmidt (75) American folk/blues singer-songwriter; In 1997, he won a Grammy Award for his work on a compilation album entitled Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 1-3. (suffered a stroke in August 2006, and died seven months later)

February 3
1959: Buddy Holly (22) US singer, guitarist, songwriter, Crickets (died in a crash shortly after take-off from Clear Lake, Iowa. The plane single-engined Beechcraft Bonanza was hired after his tour bus developed heating problems while travelling to Fargo, North Dakota, for the next show on their Winter Dance Party Tour which Holly had set - covering 24 cities in three weeks, to make money after the break-up of his band, The Crickets, in '58)
1959: The Big Bopper/Jiles Perry (28) US singer, DJ, songwriter (Buddy Holly plane crash)
1959: Ritchie Valens (17) US singer, (Buddy Holly plane crash)
1967: Joe Meek (37) UK record producer; a pioneering British record producer and songwriter acknowledged as one of the world's first and most imaginative independent producers. (he shot his landlady Violet Shenton and then shot himself at his flat in London)
1973: Andy Razaf (77) African American composer, poet, and lyricist; at seventy-six years of age, Andy Razaf, the most prolific black lyricist of twentieth century popular music, was finally recognized by his Tin Pan Alley peers in the songwriters Hall of Fame (heart problems)
1975: Umm Kulthum (70) Egyptian singer, known as the Star of the East, more than three decades after her death, she is still recognized as one of Egypt's most famous and distinguished singers of the 20th century (Her funeral was attended by over 4 million mourners, one of the largest gatherings in history and descended into pandemonium when the crowd seized control of her coffin and carried it to a mosque that they considered her favorite, before later releasing it for burial).
1992: Junior Cook/Herman Cook (57) tenor Sax; in addition to many appearances as a sideman, Junior Cook recorded as a leader for Jazzland, Catalyst, Muse, and SteepleChase ()

February 4
1944: Yvette Guilbert (79) French music-hall singer and actress; She was a favorite subject of artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who made many portraits and caricatures of Guilbert and dedicated his second album of sketches to her. In 1932 she was awarded the Legion of Honor as the Ambassadress of French Song (?).
1975: Louis Jordan (66) Jazz, R & B saxophonist, singer, songwriter with his own band his Tympany Five ()
1982: Alex Harvey (46) Scottish singer, Stone The Crows/Tear Gas/Alex Harvey Big Soul Band. (heart attack while waiting for a ferry in Zeebrugen, Belgium, the day before his 47th birthday)
1983: Karen Carpenter (32) Singer, drummer and song writer in the duo The Carpenters (cardiac arrest from the effects anorexia nervosa)
1984: Paul Gardiner (35) Bass, founding member of Gary Numan's Tubeway Army (heroin overdose)
1987: Liberace/Wladziu Valentino Liberace (67) US pianist, singer, TV presenter; he appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 16. He began giving concerts in flamboyant costumes with ornate pianos and candelabra, and though he occasionally performed with symphony orchestras, he built his career playing primarily popular music. (complications related to AIDS)
1989: Trevor Lucas (45) Australian guitarist, singer; Fairport Convention/Fotheringay/freelance. An influential folk artist, a member of Fairport Convention and one of the founders of Fotheringay. He mainly performed as a guitarist and vocalist but also produced many albums and wrote for the film industry toward the end of his career.(died of a heart attack in his sleep)
1995: David Alexander () was a Welsh singer and entertainer (heart attack).
1999: Gwen Guthrie (48) American singer/songwriter, backing vocals for Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Madonna among others, who wrote songs made famous by Ben E. King and Roberta Flack. (cancer)
2000: Doris Coley (58) Singer, Shirelles (breast cancer)
2000: Joachim-Ernst Berendt (77) German journalist, music critic, music producer ()

