October 1st
1708: John Blow (59) British composer and organist of Westminster Abbey and writer of over 100 anthems. He also wrote for the king and was appointed Composer to the Chapel Royal (He died at his house in Broad Sanctuary, and was buried in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey).
1975: Al Jackson Jr (39) American drummer with the legendary Stax band, Booker T and the MG's. He started out in his fathers band at the age of 5. He later began playing in Willie Mitchell's band and the Ben Branch Band. In the 1960s he was a founding member of the group, Booker T. & The MG'S. Al was called "The Human Timekeeper" for his drumming ability, he designed the groove and thats what the band played to. Their many hits include "Green Onions," "Hip Hug-Her," "Hang 'Em High," and "Time Is Tight" accompanying such greats as, Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Wilson Pickett, William Bell and Al Green. (tragically, Al was murdered after confronting an intruder in his home) b. November 27th 1935.
1983: Freddy Martin (76) American bandleader and tenor saxophonist (lingering illness?).
1986: Andy McVann (21) drummer in Soul of Socialism, an early incarnation of The Farm(car crash during a police chase).
1992: Harry Ray (45) American lead singer with The Moments and Ray,Goodman & Brown; The Moments had a total of 27 R&B chart hits, but his biggest hit came with Ray,Goodman & Brown's "Special Lady". He was strongly involved in writing & producing much of their material as well as performing, production and writing duties for All-Platinum's other artists. He recorded a duet with Sylvia Robinson "Sho Nuff Boogie", although it was billed as Sylvia & the Moments) in 1973.(died suddenly from a stroke) b. Dec 15th 1946
1999: Lena Zavaroni (35) UK singer, guitarist, she suffered badly from anorexia since the age of 14 (after a tragic short life, she died from pneumonia three weeks after an operation for leukotomy).
2004: Bruce Palmer (58) Canadian bassist; brought up in Toronto, Canada, Bruce began playing music at age 10. He played in the Mynah Birds with a young Rick James, which would eventually include fellow Canadian Neil Young. Mynah Birds auditioned for Motown Records but split when James left the band. He went on to co-found Buffalo Springfield in April 1966 in Toronto with Young, Stephen Stills, Dewey Martin and Richie Furay. Over just 19 months in 1967 and '68, the group established itself as a folk/country/rock pioneer, producing the transcendent political anthem "For What It's Worth". Bruce left Buffalo Springfield in January 1968, replaced by Jim Messina, but the band was finished shortly thereafter. He went on to release a 1971 solo album for Verve, "The Cycle is Complete," featuring James on percussion. In 1982, Bruce reteamed with Young (heart attack) b. September 9th 1946... read more
2005: Paul Pena (55) US multi-genre singer, songwriter, pianist, and guitarist, who performed Mississippi Delta blues, jazz, flamenco, folk, rock and roll and Tuvan throat-singing he died in his San Francisco, California apartment after a long battle with diabetes and pancreatitis).

October 2
1971: Bola de Nieve/Ignacio Jacinto Villa (60) Cuban singer-pianist and songwriter; he studied at the Mateu Conservatoire of Havana and worked as a chauffeur and played piano for silent films until his friend Rita Montaner took him on as an accompanist in the early 1930s taking him to Mexico. Ignacio stayed in Mexico and developed an original performance style as a pianist and singer. He was an elite, sophisticated cabaret stylist known for ironic patter, subtle musical interpretation, with a repertoire that included songs in French, English, Catalan, Portuguese and Italian. He toured widely in Europe and the Americas, and his friends included Andres Segovia and Pablo Neruda (?) b. September 11th 1911.
1976: Quentin "Butter" Jackson (57) American jazz trombonist born in Springfield, Ohio; in his early career he worked with Cab Calloway and was in the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Later he did notable work with Charles Mingus, Kenny Burrell, and others.(?) b. January 13th 1909.
1981: Hazel Scott (61) West Indian jazz and classical pianist and singer; born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and raised in New York City from the age of four. She performed extensively on piano as a child, then trained at the Juilliard School. She appeared in the production Priorities of 1942 and performed numerous times at the famed Carnegie Hall. She was known for improvising on classical themes and also played boogie-woogie, blues, and ballads. Her album Relaxed Piano Moodson the Debut Record label with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, is the album most highly regarded by critics today. Hazel was the first coloured lady to have her own TV show, The Hazel Scott Show, which premiered on the DuMont Television Network on July 3rd 1950. However, due to her public opposition to McCarthyism and racial segregation, the show was canceled, the final broadcast was September 29th 1950. Hazel also appeared in numerous films, including 'Something To Shout About', 'I Dood It', 'Broadway Rhythm', 'The Heat's On' and 'Rhapsody in Blue' (?) b. June 11th 1920.
1989: "Cousin Joe" Pleasant/Pleasant Joseph (81) American blues vocalist and guitarist ().
1994: Harriet Nelson/Peggy Lou Snyder (85) American singer and actress, born in Des Moines, Iowa; by 1932, she was performing in vaudeville when she met the saxophone-playing bandleader Ozzie Nelson, who hired her to sing with the band, under the name Harriet Hilliard. They married three years later. Harriot also went on to have a respectable film career and as a solo performer, as well as her work with the band. She is also well known for her role on the long-running sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. (Sadly Harriet died of congestive heart failure) b. July 18th 1909.
1998: Gene Autry (91) US singer, guitar, actor; America's singing cowboy (lymphoma).

October 3
1966: Dave Lambert (49) jazz singer, drums; Gene Krupa's Orchestra, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Buddy Sterat, Charlie Parker. (hit by a car while changing a tyre).
1967: Woody Guthrie (55) US folk singer, guitarist, noted for his identification with the common man, and for his abhorrence of fascism, politicians, hypocritical people and economic exploitation. (Huntington's Chorea disease).
2000: Benjamin Orr/Benjamin Orzechowski (53) American bassist and vocalist; born in Lakewood, Ohio, he learnt to play many instruments including the guitar, drums, bass, and keyboards. He dropped out of High School to join a local band The Grasshoppers as lead singer and guitarist. They were the house band on the syndicated TV show Upbeat produced by WEWS-TV in Cleveland. In 1970 he moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he met Ric Ocasek and formed a musical partnership that would continue through to the end of his life. Along with lead guitarist Jas Goodkind, they formed a folk band called Milkwood. The group released one album, How's the Weather? in 1972. By the mid 1970s he was working in a Boston night club band, Cap'n Swing, whose members included future Cars leader Ric Ocasek and guitarist Elliot Easton. After the group broke up in 1975, the three of them joined up with keyboardist Greg Hawkes and drummer David Robinson to form The Cars in 1976. After several top hits and multi-platinum albums with The Cars, he released his only solo project The Lace in 1986. Ben continued to work with The Cars for one more album before their breakup in 1988, after which he recorded tracks with guitarist John Kalishes. From 1998 until his death in 2000, he performed with three bands, including his own band "ORR", The Voices of Classic Rock, and Big People (pancreatic cancer) b. September 8th 1947.
2007: Elfi von Dassanowsky (83) Austrian-American singer, pianist and film producer. A piano prodigy at 5, she attended the Vienna Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (known as the "Englische Fräuleins") and became at age 15, the youngest woman admitted to Vienna's Academy of Music and Performing Arts to that date to be trained as an opera singer and concert pianist as the protégé of concert pianist, Emil von Sauer. In 1946, she made her opera debut in Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" and her wide soprano to mezzo range gained her rapid fame in leading roles in throughout Central Europe. She is one of the few women in history, and one of the youngest, at age 23, to co-found a major film studio--Belvedere Film Vienna. As creative producer she helped revitalize Austrian cinema and discover such major European film talent as Nadja Tiller and Gunther Philipp. Elfi initiated musical theater groups, was announcer for Allied Forces Broadcasting and the BBC, toured Central Europe in a one-woman-show and gave master classes in voice and piano, often to refugees who could not gain entry into music academies. In Hollywood in the early 1960s, she resisted becoming a starlet and preferred to remain behind the camera in an industry that did not yet accept women in the leading production role she had in Europe. She worked as a noted vocal coach for director Otto Preminger on such films as "In Harm's Way" and "The Cardinal". In 1999, Elfi re-established Belvedere Film with her son as a LA-based production company and served as Executive Producer of the award-winning dramatic short film, "Semmelweis," the spy-comedy "Wilson Chance," and the documentary "The Archduke and Herbert Hinkel." Dassanowsky was honored for her pioneering work by Austria, by the cities of Los Angeles and Vienna, as well as by the State of California which declared February 2nd 1996, "Elfi von Dassanowsky Day." She was named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Letters of France, and she received the Austrian Film Archive's Lifetime Achievement Medal and the UNESCO Mozart Medal, among many other awards (heart failure) b. February 2nd 1924.
2009: Robert Kirby (61) British born keyboard player and arranger of string sections for rock and folk music; he studied at Caius College, Cambridge where with fellow students he sang in a group called 'The Gentle Power of Song'. By 1978 Robert had already had recorded arrangements for over 40 albums. Also from 1975-1978 he was one of the two keyboard players for Strawbs, touring the UK and internationally, and getting some composing credits on the albums Deep Cuts, Deadlines and Burning for You. He did some further arranging for Strawbs with Baroque & Roll in 2001, Déjà Fou in 2004 and 2009's Dancing to the Devil's Beat. He is best known for his work on the Nick Drake albums, Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter, but has also worked with Elton John, Ralph McTell, Paul Weller, Elvis Costello and the dutch band Flemming. In July 2005, Robert conducted an 18-piece orchestra in Manhattan's Central Park for a show of Drake's music, using his original scores (?) b. April 16th 1948.

October 4
1948: Jan Savitt/Jacob Savetnick (41) Russian arranger, bandleader, violinist, and vocalist; he was invited to joined the Philadelphia Orchestra when was only nineteen. His band The Top Hatters was formed in 1937 and began touring the following year. Their songs include "720 in the Books" "It's A Wonderful World" and his theme songs "Quaker City Jazz" and "From Out Of Space". He was one of the first of the Big Band leaders to feature an African American vocalist (?) b. September 4th 1907.
1970: Janis Joplin (27) US blues singer fronting the Big Brother and The Holding Company; she lived fast and died young, an American icon and souvenir of the 1960s (Tragically died at the Landmark Hotel, Hollywood after an accidental heroin overdose).
1982: Glenn Gould (50) Canadian pianist, composer and winner of 4 grammies, who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the twentieth century. He was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach. His playing was distinguished by a remarkable technical proficiency and a capacity to articulate the polyphonic texture of Bach’s music. In 1982 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. (?) b. September 25th 1932.
1990: Alyn Ainsworth (66) English singer and dance band conductor born in Bolton. At the age of 14, Herman Darewski recognised his singing talent and signed him up to tour with his dance band. When his voice broke he learnt to play the guitar and soon joined Oscar Rabin's orchestra where he both played with the band and did musical arrangements, they also broadcast on the radio. Alyn turned down an offer from Val Parnell to conduct the London Palladium Orchestra and chose in 1951 to join the BBC Northern Variety Orchestra, first as arranger, then as conductor. In the very early 60s he was signed up by Granada TV to replace Peter Knight as presenter of "Spot the Tune". In 1965 he conducted the orchestra at the Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium for the third time. He was also the musical director for the BBC's anniversary programme Fifty Years Of Music broadcast in 1972 and he conducted in the Eurovision Song Contest five times, 1975, 1976, 1977 for Belgium, 1978 and 1990. (?) b. August 24th 1924.
1994: Danny Gatton (49) American guitarist; born in Washington DC, he began his career playing in bands while still a teenager. He began to attract wider interest in the 1970s while playing guitar and banjo for the group Liz Meyer & Friends. He made his name as a performer the 1980s, both as a solo performer and with his Redneck Jazz Explosion, in which he would trade licks with virtuoso pedal steel player Buddy Emmons over a tight bass-drums rhythm which drew from blues, country, bebop and rockabilly influences. He also backed Robert Gordon and Roger Miller. He contributed a cover of "Apricot Brandy", a song by supergroup Rhinoceros, to the 1990 compilation album Rubáiyát. Danny was ranked 63rd on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time in 2003 and on May 26th, 2010, Gibson.com ranked Gatton as the 27th best guitarist of all time. (suicide) b. September 4th 1945.
1999: Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer (71) American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player,and also played flumpet, a trumpet-flugelhorn combination designed for him by David Monette. Born in Council Bluffs, Iowa worked as a musician from the mid-1940s onwards, based in Los Angeles, he played in the bands of Benny Carter and Jay McShann among others. He joined Lionel Hampton's orchestra around 1953, with fellow trumpeters Clifford Brown and Quincy Jones. Later relocating to New York, he worked with Gigi Gryce, Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, George Russell, Jones and Oliver Nelson among others. He also formed "The Jazztet" with the composer and tenor sax player Benny Golson. Art moved to Europe, ultimately based in Vienna, where he performed with The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, and also recorded extensively as a leader throughout his later career. With Golson he revived 'The Jazztet' in the 1980s for a number of engagements, with the original trombonist Curtis Fuller returning to the group (?) b. August 21st 1928.
2005: Mike Gibbins (56) Welsh drummer; he was a founding member the Iveys, later renamed Badfinger, after "Badfinger Boogie", an unused title for a Lennon-McCartney composition. He helped form The Iveys in 1965 and his powerful playing helped push the Iveys to a new level of proficiency and by the end of the year the group was being booked as an opening act for local appearances by the likes of the Who, the Yardbirds, the Moody Blues, and the Spencer Davis Group and was a popular attraction on the London club scene. They signed with Apple and changed their name to Badfinger, and broke through to the British and American Top Ten with the Paul McCartney-composed "Come and Get It." The group followed this up in 1970 with their LP masterpiece No Dice, scoring a hit with the now pop classic "No Matter What" which featured the ballad "Without You". Mike and the band backed George Harrison's solo masterpiece "All Things Must Pass", and also serving as the backing unit at George's Concert for Bangladesh. He was one of two members of the group left behind following a pair of tragic suicides, and he led reorganized versions of "Badfinger" into the 1980s and beyond. (died in his sleep at home in Florida) b. March 12th 1949.
2009: Mercedes Sosa (74) Argentinian folk singer; born in San Miguel de Tucumán, in northwestern Argentina, her roots were in Argentine folk music, she became one of the preeminent exponents of nueva canción. Mercedes became known as La Negra by her fans for her long, jet-black hair, and was best known as the voice of the "voiceless ones". In a career spanning nearly six decades, as well as working in South America, she toured in both the US and Europe and released 70 albums from "La Voz de la Zafra" in 1959, "Canciones con Fundamento" in 1965 and Yo No Canto Por Cantar in 1966, to the release of Éxitos Eternos in 2005, La Historia del Folklore in 2007, Cantora 1 and Cantora 2 both in 2009 (Mercedes died from an aggravation of her preexisting kidney disease) b. July 9th 1935.

October 5
1940: Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez (40) Mexican composer, violinist and conductor; born in Santiago Papasquiaro in Durango, he studied at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas and the Chicago College of Music. In 1929 became assistant conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, a post he held until 1935. He did much to promote contemporary Mexican music. He wrote film music, chamber music, songs and a number of other works. Among his orchestral music are a number of symphonic poems with Sensemayá: Chant for the Killing of a Snake (1938), based on a poem by Nicolás Guillén, the most famous. He appeared briefly as a bar piano player in the movie ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! in 1935, for which he composed the music. When shooting breaks out in the bar while he is playing "La cucaracha", he holds up a sign reading "Se suplica no tirarle al pianista" (Please don't shoot at the piano player!). He went to Spain and worked for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, but upon Francisco Franco's victory, returned to Mexico to teach. He earned little, and sadly fell into poverty and alcoholism (He died of pneumonia in Mexico City on the day his ballet El renacuajo paseador, written four years earlier, was premièred) b. December 31st 1899.
1961: Booker Little Jr (23) American jazz trumpeter and composer born in Memphis, Tennessee. He studied at the Chicago Conservatory from 1956 to 1958 and worked with leading local musicians such as Johnny Griffin. After which he moved to New York where he met up with drummer Max Roach and multi-instrumentalist virtuoso Eric Dolphy. From '58 to '61 he recorded four albums with Max Roach and two albums with Eric Dolphy in '60 and '61. He also recorded with the John Coltrane Quartet, Frank Strozier, and Abbey Lincoln as well as four albums as a leader of his Booker Little Quartet. Booker is considered to be one of the first trumpet players to develop his own sound after Clifford Brown. (Sadly he died prematurely of complications resulting from uremia, kidney failure) b. April 2nd 1938.
1981: Jud Strunk/Justin Strunk Jr (45) American singer-songwriter and comedian; he learnt to play the banjo as a boy and began entertaining locals. He went on to to appear on national television network shows such as Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. In 1973, he wrote and recorded the song "A Daisy a Day," which made the Billboard Top 20 on both the country and pop music charts. He also wrote and recorded three humorous songs that made it into the country music charts, one of which continues to be played on the Dr. Demento show, is "The Biggest Parakeets in Town". He also toured with the Andy Williams Road Show (Jud was a private pilot and owned a 1941 Fairchild M62-A. Tragically, he suffered a heart attack while taking off in the aircraft at the Carrabassett Valley Airport in Maine and was killed instantly along with his passenger, local businessman Dick Ayotte) b. June 11 1936
1985: Brian Keenan (42) US drummer born in New York, he also lived in Conisbrough near Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, and Ireland as a child. He was a member of The Chambers Brothers from 1965 to 1971, also played with the pre-"Doo Wah Diddy Diddy" Manfred Mann group in England. Back in the USA Brian's group, The Losers, was the house band at Ondine, the first discotheque in New York City. (heart attack).
1986: Emanuel "Manny" Sayles (79) American jazz banjoist and guitarist, he played violin and viola as a child in Florida, then taught himself banjo and guitar. Relocating to New Orleans he joined William Ridgely's Tuxedo Orchestra, after which he worked with Fate Marable, Armand Piron, and Sidney Desvigne on riverboats up and down the Mississippi River.
In 1929 he participated in recordings with the Jones-Collins Astoria Hot Eight. 1933 sees Manny in Chicago lead his own band, played in the house band at the Jazz Ltd. club and recording with Roosevelt Sykes and others. Over the years he played with many including Sweet Emma Barrett, Punch Miller, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, played and toured japan with George Lewis, and also recorded with the likes of Peter Bocage, Kid Thomas Valentine, Earl Hines, and Louis Cottrell, Jr.. He recorded extensively as a leader in the 1960s for GHB, Nobility, Dixie, and Big Lou () b. January 31st 1907.
1992: Eddie Kendricks (52) lead singer with The Temptations, he is noted for his distinctive falsetto singing style (lung cancer).
1995: Marcel Neville King (38) English singer born in Manchester, he was the youngest member of "The Sweet Sensation", a band formed in Manchester in 1973 which came to notice after appearing on the ITV talent show New Faces. Under the guidance Tony Hatch the band signed to Pye Records. Their second single release "Sad Sweet Dreamer" was a UK No.1 hit in October 1974, also reaching No.14 on the Billboard Hot 100 the following spring. Their follow up "Purely by Coincidence" reached No.11 in the UK singles chart in January 1975. In 1977 they entered into A Song For Europe in an attempt to represent the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Their song "You're My Sweet Sensation" ended in 8th place. Marcel launched a solo career in 1985 recording the single "Reach for Love" in 1991. (cerebral haemorrhage) b. January 4th 1958
2004: Rodney Dangerfield/Jacob Cohen (82) American comedian and actor, best known for the catchphrases "I don't get no respect" or "I get no respect" and his monologues on that theme. He wrote songs for the cartoon "Rover Dangerfield", appeared on TV's Johnny Carson's Tonight Show over 70 times and was in the movies.. Natural Born Killers and Caddyshack. His comedy album, No Respect, won a Grammy Award. One of his TV specials featured a musical number, "Rappin' Rodney”, which soon became one of the first MTV music videos (Complications after a heart surgery. He underwent surgery Aug 25th 2004 to replace a heart valve. He later fell into a coma and never recovered) b. November 22nd 1921.
2009: Mike Alexander (32) British bassist born in West Ham, London; In 2000, he joined Matt Drake and Ben Carter in a metal covers band, before they formed the band Evile in 2004. They recorded an EP "All Hallows Eve" the same year and a demo "Hell Demo" in 2006. Soon after, the band signed to Earache Records, and released their debut album, "Enter the Grave" worldwide 2007. Mike, who endorsed Hartke amplifiers and cabinets and Dunlop bass strings, and Evile had released their second album Infected Nations, earlier this year, 2009 (died in Sweden during a European tour in support of their new album) b. June 22nd 1977.