February 5
1968: Luckeyeth Roberts (80) US jazz/ragtime/blues composer and pianist; was playing piano and acting professionally with traveling African American minstrel shows in his childhood. He settled in New York City about 1910 and became one of the leading pianists in Harlem, and started publishing some of his original rags.
1976: Rudy Pompilli (51) saxophone, clarenet with Bill Haley & His Comets and freelanced; worked with the Ralph Marterie Orchestra prior to joining the Comets, scoring a hit with their version of "Crazy Man, Crazy" too (lung cancer)
1980: Donald "Chubby" Anthony (54) American fiddler ()

February 6
1973: Nick Stabulas (43) US drummer; jazz man ()
1976: Vince Guaraldi (47) jazz pianist, composer, songwriter, bandleader (heart attack)
1981: Hugo Montenegro (55) Composer of film soundtracks., conductor/arranger for several of the label's artists (emphysema )
1989: King Tubby/Osbourne Ruddock (48) Reggae producer; Jamaican electronics and sound engineer, known primarily for his influence on the development of dub in the 1960s and 1970s. His innovative studio work, which saw him elevate the role of record producer to a creative height previously only reserved for composers and musicians (shot and killed by unknown persons outside his home in Duhaney Park, upon returning from a session at his Waterhouse studio).
1998: Carl Wilson (51) singer and guitarist with the Beach Boys; took over as lead singer in 1965 and part running the band in 1966, fully in 1970and went solo in 1970. He is widely regarded to have had one of the finest voices in rock and his voice appears as a backing vocal on many recordings by groups and solo singers.(lung cancer)
1998: Falco/ Johann (Hans) Hölzel (40) Austrian rock singer, singer and rock bass player in Drahdiwaberl (Falco died of severe head injuries received following a collision with a bus in his Mitsubishi Pajero near the resort of Puerto Plata, in the Dominican Republic)
2005: Sonny Day (80) accordion playing; an original member of Roy Acuff's Smoky Mountain, a frequent performer on the Grand Ole Opry, also performed & recorded with Minnie Pearl, Patsy Cline, Tanya Tucker and Vince Gill. (bone cancer)
2007: Frankie Laine/Francesco Paolo LoVecchio (93) was one of the most successful US singers of the 20th century. Often billed as America's Number One Song Stylist, his other nicknames include Mr. Rhythm, Old Leather Lungs, and Old Man Jazz (died of a heart failure following hip replacement surgery at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego)

February 7
1894: Adolphe Sax (79) Belgium inventor of the saxhorn, saxtrombas and the saxophone; the saxophones made his reputation, and secured him a job teaching at the Paris Conservatoire
1979: Herbert LeRoy "Peanuts" Holland (68) Jazz trumpeter, vocals, sessionist; he was aslo a member of Coleman Hawkins' orchestra, Fletcher Henderson's Big Band, Charlie Barnet Band, Don Redman's big band ()
1985: Matt Monro/ Terence Parsons (55) UK ballad singer (liver cancer)
1999: Bobby Troup (70)US jazz, swing blues pianist, singer, composer, actor ()
1999: Robert Williams (81) US songwriter ()
2000: Big Punisher/Christopher Rios (28) Rapper; he was a huge man, his weight reportedly varying between 450 and 700 pounds.(heart attack)
2000: Robin Scott (79) launched the UK BBC Radio 1 station in 1967.
2000: Dave Peverett (56) Lead singer with both the Savoy Brown and Foghat bands (pneumonia and complications from kidney cancer)
2001: Dale Evans/Frances Octavia Smith (88) singer, songwriter, actress and wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers ()
2003: Malcolm Roberts (58) actor, solo and stage musicals singer (heart attack)