October 6
1762: Francesco Manfredini (78) Italian Baroque composer, violinist, and church musician; he became musical director at St. Philip's Cathedral in his home town of Pistoia. Much of his music is presumed to have been destroyed after his death; only 43 published works and a handful of manuscripts are left ().
1978: Johnny O'Keefe (43) Australian pioneering rock and roll singer of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He had his own one-hour live TV show "Six O'Clock Rock", featuring many local artists. Born in the eastern Sydney suburb of Bondi Junction, in September 1956 Johnny and his friend Dave Owen, an American-born tenor sax player formed Australia's first rock'n'roll band, The Dee Jays. He also became the first Australian pop star to chart, with his third release, "I'm the Wild One." which was covered in 1987 by Iggy Pop as "Real Wild Child". He was also the first Australian rock'n'roll performer to tour the US. In his twenty-year career, he released over 50 singles, 50 EP's and 100 albums. Johnny's last public appearance was on Seven Network's Sounds program, taped on 30 September 1978. (Tragically died from a heart attack induced by an accidental overdose of prescribed drugs) b. January 19th 1935.
1985: Nelson Riddle (64) American bandleader, arranger and orchestrator whose long career spanned from the 1940s until the 1980s, He began taking piano lessons at the age of eight and trombone lessons at aged fourteen. After his graduation from Ridgewood High School, he spent his late teens and early 20s playing trombone in and occasionally arranging for various local dance bands, culminating in his association with the Charlie Spivak Orchestra. In 1943, he joined the Merchant Marine, serving at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York for roughly two years. During this time he continued working for the Charlie Spivak Orchestra and he studyed orchestration under his fellow merchant marine, composer Alan Shulman. After his enlistment term ended, Nelson travelled to Chicago to join the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1944; he remained the orchestra's third trombone for eleven months until drafted by the United States Army in April, 1945. In 1946 he moved to Hollywood to pursue his career as an arranger. For several years he wrote arrangements for multiple radio and record projects. He went on to form his own orchestra providing jazzy big-band style arrangements to accompany such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Bassey, Matt Monro, Linda Ronstadt and many others. (liver ailments) b. June 1st 1921.
1999: Amália da Piedade Rodrigues (79) Portuguese singer, actress. She was known as the "Queen of Fado" and was most influential in introducing fado to the world outside of Portugal. She was unquestionably the most important figure in the genre’s development (died in her home at Lisbon, in Rua de São Bento which is now a museum).
2006: Claude Luter (83) French clarinet player, soprano saxophone; best known for being an accompanist to Sidney Bechet when he was in Paris, but he also worked with Barney Bigard and French writer and musician Boris Vian ().

October 7
1959: Mario Lanza/Alfredo Arnold Cocozza (38) Legendary American tenor and Hollywood movie star who enjoyed success in 1940s and 1950s. His voice was considered by some to rival that of Enrico Caruso, whom Lanza portrayed in the 1951 film The Great Caruso. He was able to sing all types of music. His career covered opera, radio, concerts, recordings, and motion pictures. He was the first artist for RCA Victor Red Seal to receive a gold disc and the first artist to sell two and half million albums. A highly influential artist, Mario has been credited with inspiring successive generations of opera singers, including Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Leo Nucci and José Carreras. (died in Rome from a pulmonary embolism) b. January 31st 1921.
1964: Jasper Taylor (70) US drummer, born in Texarkana, Arkansas; he performed in Wild West revues and minstrel shows in his teens, touring the American South and Mexico. He played on washboard, drums, wood blocks, and xylophone. As a xylophonist he collaborated with W.C. Handy, and later played with Jelly Roll Morton. In 1917 he moved to Chicago, where he was based out of for most of his career. Jasper played in the 365th Infantry Band in France during World War I, and played with Handy, Will Marion Cook, the Chicago Novelty Orchestra, and Clarence Williams in the late 1910s and early 1920s. Later in the 1920s he worked with Dave Peyton and Fess Williams. Shortly before his death he led his own Creole Jazz Band (?) b. January 1st 1894.
1966: Johnny Kidd/Frederick Heath (30) English frontman and singer with Johnny Kidd & the Pirates; he had hit songs from the late 1950s to the mid 1960s. Their first single was the raw "Please Don't Touch", reaching No. 25 on the UK singles charts in 1959, this song has since been covered many times, most successfully by Motörhead. His most famous song as a composer was "Shakin' All Over" which was a No.1 UK hit in 1960. Kidd's own version didn't chart outside of Europe, but two cover versions did: The Guess Who topped the Canadian charts and hit No.22 US with their 1965 version of "Shakin' All Over", and in Australia, Normie Rowe topped the charts with it later the same year. It was also covered by The Who on the classic Live at Leeds album and Iggy Pop covered it on his solo album "Avenue B". Johnny and his band are remembered for appearing onstage in pirate costumes, complete with eye-patches and he was one of the pre-Beatles British rock and rollers to achieve worldwide fame (car crash; near Radcliffe, Manchester, while on tour) b. November 23rd 1935
1966: Smiley Lewis/Overton Amos Lemons (53) New Orleans R&B singer (stomach cancer).
2000: Dennis Sandole (87) American guitarist sharing the stage with such acts as Tommy Dorsey and a highly respected sessionist, appearing on numerous film soundtracks and records by Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra, among others (died in his Philadelphia, PA, home).
2009: Steve Ferguson (60) American guitarist, born in Louisville, KY, he first formed a group called the Merseybeats with his high school friend, pianist Terry Adams, before the two moved Miami, Florida, where the pair helped found the band NRBQ, short for New Rhythm and Blues Quartet (originally Quintet), with singer Frank Gadler, drummer Tom Staley and bassist Joey Spampinato in 1967. Soon they relocated to the northeastern US, living in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where they gained attention in local clubs. In the spring of 1969, NRBQ was the opening act for a 3-band program at "The Fillmore East" with 2nd act Joe Cocker the headline act The Jeff Beck Group, with lead singer Rod Stewart (Steve died after a long battle with cancer) b. November 22nd 1948 ...read more

October 8
1772: Jean Joseph de Mondonville (60) French composer, violinist. Violinist of the Royal Chapel and Chamber, Paris ().
1834: François-Adrien Boïeldieu (58) French composer. The most significant composer in France in the early decades of the nineteenth century, he wrote comic operas that were among the best-known and most-performed of his day (cancer of the larynx).
1953: Kathleen Mary Ferrier CBE (41) English contralto singer, born in Higher Walton, Lancashire. She later moved with her family to Blackburn, Lancashire. She excelled in the music of Mahler, of Bach and of Handel. Her recitals often included songs by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, and towards the end of her career she sang Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer. However, she is perhaps best remembered for her interpretations of British folk songs, including "Blow the wind southerly". She also sang regularly in the Netherlands, and in France, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia. She paid three visits to North America in 1948, 1949 and 1950 and sang at each of the first six Edinburgh International Festivals. Benjamin Britten wrote several works specifically for her, including Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia, Abraham and Isaac (also written for Peter Pears), and part of the Spring Symphony. Among other composers who wrote specifically for her were Lennox Berkeley, Arthur Bliss and Edmund Rubbra. She worked with many famous conductors, including Bruno Walter, John Barbirolli, Malcolm Sargent, Clemens Krauss, Otto Klemperer, Herbert von Karajan, Eduard van Beinum and also with Benjamin Britten. She also worked with other famous singers such as Isobel Baillie, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Julius Patzak and Peter Pears. Kathleen was especially remembered for her brave performances during her final illness. (Sadly lost to breast cancer) b. April 22nd 1912
1955: Iry LeJeune (26) American accordionist born in Pointe Noire, Louisiana, he was one of the best selling and most popular Cajun musicians in the mid to late 1940s into the early 1950s. His recordings and repertoire remain influential to the present day. He was among a handful of recording artists who returned the accordion to prominence in commercially recorded Cajun music and dance hall performances. In 1948 Iry met fiddler Floyd LeBlanc, together they traveled to Houston, Texas where they recorded "Love Bridge Waltz" and "Evangeline Special" with Virgil Bozeman's Oklahoma Tornadoes supporting. This disc was the turning point in his career and for Cajun music. Iry eventually assembled a band, the Lacassine Playboys, which at one time or another featured Crawford Vincent or Robby Bertrand on drums, Alfred "Duckhead" Cormier on guitar, Wilson Granger on fiddle, R. C. Vanicor on steel guitar and occasionally Shuler on guitar.(Iry and fiddler J. B. Fuselier were returning home after playing at a dance at the Green Wing club in Eunice when they got a flat. They were trying to change the tyre when a driver sped past at about 90mph, hitting Iry, killing him and knocking his body into a field) b. October 28th 1928.
1977: Giorgos Papasideris (75) Greece country singer, composer and lyricist; born on Salamis Island, Greece, after leaving elementary school, he spent his entire career working professionally in the field of traditional Greek folk music and Arvanite folk music, producing many popular recordings. In Alonia, a district of Salamis City his birthplace, there is a bust in memory of him. (heart attack) b. September 14th 1902.
1986: Emmanuel "Manny" Sayles (78) American jazz banjoist and guitarist ()
2008: Gidget Gein/Bradley Stewart (39) US bassist; born in Hollywood, Florida and was taught to play guitar by a catholic priest. He grew up with his friend Brian Hugh Warner and their personalities expressed themselves through fun ideals in Gidget Gein and Marilyn Manson. They formed the band and came on south Florida music scene as Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids, and began to work with musician-producer Trent Reznor. They dropped the Spooky Kids from the band name in 1992. Sadly, Gidget was going out of control as his drug habit increased and he was dropped from the band in 1993. He did a stint in New York forming the band Gidget Gein and the Dali Gaggers with guitarist Al B. Romano which featured various fun displays of degenerate art and post-punk styled songwriting. Before the release of the Dali Gaggers only album Confessions of a Spooky Kid, he headed back to Florida to try to kick his drug addiction. He left Florida in 2004 taking his now extensive art collection with him, and began to execute art and fashion shows in Hollywood, California, under the organised name Gollywood (heroin overdose) b. September 11th 1969.

October 9
1941: Helen Morgan (41) American singer, guitarist and actress who worked in films and on the stage. She toured extensively in vaudeville and made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s. She starred as Julie LaVerne in the original Hammerstein and Kern's musical Broadway production of Show Boat in 1927 as well as in the 1932 Broadway revival of the musical, and appeared in the first two of its subsequent film adaptations, in 1929 and in 1936, becoming firmly associated with the role. Another notable success was the title role of Hammerstein and Kern's musical, Sweet Adeline in 1929. She also appeared and sang in many films including Applause, Glorifying the American Girl, Roadhouse Nights, The Gigolo Racket, Manhattan Lullaby, Frankie and Johnnie, You Belong to Me, Marie Galante, Sweet Music to mention a few. Helen was portrayed in the 1957 biopic The Helen Morgan Story. (cirrhosis of the liver) b. August 2nd 1900.
1973: Sister Rosetta Tharpe (58) American pioneering gospel singer, songwriter and recording artist; born Rosetta Nubin in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, she began performing at age four, billed as "Little Rosetta Nubin, the singing and guitar playing miracle". Rosetta attained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and early rock and roll accompaniment. She became the first great recording star of gospel music in the late '30s and also became known as the "original soul sister" of recorded music. On October 31, 1938, Rosetta recorded for the first time, four sides with Decca Records backed by "Lucky" Millinder's jazz orchestra. Her records caused an immediate furor: many churchgoers were shocked by the mixture of sacred and secular music, but secular audiences loved them. Songs like "This Train" and "Rock Me", which combined gospel themes with bouncy up-tempo arrangements, became smash hits among audiences with little previous exposure to gospel music. In April / May 1964, she toured the UK as part of the "American Folk Blues and Gospel Caravan", alongside Muddy Waters and Otis Spann, Ranson Knowling and Little Willie Smith, Reverend Gary Davis, Cousin Joe and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee; pianist Cousin Joe Pleasant accompanied her on stage. Many musicians, from Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to Isaac Hayes and Aretha Franklin to Sean Michel and The Noisettes have cited her as an influence. The Noisettes released the single "Sister Rosetta (Capture the Spirit)" in 2007, the same year Alison Krauss and Robert Plant released a duet album Raising Sand, Track No.7 of that album is titled "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us". (Her performances were curtailed by a stroke in 1970, after which she lost the use of her legs. Rosetta sadly died after a second stroke, on the eve of a scheduled recording session) b. March 20th 1915
1978: Jacques Brel (49) French singer, songwriter; major influence on English-speaking writers and performers including Leonard Cohen and David Bowie, while translations of his songs were recorded by a wide range of performers from the Kingston Trio to Frank Sinatra. (cancer).
1988: Clifton 'Cliff' Gallup (58) American electric guitarist, who played rock and roll in Gene Vincent's band The Blue Caps in the 1950s. He played on 35 tracks with Vincent, including his biggest hit "Be-Bop-A-Lula", and established a reputation as one of the most technically proficient guitarists in early rock and roll. He left the band in '56, returning only for some more studio sessions that same year for the second Gene Vincent & The Bluecaps LP. In the mid 1960s Clinton made a solo album for the local Pussy Cat record label in Norfolk, 'Straight Down the Middle', in a more mellow instrumental style akin to Chet Atkins and Les Paul. He played guitar up until the day he died. He last played in Norfolk with a group called the H-Lo's 48 hours before his death (heart attack) b. June 17th 1930.
1999: Milt Jackson (76) American vibraphonist; born in Detroit, he very was an expressive player, he differentiated himself from other vibraphonists in his attention to variations of dynamics and rhythm. He was particularly fond of the 12-bar blues at slow tempos. He preferred to set the vibraphone's oscillator to a low 3.3 revolutions per second for a more subtle vibrato. Milt was discovered by Dizzy Gillespie, who hired him for his sextet in 1946 and also kept him for larger ensembles. He quickly acquired experience working with the most important figures in jazz of the era, including Woody Herman, Howard McGhee, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker. From the mid-70s to the mid-80s, Jackson recorded for Norman Granz's Pablo Records, including the classic Jackson, Johnson, Brown & Company (1983), featuring Jackson with J. J. Johnson on trombone, Ray Brown on bass, backed by Tom Ranier on piano, guitarist John Collins, and drummer Roy McCurdy. He also guested on recordings by many leading jazz, blues and soul artists, such as B.B. King, John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, and Ray Charles (?) b. January 1st 1923.
2003: Carl Fontana (75) American jazz trombonist, born in Monroe, Louisiana, he learned jazz music from his father Collie, a saxophonist and violin player, and first performed with his father's band while in high school. He attended at University of Louisiana Monroe for two years, then transferred to Louisiana State University, receiving his degree in Music Education in 1950. From 1951 he joined up with Woody Herman, after three years he joined Lionel Hampton's big band in 1954. In early 1955 he played briefly with Hal McIntyre before joining Stan Kenton's big band later in the year. He recorded three albums with Kenton and also worked with fellow trombonist Kai Winding during this period. In 1966 he toured in Africa with Herman's band, but he primarily performed with house orchestras in Las Vegas during the 1960s, particularly Paul Anka's band and the bands backing Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Wayne Newton, and the Benny Goodman orchestra. In the 1980s, he appeared regularly on National Public Radio's Monday Night Jazz program. And although he recorded on more than 70 albums over his long career, his first true record as a headliner did not appear until 1985 when Uptown Jazz released The Great Fontana, his first release as a solo headliner. He toured internationally now and then with various stars, but because he rarely recorded under his own name and toured only occasionally after 1958, he is significantly less famous among mainstream jazz fans, although very well-known amongst his fellow musicians. (sadly alzheimer's disease took him away) b. July 18th 1928.
2003: Don Lanphere (75) jazz saxophonist; ranked with some of the top jazz musicians of his time before he was 20, recording with such bebop trumpet legends as Fats Navarro and Max Roach in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He played gigs with Woody Herman and Charlie Parker and with big-ticket big bands such as Artie Shaw's. (liver failure).
2007: Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge (38) American rock musician with the video art and music group Psychic TV; they released fourteen live albums in eighteen months, enough to earn them a record in the Guinness Book of World Records (undiagnosed heart condition which is thought to have been connected with her long-term battle with stomach cancer. Lady Jaye collapsed and died in the arms of her heartbroken "other half" Genesis Breyer P-Orridge).
2009: Russell Allen "Rusty" Wier (65) American singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas; Rusty's career started the early 1970s and covers multiple music genres. He is most famous for his composition "Don't It Make You Wanna Dance" which was a small hit for him, but has been covered by, among artists, Jerry Jeff Walker, Chris LeDoux, John Hiatt, Barbara Mandrell, and Bonnie Raitt whose version of the song was a country hit when it was included on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack. Rusty was inducted into the Austin Music Awards Hall of Fame in 2002. (cancer) b. May 3rd 1944.
2009: Zambo Cavero/Arturo Cavero Velásquez (68) Afro Peruvian singer, who enjoyed international fame and considered by many Peruvians a symbol of the Afro Peruvian identity or Peruanidad. He specialized in interpreting, traditional songs from authentic and original rhythms of Perú, some of his best interpretations are songs that were composed by the notable Peruvian composer Augusto Polo Campos, other comes from a profound Afro-Peruvian traditional Música criolla which is actually Afro Peruvian music. (died in Rebagliati Hospital in Lima, from complications of sepsis) b. November 29th 1940.

October 10
1964: Eddie Cantor/Edward Israel Iskowitz (72) American vaudeville performer, dancer, comedian, singer, actor, and songwriter. Familiar to Broadway, radio and early TV audiences, he was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing anecdotes about his wife Ida and five daughters. His eye-rolling song-and-dance routines eventually led to his nickname, Banjo Eyes. His eyes became his trademark, often exaggerated in illustrations, and leading to his appearance on Broadway in the musical Banjo Eyes in 1941 (heart attack) b. January 31st 1892.
1978: Ralph Marterie (63) Italian trumpet player , big-band leader (?).
1979: Paul Paray (93) French conductor, organist and composer, born Le Tréport and in 1911, he won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome for his cantata Yanitza. After WW1, Paul was invited to conduct the orchestra of the Casino de Cauterets, which included players from the Lamoureux Orchestra. This was a springboard for him to conduct this Orchestra in Paris. Later he was music director of the Monte Carlo Orchestra, and president of the Concerts Colonne. He made his American debut with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra in 1939. In 1952, he was appointed music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducting them in numerous recordings for Mercury Records' "Living Presence" series. He also was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity (?) b. May 24th 1886.
2002: Teresa Graves (54) African-American actress and singer; born in Houston, Texas, Teresa began her career singing with The Doodletown Pipers, before turning to acting and became a regular in Our Place in 1967, Turn On in 1969 and then the Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. She appeared in a number of films before her pivotal role in the 1974 television movie Get Christie Love! from which Teresa is credited as the first African American woman to play the lead in a police film and TV show. In 1983, she retired from show business to devote her time to the religion (died in a fire at her home) b. January 10th 1948.
2003: Eugene Istomin (77) American classical pianist, born in New York City he was famed for his work in the piano trio, with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose, known as the Istomin-Stern-Rose Trio, with whom he made many recordings, particularly of music by Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert. He also played with them in orchestral music, with conductors such as Eugene Ormandy, Bruno Walter and also as a soloist. He went on to win the Leventritt award, the Philhadelphia Youth Award, a Grammy Award in 1970 and received the French Legion d'Honneur in 2001 (liver cancer) b. November 26th 1925.
2005: Nick Hawkins (40) guitarist with Big Audio Dynamite aka Bad (heart attack).
2009: Luis Aguilé (73) Argentine singer and songwriter; he started his career in Argentina, before relocating to Spain in 1963, where he had a successful musical career, both as a songwriter and singer. In the 1980s, he was the musical assessor of the Televisión Española multidisciplinary contest "1,2,3 Responda Otra Vez".He has more than 700 songs to his name but maybe best known for his worldwide hit song '"Cuando Sali de Cuba" ("When I Left Cuba"). Back in 1990, Luis Aguilé created the music and lyrics of the anthem of CF Monterrey. It is considered one of the best soccer anthems in the world. He has also worked as a music producer and author, mainly on children's books and novels. He has been finalist twice for the Premio Planeta of Spanish Novel (stomach cancer) b. February 24th 1936.
2009: Stephen Gately (33) Irish pop singer and actor, born in Dublin, along with Ronan Keating, he was one of two lead singers in the boy band Boyzone. The band was put together in 1993 by manager Louis Walsh and thier 1994 debut single "Working My Way Back to You" reached No.3 in the Irish charts; this was followed by 17 top ten hits in the UK singles charts, which included 6 chart toppers. They released 3 albums Said And Done, A Different Beat, and Where We Belong, all of which reached the No.1 spot in the UK. After the success of Boyzone, the band decided in 2000 to move on to solo projects. Stephen was the first with his debut solo single titled New Beginning and later a debut solo album of the same name. The album included "Bright Eyes" which he recorded for the soundtrack to the new TV version of Watership Down. He also became the voice of one of the characters, 'Blackavar', which was created to look like him. Stephen also took to the stage appearing in a various stage productions, which included the lead role in Bill Kenwright's new production of Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and he appeared on many television programmes. In 2008, he rejoined his bandmates as Boyzone reformed for a series of concerts and recordings (died suddenly while on holiday in Mallorca, the cause of death has yet to be determined) b. March 17th 1976.