February 8
1973: Max Yasgur (53) the owner of a dairy farm in Bethel, New York on which the Woodstock Festival was held in August 1969 (heart attack).
1990: Del Shannon (55) US singer, guitarist; one of the early greats in rock 'n' Roll (while working on a comeback album with Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, Shannon fatally shot himself in the head with a .22 calibre rifle. His wife thought his death might have been related to his recent use of the prescription drug, Prozac)
2002: Bob Wooler (76) resident DJ and booker at Liverpool's Cavern Club
2002: Nick Brignola (65) Jazz saxophonist; he occasionally doubled on other instruments. Woody Herman's orchestra/solo/guest/bandleader, owner of the Priam Label (cancer)
2003: Malcolm Roberts (57) singer songwriter (heart attack)
2005: Jimmy Smith (77) Hammond jazz organist; he ruled the Hammond organ in the '50s and '60s, revolutionizing the instrument, showing it could be creatively used in a jazz context and popularized in the process.()
2005: Keith Knudson (56) Drummer, Doobie Brothers (pneumonia)
2006: Elton Dean (60) UK saxophone player with Long John Baldry's band Bluesology; the bands pianist took Dean and Baldrey's first names, turning Reg Dwight into Elton John. He also played with the Keith Tippett Sextet, Soft Machine and many others (heart and liver disease).

February 9
1966: Sophie Tucker/Sonia Kalish (82) Czarist Russian singer, pianist, comedian; one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first third of the 20th century. Her comic style is credited with influencing later female entertainers, including Mae West, Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, and most notably Bette Midler who has included "Soph" as one of her many stage characters. (lung cancer).
1967: Percy Faith (67) Canadian band-leader, conductor; one of the most popular easy listening recording artists of the '50s and '60s, his most remembered recordings are Delicado (1952), song from the Moulin Rouge (1953) and Theme from A Summer Place (1960), which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1961.()
1981: Bill Haley (55) US singer, Bill Haley and his Comets; he was there before the Presleys, Hollys and Berrys, playing rock & roll before it even had a name (found dead, fully clothed on his bed at his home in Harlington, died from a heart attack)
1993: Bill Grundy (69) TV broadcaster, He presented the famous Sex Pistols 'filth & fury' interview when the band swore on live UK TV (heart attack)
1997: Jack Owens/L. F. Nelson (92) Mississippi blues singer and guitarist
1997: Brian Connolly (52) uk singer, frontman; Sweet, New Sweet, solo. Thee face of glam rock, Brian was one of rock’s great performers and despite numerous health problems, including fourteen heart attacks in one day, continued to play right up to his death. (kidney and liver failure).
2005: Tyrone Davis (67) US singer; one of the fathers of "Chicago Soul", with a career spanning more than four decades, selling over 25 million records.(suffered a stroke in September 2004, it sent him into a coma from which he did not recover).

February 10
1975: Dave Alexander (27) bass player with Iggy Pop and Stooges (Pneumonia).
1988: Don Patterson (48) Organist; Sonny Stitt's Band/freelance (liver failure)
2001: George Holmes "Buddy" Tate (87) US jazz saxophonist; player with Terence "T" Holder, Andy Kirk, and Nat Towles, before joining Count Basie Orchestra in 1939, After which played with Lucky Millinder; Milt Buckner Hot Lips Page; ex-Basie singer Jimmy Rushing; led a group with Bobby Rosengarden at the Rainbow Room; co-led a band with saxophonist Paul Quinichette at New York’s West End Cafe; was house bandleader at Celebrity Club, New York City, as well as having his own quintet (cancer) b. Feb 22nd 1913.

February 11
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February 12
1976: Sal Mineo (37) singer, actor (he was brutally stabbed on the streets of West Hollywood)
2000: John London/John Carl Kuehne (58) Bass sessionist; stand-in on the Monkees set for Michael Nesmith ()
2000: Screamin Jay Hawkins (76) US blues singer, boxing champion at 16, married nine times, spent 2 years in jail, was temporary blinded by one of his flaming props on stage in 1976, and fathered over 75 children (He died following surgery to treat an aneurysm while in Paris, France)
2000: Oliver/William Oliver Swofford (54) US singer; his soaring baritone was the perfect vehicle for his hit "Good Morning Starshine", from the pop-rock musical Hair and his #2 hit "Jean", the theme from the Oscar-winning film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. (cancer). b. Feb 22nd 1945
2005: Jewel "Sammi" Smith (61) US country singer (died at home in Oklahoma City after a long illness)
2007: Jimmy Campbell (63) singer and songwriter; was member of Merseybeat groups The Kirkbys, The 23rd Turnoff, Rockin' Horse as well as releasing three solo albums.(?)