October 11
1963: Édith Piaf/Edith Giovanni Gassion (47) French singer and actress; one of the most popular French singers of the 1940s and '50s, internationally famous for her husky, mournful voice and her songs of loneliness and despair (lost her battle with cancer).
1984: Tex Williams/Sollie Paul Williams (68) American Western swing guitarist and singer, born in Ramsey, Illinois. He is best known for his talking blues style; his biggest hit was the novelty song, "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)", which held the number one position on the Billboard charts for six weeks in 1947. "Smoke" was the No. 5 song on Billboard's Top 100 list for 1947, and was No.1 on the country chart that year. It can be heard during the opening scenes of the 2006 movie, Thank You for Smoking (sadly died of pancreatic cancer) b. August 23rd 1917.
1993: Jess Thomas (66) US Wagnerian tenor, born in San Francisco, CA. As a child he took part in various musical activities and later studied at the University of Nebraska and Stanford University. Jess made his operatic debut in 1957 for the San Francisco Opera performing in Der Rosenkavalier as the Haushofmeister. He went on to be awarded the Wagner medal at Bayreuth, Germany in 1963. His many appearances in North America and Europe between the late 1950s and early 1980s included 15 seasons in 109 performances of 15 roles at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City (?) b. August 4th 1927.
1996: Renato Russo/Renato Manfredini Jr (36) Brazilian punk rock bassist and songwriter born in Rio de Janeiro. At the age of 15, he suffered from epiphysiolysis, a disease that paralyzed his legs for two years. Renato had to have a platinum implant, which earned him the nickname "Six Million Dollar Man". During the years of 1978 and 1979, he was the bass player with the punk rock band Aborto Elétrico / Electric Abortion. Renato wrote many songs during this period, that would later become hits of a later band Capital Inicial. In 1982, the band broke up and developed into two bands Legião Urbana, they became widely famous in Brazil, with protest songs at first, then songs about love, spiritualism, family and sex. The other band formed was Capital Inicial recording seven albums from 1982 to 1996. Renato played in both bands writing many of the songs. In the 90s he released two solo albums, with English and Italian songs (Sadly died of an AIDS related illness) b. March 27th 1960.
2007: Werner von Trapp (91) Austrian-born musician and singer, member of the Trapp Family Singers who inspired The Sound of Music.(?)

October 12
1956: Don Lorenzo Perosi (83) Italian composer; the most significant Italian composer of sacred music at the turn of the twentieth century ().
1971: Gene Vincent/Vincent Eugene Craddock (36) American singer born in Norfolk, Virginia, a pioneer of rock 'n' roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top 10 hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula," is considered a significant early example of rockabilly. Other hits included "Race With The Devil", "Bluejean Bop", "Lotta Lovin'", "Bluejean Bop" and "Woman Love". Vincent also became one of the first rock stars to star in a film, 'The Girl Can't Help It' together with Jayne Mansfield. On April 16, 1960, while on tour in the UK, Gene , Eddie Cochran, and songwriter Sharon Sheeley were involved in a high-speed traffic accident in a private hire taxi. Gene broke his ribs and collarbone and further damaged his weakened leg, Sharon suffered a broken pelvis, but tragically Wddie Cochran, who had been thrown from the vehicle, suffered serious brain injuries and died the next day. He was the first inductee into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame upon its formation in 1997. The following year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1749 N. Vine St. He is a member of the Rock and Roll and Rockabilly halls of fame (he sadly died from a ruptured stomach ulcer while visiting his father in California) b. February 11th 1935.
1978: Nancy Spungen (20) American paranoid schizophrenic girlfriend of Sex Pistol's Sid Vicious. Nancy left home at age 17 and moved to New York City. She followed bands such as Aerosmith, The New York Dolls and The Ramones. In 1977, at the age of 19, she moved to London, allegedly to win over Jerry Nolan of the New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers, but met The Sex Pistols instead. When lead singer Johnny Rotten rejected her, she pursued bassist Sid Vicious and they soon moved in together.During a tumultuous 23-month relationship, Nancy and Sid became addicted to heroin and other drugs. Sid was already an abuser of multiple drugs before he met Nancy, but many sources claim she introduced him to heroin; other sources claim that he had begun to use speed with his mother at an early age and then got into heroin after meeting Nancy. (she was found sprawled on the bathroom floor of their hotel room clad in a black bra and panties. She had bled to death from a single stab wound to the abdomen, later traced to a knife owned by Sid Vicious. Sid died of an overdose while on bail before he could be tried for murder) b. February 27th 1958.
1985: Ricky Wilson (32) American self-taught guitarist born in Athens, Georgia, he was the original guitarist and a founding member of the B-52's along with his sister, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland and Fred Schneider. They played their first gig in 1977 at a Valentine's Day party for friends. The band's quirky take on the New Wave sound of their era was a combination of dance and surf music set apart by the unusual guitar tunings used by Ricky. He also played the guitar on the song "Breakin' In My Heart" on the 1979 self-titled album by Tom Verlaine (died prematurely from complications due to aids) b. March 19th 1953.
1989:Carmen Cavallaro (76) American pianist born in New York, who established himself as one of the most accomplished and admired light music pianists of his generation. In 1933, he joined the jazz band of Al Kavelin, where he quickly became the featured soloist. After four years he switched to a series of other big bands, including Rudy Vallee's in 1937. He also worked briefly with Enrico Madriguera and Abe Lyman. Starting his own band, a five-piece combo, in St. Louis in 1939, his popularity grew and his group expanded into a 14-piece orchestra, releasing some 19 albums for Decca over the years (Sadly passed to cancer) b. May 6th 1913.
1997: John Denver (53) US singer songwriter (killed when the light aircraft he was piloting crashed into Monterey Bay, California).
2001: Dan Del Santo (50) American steel guitarist, guitarist, singer-songwriter; having made his presence felt on Texas' outlaw country scene during the late '70s, he had left country music by the mid-'80s and launched an Afro-Cuban band, the Professors of Pleasures. Latin music remained his prime genre as he went on to host a third-world music show for an Austin-based radio station. Dan relocated to Oaxaca, Mexico, where he formed new band, Perros del Sol, and continued to perform his original songs in the Spanish language (esophageal bleeding) b. September 4th 1951
2002: Ray Conniff (85) American trombonist, strings, orchestra director; after serving in the U.S. Army in World War II, where he worked under Walter Schumann, he was hired by Mitch Miller, then head of A & R at Columbia Records, as their home arranger, working with several artists including Rosemary Clooney, Marty Robbins, Frankie Laine, Johnny Mathis, Guy Mitchell and Johnnie Ray. He wrote a top 10 arrangement for Don Cherry's "Band of Gold" in 1955, a single that sold more than a million copies. Among the hit singles he backed with his orchestra (and eventually with a male chorus) were "Yes Tonight Josephine" and "Just Walkin' in the Rain" by Johnnie Ray; "Chances Are" and "It's Not for Me to Say" by Johnny Mathis; "A White Sport Coat" and "The Hanging Tree" by Marty Robbins; "Moonlight Gambler" by Frankie Laine; "Up Above My Head," a duet by Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray; and "Pet Me, Poppa" by Rosemary Clooney. He also backed up the albums Tony by Tony Bennett, Blue Swing by Eileen Rodgers, Swingin' for Two by Don Cherry, and half the tracks of The Big Beat by Johnnie Ray. Between 1957 and 1968, he had 28 albums in the American Top 40, the most famous one being Somewhere My Love (1966). He topped the album list in Britain in 1969 with His Orchestra, His Chorus, His Singers, His Sound, an album which was originally published to promote his European tour (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) in 1969. He also was the first American popular artist to record in Russia—in 1974 he recorded Ray Conniff in Moscow with the help of a local choir. He sold about 70 million albums worldwide and continued recording and performing until his death (passed away after falling down and hitting his head) b. November 6th 1916.
2005: Baker Knight (72) American songwriter, singer and guitarist, born in Birmingham, Alabama and attended the University of Alabama, where he wrote music in his spare time. In 1956 he founded a rockabilly group, The Knightmares, releasing their debut single, "Bop Boogie to the Blues", that same year. Baker moved to Hollywood in 1958, he wrote the song "Lonesome Town"and other hits for Rick Nelson. He wrote "Just Relax", which he released as a solo single in 1959, with Cochran on guitar. He also wrote the song "The Wonder of You" followed by songs for Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Ernest Ashworth, Hank Williams, Jr., Jerry Lee Lewis, Dave & Sugar, and Mickey Gilley among others. Baker's last solo release was "If Only", in 1977 (?) b. July 4th 1933.
2006: Al Thompson (59) former Motown drummer, longtime drummer for Gladys Knight & The Pips, Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole ().
2009: Dickie Peterson (63) American singer and bass guitarist born in Grand Forks, ND; although his first instrument had been drums he has played electric bass since the age of thirteen, citing Otis Redding as an influence to his music. He moved Davis CA, then to San Francisco in the early 60s. After playing in the band Andrew Staples & The Oxford Circle, he helped form the power trio Blue Cheer, with himself as lead singer/bassist, Leigh Stephens as guitarist and Eric Albronda on the drums, Eric was soon replaced by Paul Whaley. Their first hit in 1968 was a cover version of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" from their debut album Vincebus Eruptum. The single peaked at No.14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the album peaked at No.11 on the Billboard 200 chart. Dickie spent much of his last two decades based in Germany, playing with Blue Cheer and other groups including Mother Ocean in the early 2000s, the Hank Davison Band and as an acoustic duo with Hank Davison under the name "Dos Hombres" (liver cancer) b. September 12th 1946.
2009: Ian Wallace OBE (90) British bass-baritone opera and concert singer, he made his operatic debut with the New London Opera Company at the Cambridge Theatre, London, in 1946, as Schaunard in La bohème. Throughout the 50s, he was a feature at Glyndebourne, specializing in basso buffo roles, notably Dr Bartolo in The Barber of Seville. In the 1960s and 1970s he was closely associated with Scottish Opera. From the early 1960s to the 1980s, he performed a one-man show, featuring operatic excerpts, ballads and comic songs. He was particularly noted for his performances of the music of Flanders and Swann, and "The Hippopotamus" became his signature tune. He also acted occasionally on TV and in films, including Tom Thumb, made in 1958. Ian was well known for having been a panellist throughout the 27-year run of the radio panel game My Music, not missing a single episode of more than 520 that were broadcast (died after long illness) b. July 10th 1919.