February 13
1993: Patrick Waite (23) bass, founder member of Musical Youth (hereditary heart condition)
1997: Michael Menson (30) rebel MC (brain haemorrhage sustained in a racist attack, torched by three men)
2001: David "Panama" Francis (82) US drummer, jazz, rock n roll, freelance/sessions. Played with all the jazz greats. As R&B and rock n roll went mainstream he became even more sought after, playing on a vast amount of chart hits ().
2002: Waylon Jennings (64) country singer / songwriter, played bass with Buddy Holly. (died in his sleep of diabetic complications)

February 14
1959: Warren "Baby" Dodds (60) American jazz drummer; gained his reputation as a top young drummer in New Orleans, then worked on Mississippi River steamship bands with young Louis Armstrong. He moved to California in 1921 to work with Joe "King" Oliver there, and followed Oliver to Chicago, which became his base of operations.(?)
1989: Vincent Crane (45) keyboardist, The Crazy world of Arthur Brown /Atomic Rooster / Dexy's Midnight Runners (died of an overdose of painkillers after a brave fight against manic-depression)
1999: Buddy Knox (65) US singer, guitarist; the first artist of the rock & roll era to write and record his own number one hit, 1957's million-selling classic "Party Doll", a pioneer of the Lone Star State rockabilly sound that would later earn the name "Tex-Mex," (lung cancer)
2002: Mick Tucker (54) drummer, Sweet (leukaemia).

February 15
1946: Louis "Putney" Dandridge (44) US bandleader, jazz pianist, vocalist; began his career performing in 1918 as a pianist in the a revue entitled the Drake and Walker Show ().
1965: Nat King Cole (45) US singer; his rich, husky voice and careful enunciation, and the warmth, intimacy, and good humor of his approach to singing, allowed him to succeed with both ballads and novelties such that he scored over 100 pop chart singles and more than two dozen chart albums over a period of 20 years, enough to rank him behind only Sinatra as the most successful pop singer of his generation. His earlier fans were a little disappointed at his transition from jazz to pop.(lung cancer)
1968: Little Walter/ Marion Walter Jacobs (37) US blues singer & harmonica player. Said to be the first harmonica player to amplify his harp giving it a distorted echoing sound (died from injuries incurred in a street fight)
1981: Mike Bloomfield (37) guitarist, composer; Electric Flag / session player / guest (accidental drug overdose)
1995: Bob Stinson (36) founding member and lead guitarist with The Replacements and Static Taxi (he did not die of a drug overdose, as is frequently reported, but rather his body simply wore out after years of alcohol and drug abuse)

February 16
1957: Josef Hofmann (81) Polish-American virtuoso pianist, composer; especially popular in Russia where he gave 21 consecutive concerts in St. Petersburg, not repeating a single piece. In all, he played 255 different works during that marathon. He made some of the earliest recordings in history of classical music for Thomas Edison. These have been lost, but some cylinders he made in Russia a few years later have recently been discovered. Off the subject but his invention of pneumatic shock absorbers for cars and planes earned him a fortune in the early twentieth century (?).
1996: Brownie McGhee (80) blues artist; vocals, kazoo, piano, guitar; well known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. He gave a memorable performance as ill-fated blues-singer Toots Sweet in the supernatural thriller 'Angel Heart' ()
2004: Doris Troy/ Doris Higginsen (67) US soul, R&B singer, solo/backup/songwriter/musicals; apart from her solo career, she sang backup vocals for manyy British rock groups, most notably the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd (emphysema)