October 13
1974: Ed Sullivan (73) TV host, band leader. Famous for introducing new musical acts on his TV show, The Ed Sullivan Show (cancer).
1987: Kishore Kumar/Abhas Kumar Ganguly (58) Indian film playback singer and actor who also worked as lyricist, composer, producer, director, screenwriter and scriptwriter. Kishore sang in many Indian languages including Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Malayalam and Oriya. He can be heard solo or collaborating with other artists on hundreds of tracks. Kishore also starred in many films including New Delhi, Aasha, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Half Ticket, and Padosan (?) b. August 4th 1929.
2000: Britt Woodman (80) American jazz trombonist best known for his work with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus; he first worked with Phil Moore and Les Hite. After service in World War II he played with Boyd Raeburn before joining with Lionel Hampton in 1946. In the 1950s he worked with Duke Ellington. As a member of the Duke's band he can be heard on The Complete Porgy and Bess, Such Sweet Thunder, Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook, Black, Brown, and Beige and Indigos albums. In 1960 he moved on from Ellington to work in a pit orchestra. Later he worked with Mingus and can be heard on the 1963 album Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus. In the 1970s he led his own octet and worked with Toshiko Akiyoshi (?) b. June 4th 1920
2001: Peter Doyle (52) singer, songwriter. New Seekers (throat cancer).
2009: Al Martino/Alfred Cini (82) American singer and actor; after servicing in the US Navy in WW II, including being a part of the Iwo Jima invasion where he was wounded, inspired by Al Jolson and Perry Como, he started his singing career, performing in local nightclubs for a time, before moving to New York in 1948. He went on to win first place on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts television program, thanks to a rendition of Como's "If," this led to a recording contract with the Philadelphia based independent label, BBS. Al had a string of hit singles and albums that stretched from the early 1950s all the way into the mid 1970s. His single "Here in My Heart" was No.1 in the first ever UK Singles Chart, published by the New Musical Express on November 14, 1952, putting him into the Guinness Book of World Records, it remained in the top position for nine weeks. One of his most successful hits was "Spanish Eyes", achieving several gold and platinum discs for sales. As well as his singing career, Al played the role of Johnny Fontane in the 1972 film The Godfather, as well as singing the film's theme, Speak Softly Love (Love Theme from The Godfather). He played the same role in The Godfather Part II and The Godfather Part III, as well as The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980 (died at his home in Springfield, Pennsylvania, 6 days after his 82nd birthday) b. October 7th 1927.

October 14
1959: Alphonse Trent (54) American jazz pianist; he led one of the most fabled of the territory bands, an outfit that recorded just eight titles, but was legendary. He led his first band in the early '20s, and in 1924 he played with Eugene Cook's Synco Six. He then took over leadership of the band, which played until 1934, playing mostly in the American South and Midwest, as well as on steamboats. He left music in the mid-1930s but returned with another band in 1938. His sidemen included Terrence Holder, Alex Hill, Stuff Smith, Snub Mosley, Charlie Christian, Sweets Edison, Mouse Randolph, and Peanuts Holland (?) b. August 24th 1905.
1977: Bing Crosby/Harry Lillis Crosby (74) US singer, actor; singer of "White Christmas", starred in the "On the Road" films with Bob Hope (He died of a heart attack on a golf course in Spain, having just completed the 18th hole).
1985: Emil Gilels (77) Soviet pianist; first Soviet artist to be allowed to travel extensively in the West. After the war, he toured Europe starting from 1947 as a concert pianist, and made his American debut in 1955 playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in Philadelphia (he was killed accidentally by the Russian doctor after a medical check-up).
1990: Leonard Bernstein (72) Composer, pianist, conductor, the first conductor born in the United States of America to receive world-wide acclaim, and is known for both his conducting of the New York Philharmonic, and his multiple compositions, including West Side Story, Candide and On The Town (emphysema).
1998: Frankie Yankovic (83) singer, accordian; America's undisputed Polka King, the first polka artist to score a million-selling single with 1948's "Just Because", the first to perform on television, and the first to win a Grammy for Best Polka Album (he suffered a fall at his home and a died a few days later).
2006: Freddy Fender/Baldemar Huerta (69) American singer, songwriter and guitarist; Texas Tornados, Los Super Seven, solo. The first and biggest pioneer in Tex Mex music, one of the most important musicians in Tejano Music History, he is documented as The First American Hispanic and Hispanic Rock & Roll Recording Artist In Anglo Latino Musical History. He made himself a guitar at the age of six, at 10 he was singing on local radio stations and winning talent competitions. Then at 16, he joined the Marines for three years. After his discharge, he started playing Texas honky tonks and dance halls. His big break came with Falcon Records in 1957, when he recorded Spanish versions of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" and Harry Belafonte's "Jamaica Farewell." The recordings both reached No1 in Mexico and South America. He signed with Imperial Records in 1959, renaming himself "Fender" after the brand of his electric guitar, and "Freddy", well.. because it sounded good with Fender.In 1974, he recorded "Before The Next Teardrop Falls" and on April 8, 1975, it reached the Number One spot on Billboard's pop and county charts, the first time in history an artist's first single reached Number One on both charts. With its success, he won the Academy of Country Music's best new artist award. Throughout his long career Freddy has appeared on 18 TV shows, in 8 films, 11 videos, and countless soundtracks, commercials, shows, tributes and is a triple Grammy Award winner. He won his first shared Grammy with the Texas Tornados, in 1990 for best Mexican-American performance for "Soy de San Luis", his second shared Grammy came in with Los Super Seven in the same category in 1998 for "Los Super Seven". Then in year 2002 he won his own Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album in 2002 for "La Musica de Baldemar Huerta." (lung cancer) b. June 4th 1937.
2007: Big Moe/Kenneth Moore (33) American rapper born in Houston, known for a softer and slower style than other Houston rappers, including a mixture of rapping and singing that he called "rapsinging" as well as for his music that celebrated codeine-laced syrup as a recreational drug. He began his career free styling on DJ Screw's mix tapes before being signed to Wreckshop Records, releasing his debut album, City of Syrup in 2000 (died after suffering a heart attack one week earlier that left him in a coma) b. August 20th 1974.
2009: Johnny Jones (73) American R&B guitarist and bandleader; born in Nashville, he moved to Chicago in the '50s. He shared an apartment with harmonica player Walter McCollum. Together they formed a small group, working regularly with Junior Wells and Freddy King. Johnny moved back to Nashville in the early 1960s to become a session musician and formed a band the Imperial Seven. Johnny and Jimi Hendrix once faced off in a legendary guitar duel at the city's Club Baron in the early 1960s and also appeared alongside Jimi on the regional TV music series 'Night Train,' where Johnny played in the House Band.
Around 1964, he assumed leadership of the King Casuals, the band founded in 1962 by Jimi Hendrix and bassist Billy Cox in Clarksville, he replaced Hendrix. They recorded a portfolio of singles in later years. The most recent recording with his band was the 2001 solo release, Blues Is In the House. After which he traveled and played in the UK three times, the last being in the spring of 2009. In the early 2000s, he and other players on the Jefferson Street scene were held in the spotlight by the Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945–1970 exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and its accompanying double-album (Johnny was found dead in his apartment) b. ??.1936

October 15
1964: Cole Porter (73) American singer, multi-musician, composer, songwriter born in Peru, Indiana, U.S. He e learned the violin at age 6, the piano at 8, and wrote his first operetta at 10. Cole wrote songs both words and music for over 30 stage and film musicals. His works include the musical including "Kiss Me, Kate", "Du Barry Was a Lady", "Gay Divorce" "Anything Goes", "Paris", "Fifty Million Frenchmen", "Can-Can", and "High Society". He has written songs persifically for greats such as Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly among many others. Writing and composing songs such as "Begin the Beguine", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "In the Still of the Night", "Night and Day", "At Long Last Love", "From Alpha to Omega", "You Never Know", "Let's Misbehave", "From Now On", "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". He was one of the greatest contributors to the Great American Songbook and Cole is one of the few Tin Pan Alley composers to have written both lyrics and music for his songs (kidney failure) b. June 9th 1891
1980: Bobby "Lester" Dallas (50) American lead singer with the Moonglows, born in Louisville. Lester and high school classmate Harvey Fuqua started singing at parties as a duo in the 40s. They formed The Moonglows in 1951, originally calling themselves the Crazy Sounds, but were renamed by disc jockey Alan Freed as the Moonglows. They also cut some recordings as the Moonlighters. Their first major hit was the No.1 R&B "Sincerely" for Chess in 1954, which reached number 20 on the pop charts. They enjoyed five more Top Ten R&B hits on from 1955 to 1958, including "Most of All," "We Go Together," "See Saw," and "Please Send Me Someone to Love," as well as "Ten Commandments of Love." The different styles defined the Moonglows two lead singers, Harvey Fuqua favoured the up-tempo R&B/rock numbers while Lester sung more of the romantic ballads. (Cancer) b. January 13th 1930.
1999: Terry Gilkyson (83) US singer, lyricist, composer; he wrote and recorded "The Cry of the Wild Goose," which became a hit song for Frankie Laine in 1950, as well as the 1953 hit song "Tell Me a Story" recorded by Jimmy Boyd and Laine. In the 1956, he formed a group called The Easy Riders with Richard Dehr and Frank Miller, having a major hit with "Marianne" selling in excess of one million copies, earning a gold disc. The three also wrote "Memories Are Made of This," which became a popular song in several versions, including an adaptation for the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Terry also appeared in, as well as wrote songs for, the 1951 Western film Slaughter Trail. In the 1960s, he left the group to work for the Walt Disney Studios, writing music both for movies and the television series The Wonderful World of Disney especially "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh." In 1968 he was nominated for an Academy Award for "The Bare Necessities" from the movie The Jungle Book (died in Austin, Texas, while visiting family) b. June 7th 1916.
2004: Dave Godin (68) UK Writer, Critic. Founder of the record labels, Soul City and Deep Soul - He coined the term, Northern Soul. (lung cancer).
2008: Edie Adams (81) US singer, Broadway and television; starred on Broadway in Wonderful Town in 1953 and in Li'l Abner in 1956, and played the Fairy Godmother in Rodgers & Hammerstein's original 1957 Cinderella broadcast. She also played "Miss Olsen" in the 1960 film The Apartment. In 2003, as one of the last surviving headliners from the all-star movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, she joined actors Marvin Kaplan and Sid Caesar at 40th anniversary celebrations of the movie (pneumonia and cancer) b. April 16th 1927.
2008: Frankie Venom/Frank Kerr (51) Canadian lead vocalist and founding member with the punk rock pioneers, Teenage Head, founded at Westdale High School in Hamilton, Ontario in 1972. (natural causes) b. ??

October 16
1945: James Vincent Monaco (60) Italian-born American composer of popular music; he worked as a ragtime player in Chicago before moving to New York, writing songs for musicals, Al Jolson, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby and others (?).
1959: Minor Hall/Ram Hall (62) American jazz drummer born in Sellies, Louisiana; after studying at New Orleans University until 1914, Minor began playing with Kid Ory. He played in various New Orleans bands such as the Superior Band, then moved to Chicago in 1918. He took his brother, Tubby Hall's spot in Lawrence Duhe's band briefly before serving in the U.S. Army during World War I, he rejoined in 1921. In 1926 he played with Jimmy Noone, and then moved to California for an extended run with Mutt Carey's Jeffersonians from 1927 to 1932. He played in the Winslow Allen band in the 1930s, but took a hiatus from music for part of the decade, and served briefly in the Army again in '42. In 1945 he rejoined Ory in his Creole Jazz Band and became one of his most longstanding members, remaining with Ory's ensemble until 1956, when he retired through poor health. Minor recorded extensively with Ory and also did some recording with Louis Armstrong in the 1940s (?) b. March 2nd 1897.
1969: Leonard Chess/Lejzor Czyz (52) The founder of the Chess record label, played a pivotal role in the birth of the Chicago electric blues movement of the postwar era, launching the careers of legends. In the 1950s, Chess Records' commercial success grew with artists such as Little Walter, The Moonglows, The Flamingos and Chuck Berry, and in the '60s with Etta James, Fontella Bass, Koko Taylor, Little Milton, Laura Lee and Tommy Tucker, as well as with the subsidiary labels Checker, Argo and Cadet. As the 1960s progressed, Chess's recording enterprise branched out into other genres including gospel, traditional jazz, spoken word, comedy, and more (heart attack) b. March 12th 1917.
1973: Gene Krupa (64) American jazz & big band drummer born in Chicago, Illinois. Many consider him to be one of the most influential drummers of the 20th century, particularly regarding the development of the drum kit. Many jazz historians believe he made history in 1927 as the first kit drummer ever to record using a bass drum pedal. Others, however, believe this was done earlier by Baby Dodds. His drum method was published in 1938 and immediately became the standard text. He is also credited with inventing the rim shot on the snare drum. The 1937 recording of Louis Prima's "Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)" by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra featuring Gene on drums was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and Gene was the first drummer inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1978. Sal Mineo starred as Gene Krupa in the Columbia Pictures movie The Gene Krupa Story in 1959. (leukemia and heart failure) b. January 15th 1909.
1982: Jakov Gotovac (87) Croatian composer, conductor of classical music. He is the author of the most famous Croatian nationalist opera, the comic Ero s onoga svijeta "Ero the joker", which has been performed on all continents except Australia, and translated into nine languages, with its libretto written by Milan Begovic. It has been performed in more than 80 theatres in Europe alone . In his works, he represents the late national romanticism, with national folklore being the main source of ideas and inspiration (?) b. October 11th 1895.
1983: George Liberace (72) American musician and television performer, born in Menasha, Wisconsin, he was the elder brother and business partner of famed US entertainer Liberace, Wladziu Valentino Liberace. He appeared regularly on his brother's syndicated TV show in the 1950s as violin accompanist and orchestral arranger (died of leukemia in Las Vegas, Nevada) b. July 31st 1911.
1986: Arthur Grumiaux (65) Belgian violinist, also proficient in piano, born in Villers-Perwin. He begin music studies at the age of only 4, and trained on violin and piano with the Fernand Quintet at the Charleroi Conservatory, where he took first prize at the age of 11. Arthur's playing was included on over 30 recordings. The titles on these releases favour the compositions of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, and Schubert, but he also including works by Corelli, Ravel, Debussy and Franck. In addition to his solo work, he recorded Mozart quintets with the Grumiaux Ensemble, and various selections with the Grumiaux Trio. His successful performance career led up to royal recognition, and in 1973 he was knighted baron by King Baudouin for his services to music, thus sharing the title with Paganini. (He struggled with diabetes, his heavy recording schedules and concert performances, sadly he died of a sudden stroke while in in Brussels) b. March 21st 1921
1990: Art Blakey/Abdullah Ibn Buhaina (71) US jazz drummer; one of the inventors of the modern, bebop style of drumming. He was known as a powerful musician and a ferocious groover. He is undoubtedly one of the most influential jazz musicians ever; his brand of bluesy, funky hard bop was and still remains profoundly influential on mainstream jazz. As a teenager he was playing the piano full-time, leading a commercial band, before teaching himself to drum.After which in the 1940s, Blakey was a member of bands led by Mary Lou Williams, Fletcher Henderson, and Billy Eckstine. In 1947 Art organized the Seventeen Messengers, a rehearsal band, and recorded with an octet called the Jazz Messengers. Over the years the Jazz Messengers served as a springboard for young jazz musicians such as Donald Byrd, Johnny Griffin, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Chuck Mangione, Woody Shaw, JoAnne Brackeen and Wynton Marsalis. Art made a world tour in 1971–2 with the Giants of Jazz including Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding, Sonny Stitt, Thelonious Monk and Al McKibbon. Up to the 1960s Art also recorded as a sideman with many other musicians including Jimmy Smith, Herbie Nichols, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, Grant Green, and Jazz Messengers graduates Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley, amongst many others. However, after the mid-1960s he mostly concentrated on his own work as a leader (lung cancer) b. October 11th 1919.
2001: Etta Jones (72) US jazz singer; critical success and relative commercial obscurity earned her a reputation in her lifetime as a "jazz musician's jazz singer", a highly underrated singer who rarely received the recognition she so richly deserved. Her first recordings "Salty Papa Blues," "Evil Gal Blues," "Blow Top Blues," and "Long, Long Journey" were produced by Leonard Feather in 1944, featuring her in the company of clarinetist Barney Bigard and tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld. Her last recording, a tribute to Billie Holiday, was released 57 years later on the day of Jones' death. Only one of her recordings, her debut album for Prestige Records "Don't Go to Strangers" in 1960 was a big success with sales of over a million copies. Etta had three Grammy nominations, for the Don't Go to Strangers LP in 1960, Save Your Love for Me in 1981, and My Buddy in 1999. In 2008 the album Don't Go to Strangers was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (cancer) b. October 25th 1928.
2005: David Reilly (34) US singer, songwriting, multi-musician, production partner in the electro-rock band God Lives Underwater /GLU (complications of a coma brought on by pain medication for an abscessed tooth).
2006: John Thomas Johnson (71) American orchestral tuba player. He performed on more than 2,000 film soundtracks, most notably John Williams' Jaws score, in which he played a high-register tuba solo as the melodic theme for the shark (cancer and kidney failure).
2007: Todor "Toše" Proeski (26) Macedonian singer songwriter; a regurlar at the Eastern European festivals and represented Macedonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. He was called "Elvis Presley of the Balkans" Todor also held humanitarian concerts throughout the Republic of Macedonia. He was awarded with the Mother Theresa Humanitarian Award and in 2003 he became a Regional UNICEF Ambassador.(died near Nova Gradiška, Croatia, as a passenger in a car accident when the airbags failed to activate).