February 17
1982: Thelonious Monk (64) US jazz pianist; considered one of the most important & eccentric jazz composers of the century. One of the early practitioners of bebop during the 1940s and '50s, his complex compositions featured irregular rhythms, dissonant sounds and a quirky sense of humor.(died of a stroke)
1998: Bob Merrill (77) Songwriter (committed suicide)
2006: William "Bill" Cowsill Jr. (58) singer, guitarist; The Cowsills (emphysema)
2006: Ray Barretto (76) Puerto Rican percussion & conga session player and member of the Fania All-Stars. 1990 he won a Grammy for the album "Ritmo en el Corazon" (multiple health complications)

February 18
1995: Bob Stinson (35) lead guitarist, Replacements (body gave out after years of abuse)
1958: Patrick Waite (34) bassist and singer in Musical Youth (hereditary heart condition)
2003: Johnny Paycheck/Donny Young/Donald Lytle (64) country singer, guitarist (emphysema)

February 19
1998: Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones (74) country & gospel singer, banjo player; he became part of the Grand Ole Opry and was a regular cast member on the popular TV show, Hee Haw.(stroke)
1972: Lee Morgan (33)American hard bop trumpeter. (shot to death by Helen Moore following an argument between sets at Slug's, a popular New York City jazz club.)
1980: Bon Scott (33) Scottish born singer, frontman and co-lyricist of AC/DC. He started his career as drummer and occasional lead singer with an Australian band, The Spektors.(found in the passenger seat of a friend's parked car. Although there are many conspiracy theories surrounding his death, the coroner's report stated that he had "Drunk himself to death." after suffocating on his own vomit, the official cause was listed as "acute alcohol poisoning" and "death by misadventure").

February 20
2001: Ronnie Hilton/Adrian Hill (75) UK singer and radio presenter (stroke)
2003: Ty Longley (32) guitar, vocals; Great White/solo (He was the only member of Great White to die in The Station nightclub fire,, which claimed 99 other lives)
2008: Bobby Lee Trammell (74) American rockabilly singer, former Arkansas Representative. Wrote and recorded the song Shirley Lee, later covered by Ricky Nelson (?).

February 21
1976: Florence Ballard (32) singer; The Supremes, leaving them in 1967, lost an $8 million (£4.7 million) lawsuit against Motown records and was living on welfare when she died (cardiac arrest)
1980: Jacob Miller (23) Inner Circle (car crash)
1980: Janet Vogel (37) Singer, Skyliners (suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning)
1982: Murray "the K" Kaufman (60) US DJ, said to be the first DJ to play a Beatles record on US radio (cancer)
2004: Les Gray (57) uk singer, Mud (throat cancer)

February 22
1987: Andy Warhol (58) pop artist, producer, manager of The Velvet Underground (death caused by complications after a routine gallbladder operation)
2002: Ronnie Verrell (77) drummer, Tom Jones, The Strawbs, and Phil Everly, the drum licks for Animal in The Muppet Show.

February 23
1897: Woldemar Bargiel (69) German composer, pianist; besides teaching and composing, Bargiel served with Brahms as co-editor of the complete editions of Schumann’s and Chopin’s works ()
1966: Billy Kyle (51) pianist; John Kirby Sextet / Louis Armstrong's All-Stars ()
1995: Mevin Franklin/David Melvin English (53) Bass singer with the Temptations from 1961 till he fell ill in 1994. (Melvin lapsed into a diabeteic coma and died 6 days later from a brain seizure)
1996: Alan Dawson (67) jazz drummer with The Dave Brubeck Quartet /sessions / drum teacher in Boston (leukemia)
1997: Tony Williams (51) jazz drummer, played with all the greats (a heart attack after routine gall bladder surgery)
2003: Howie Epstein (47) highly noted rock bass player, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, many others (serious depression - overdose of black tar heroin while in New Mexico)

February 24
1990: Johnnie Ray (63) US singer; considered by many people to be the forerunner of what would become rock 'n' roll and has been cited as the historical link between Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley in the development of popular music. (liver failure)
1994: Dinah Shore (77) US singer/actress; first became famous as a "girl singer" during the Big Band era, then went on to become a movie star. She was then the host of a long-running series of popular TV variety programs (cancer)
1994: Papa John Creech (76) violinist, fiddle; Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Dinosaur/Hot Tuna; this veteran of jazz and blues added a new psychedelic edge to the Airplane with his electrified violin (heart failure)
2004: Estelle Axton (85) Creator of the legendary US soul music label Stax
2008: Larry David Norman (60) American musician, singer, songwriter and producer, his recordings are noted for their Christian and social subject matter, and he is often described as the "father of Christian rock music" (heart disease).

February 25
1682: Alessandro Stradella (42) Italian composer of the middle Baroque; he was an extremely influential composer, and a ladies man (He was involved in an affair with a poorly-chosen woman, and a hired killer caught up with him at the Piazza Bianchi, Genoa, and stabbed him to death)
1936: Sam Morgan (48) US trumpeter; Sam Morgan Jazz Band ()
1993: Toy Caldwell (45) US guitar player with the Marshall Tucker Band between 1973 and 1983. He later formed the Toy Caldwell Band and released an eponymous CD in 1992; the record was later renamed Son of the South his personal friend, Charlie Daniels (died of heart disease).
2005: Edward Patten (65) US vocalist; lead singer of The Pips and Gladys Knight's cousin.(stroke)

February 26
1913: Felix Draeseke (77) German composer of the "New German School". He wrote compositions in most forms including eight operas and stage works, four symphonies, and much vocal and chamber music. (He died from a stroke)
1977: Sherman Garnes (36) bassman with Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers (died during open-heart surgery)
1989: Reunald Jones (78) American swing-style trumpeter with The Jones Boys and freelanced with many of the greats ()
1997: Ben Raleigh (86) US lyricist; wrote for the likes of Johnny Mathis, Lou Rawlsand others; co-wrote 'Scooby Doo Where Are You.' (died after setting fire to his bath robe while cooking)
2008: Buddy Miles (60) American rock and funk drummer, most known as a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys from 1969 until Hendrix's death in 1970 (heart failure).

February 27
1833: Alexander Borodin (54) Russian composer;vocal/opera/chamber/symphonic (He died while attending a ball in St. Petersburg)
2008: Ivan Rebroff (76) German singer famous for singing Russian folk songs, but also performed opera, light classics and folk ; he had an extraordinary vocal range of four and a half octaves, ranging from the soprano to impressive bass registers (died after a long illness).

February 28
1968: Frankie Lymon (25) singer and frontman of Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers (drug overdose)
1974: Bobby Bloom (28) Singer songwriter (fatally shot himself in the head at his Hollywood apartment)
1985: David Byron/David Garrick (38) lead singer; Uriah Heep, solo; gifted with a phenomenal vocal range, paired with an unparalleled sense of dynamics & charismatic stage presence (alcohol-related complications).
1990: Russell Jacquet (72) American big band trumpeter; formed his own group which became the house band at the Cotton Clubb (?)
2005: Chris Curtis (63) UK drummer and singer with the 1960s pop band, The Searchers. He originated the concept behind Deep Purple and formed the band in its original incarnation of 'Roundabout'.()
2007: Billy Thorpe (60) Australian lead singer, guitarist and founder of Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs/solo; In November 1973 the Aztecs became the first rock band to play the Sydney Opera House. They were a huge influence on AC/DC among many other rock bands (heart attack.)
2008: Mike Smith (64) British rock and roll singer and keyboardist with The Dave Clark Five (died from complication of an accident in 2003. He died 11 days before he was to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Dave Clark Five).

February 29
1996: Wes Farrell (56) songwriter, 'The Partridge Family'

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