October 17
1849: Frederic Francois Chopin (39) Polish composer, pianist; a child prodigy, performing in elegant salons & beginning to write his own pieces at the age of 8. He went on to compose 3 piano sonatas, 5 rondos, 4 scherzos, 4 ballades, 17 polonaises, including one with orchestral accompaniment and one for cello and piano accompaniment, 58 mazurkas, 20 waltzes, 3 écossaises, 26 preludes, 4 sets of variations, including Souvenir de Paganini, 4 impromptus, 21 nocturnes, 27 études (twelve in the Op. 10 cycle, twelve in the Op. 25 cycle, and three in a collection without an opus number), 2 concertos for piano and orchestra, Opp. 11 and 21. He also composed a fantaisie, an Allegro de concert, a barcarole, a berceuse, a bolero, a tarantella, a contredanse, a fugue, a cantabile, a lento, a Funeral March, and a Feuille d'album. Chopin's other works include a krakowiak for piano and orchestra; fantasia on themes from Polish songs with accompanying orchestra, a trio for violin, cello and piano; a sonata for cello and piano, a Grand Duo in E major for cello and piano with Auguste Franchomme on themes from Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diable, and 19 Polish songs for voice and accompanying piano. (Chopin sadly died of tuberculosis in Paris) b. March 1st 1810
1972: Billy Williams (61) US singer, born in Waco, Texas; he had a highly successful cover recording of Fats Waller's "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter" in 1957. His trademark hook for his songs was to shout "Oh, Yeah" at the end of lyrics. He was the lead singer of The Charioteers between 1930 and 1950, after which he formed his own Billy Williams Quartet with Eugene Dixon, Claude Riddick and John Ball. Many appearances on TV followed, especially on Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar. By the early 1960s he had lost his voice due to diabetes. He subsequently moved to Chicago and worked as a social worker until his death (?) b. December 28th 1910.
1991: Tennessee Ernie Ford (72) American singer and television performer; his booming baritone voice is best known for his grim coal-mining song "Sixteen Tons." He was born in Bristol, Tennesee, sang in the school choirs and played the trombone. In 1937 he worked as an announcer for WOAI in Bristol which he left to attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He held radio jobs in Atlanta and Knoxville between 1939 and 1941. In 1946 he went to live in San Bernardino, California and landed an announcer’s job with KXLA in Pasadena. His comical Tennessee Ernie character “bless your pea-pickin’ little heart” caught the ear of disc jockey-TV host Cliffie Stone, who made him a regular cast member of LA’s Hometown Jamboree country music television and radio shows. He sang at the Grand Ole Opry in 1950, and in 1953 he became the first country singer to appear at London’s prestigious Palladium. His album "Great Gospel Songs" won a Grammy in 1964. Ernie has been awarded three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for radio, records and television. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984 and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1990. (liver disease) b. February 13th 1919.
1996: Chris Acland (30) UK drummer; he played in bands such as The Infection and Panic, before becoming a founder member of the London-based shoegazing and britpop band, Lush. They went on to release three albums and several singles and EPs (Lush had just completed a tour and music festival appearances, and two days after bandmate Anderson announced a desire to quit the band, Chris committed suicide by hanging himself in his parents' house in Burneside, Cumbria. His bandmates were devastated and disbanded after a long period of mourning) b. September 7th 1966.
2000: Jokke/Joachim Nielsen (36) Norwegian singer, guitarist; he was the frontman and guitarist of the Norwegian rock band Jokke & Valentinerne, which he formed in 1982 with his long time partner May-Irene Aasen on drums and Håkon Torgersen on bass. The band went on to become one of the most popular bands in Oslo's underground rock scene. Their first album "Alt kan repareres"(Everything can be repaired) was released in 1986. Much of the band's lyrics were about alcohol, societal underdogs, misfits and so-called anti-heroes, Jokke himself had a reputation of frequently getting drunk on stage. In 1992, he created a scandal when he received Spellemannprisen, the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammy awards, visibly drunk and/or under the influence of drugs (drug overdose) b. September 8th 1964.
2001: Jay Livingston (86) Songwriter, piano, composer; he earned three Academy Awards for Best Song during the 1940s and '50s ().
2002: Chuck Domanico (58) US bass player; West Coast sessionist; worked with Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Carmen McRae, Joni Mitchell, Taj Mahal, Diane Schuur, Natalie Cole, Manhattan Transfer, Chet Baker, Shelly Manne, Oliver Nelson, John Klemmer, Roger Kellaway, Barney Kessel, Art Pepper, and many more.(lung cancer).
2002: Bashful Brother Oswald/Pete Kirby/Beecher Ray Kirby (90) American singer, guitar, banjo and fiddle player born in rural Sevier County, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. By his teens, he was playing for square dances. It was at one such party that he met a Hawaiian guitarist named Rudy Waikiki. Impressed Beecher bought his first resonator guitar. He visited the Chicago World's Fair in 1933, playing in clubs and gaining a following. Breecher moved to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1934. Taking the stage name Pete Kirby, he played resonator guitar with local bands, including Roy Acuff's Crazy Tennesseans, later to become the Smoky Mountain Boys. It was with Roy that he became introduced as Bashful Brother Oswald. He joined the Grand Ole Opry with Acuff's band on New Year's Day 1939 and stayed with the band until Roy's death in 1995. He was also a sort after session player; his session work included working with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on Will the Circle Be Unbroken, an album that paid tribute to the old-time, traditional country musicians of Nashville, Tennessee. For nearly 60 years, he was one of the most influential and talented resonator players in country music (died at his home in Madison) b. December 26th 1911.
2002: Derek Bell M.B.E. (66) oboist, hammer dulcimer, harpist; BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra and Chieftains, he was the only member of the band to wear a tie at every public performance. (cardiac arrest following minor surgery).
2004: Uzi Hitman (52) Israeli singer, songwriter, composer and TV personality (heart attack).
2007: Teresa Brewer/Theresa Breuer (76) American pop and jazz singer who grew up in Toledo, Ohio; she was one of the most popular female singers of the 1950s with hits such as "Dancin' with Someone", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", "Choo'n Gum", "Ricochet", "Baby, Baby, Baby", "Bell Bottom Blues", "Our Heartbreaking Waltz", "Pledging My Love", "Tweedle Dee" and "Rock Love", "A Tear Fell" and "Bo Weevil". Teresa re-emerged as a jazz vocalist in the 1980's and 1990's recording a number of albums including tribute albums to Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, and Irving Berlin and recorded with such jazz greats as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Bobby Hackett. Over her career, she recorded around 600 song titles (sadly died of a neuromuscular disease) b. May 7th 1931.
2007: Clarence "Tater" Tate (76) Bluegrass fiddle player and bassist, a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys and over the course of a 60-year-plus career, he lent support to many of the leading figures in the genre, from Bill Monroe to Jimmy Martin (long struggle with lung cancer).
2008: Levi Stubbs/Levi Stubbles (72) American lead vocalist with The Four Tops; he began his professional singing career with friends Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton to form the Four Aims in 1954. Two years later, the group changed their name to the Four Tops. The group began as a supper-club act before finally signing to Motown Records in 1963. As an actor, he provided the voice of the carnivorous plant "Audrey II" in the movie version of the musical Little Shop of Horrors in 1986 and the voice of Mother Brain in the animated TV series Captain N: The Game Master in 1989 (complications of cancer and stroke) b. June 6th 1936... read more
2009: Carla Boni/Carla Gaiano (84) Italian singer; Carla started a long association on Rai, the Italian State Radio and television network, as a singer in 1951. In 1953 she won the Festival della canzone italiana with Flo Sandon, singing "Viale d'Autunno". In 1955 Carla won the "Festival di Napoli" with the song "'E stelle 'e Napule ", singing with her husband Gino Latilla and Maria Paris. During her career of over half a centry, she formed a band with her husband Gino Latilla, Nilla Pizzi and Giorgio Consolini, called the Flabby band, in which she sang a new version of Mambo Italiano (died in Rome, after a long illness) b. July 17th 1925.

October 18
1944: Orwill "Hoppy" Jones (39) jazz cello player, bass singer in the Ink Spots where he was an important and the stablising member, after his unexpected and sudden death the band split (collapsed on stage and died after being taken home. It turned out that he had been having cerebral hemorrhages for over a year).
1994: Lee Allen (68) saxophonist; played 4 decades on dozens of hits and many hundreds of sides, by artists including Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, Little Richard, Stray Cats and the Blasters ().
2000: Julie London/Gayle Peck (74) US actress and singer who was known for her smoky, sensual voice, born in Santa Rosa, California, she moved with her parents to LA at the age of 14. She began singing in public in her teens before appearing in a film. She was discovered by talent agent Sue Carol, her early film career did not include any singing roles. She recorded 32 albums in a career that began in 1955 with a live performance at the 881 Club in Los Angeles. Billboard named her the most popular female vocalist for 1955, 1956, and 1957. She recorded 100's of songs including 'Don't Worry About Me', 'Motherless Child', 'A Foggy Day', and 'You're Blasé', "Hot Toddy," "Daddy", "Desafinado", Yummy Yummy Yummy", "Go Slow" and "Cry Me a River". Her last recording was the classic "My Funny Valentine" for the soundtrack of the Burt Reynolds film Sharky's Machine in 1981. Primarily remembered as a singer, Julie also made more than 20 films and played many roles in programs made for TV (stroke) b. September 26th 1926.
2006: Anna Russell née Anna Claudia Russell-Brown (94) English–Canadian singer and comedienne. She was educated at St Felix School at Southwold, Suffolk, at Harrogate College and in Brussels and Paris and also studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Anna gave many concerts in which she sang and played comic musical sketches on the piano. Among her best-known works are her concert performances and famous recordings of The Ring of the Nibelungs (An Analysis), a humorous 30-minute synopsis of Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen", and on the same album, her parody "How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera" (In her last years, she moved to Australia, in Rosedale near Batemans Bay, New South Wales, where she died) b. December 27th 1911
2007: Lucky Philip Dube (43) South African reggae musician, born in Ermelo, formerly of the Eastern Transvaal, now of Mpumalanga; while at school he joined a choir and formed his first musical ensemble, called The Skyway Band. It was here too he discovered the Rastafari movement. At the age of 18 Philip joined his cousin's band, The Love Brothers, playing Zulu pop music known as mbaqanga. He went on to become South Africa's biggest selling reggae artist, recording 22 albums in Zulu, English and Afrikaans in a 25 year period. In 1989 he won four OKTV Awards for "Prisoner", won another for "Captured Live" the following year and yet another two for "House Of Exile" the year after.His 1993 album, Victims sold over one million copies worldwide, and in 1995 he earned a worldwide recording contract with Motown. His album Trinity was the first release on Tabu Records after Motown's acquisition of the label. (Brutally killed in the the Rosettenville suburb of Johannesburg, shot dead by carjackers; 3 men were tried, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison) b. August 3rd 1964.
2008: Dave McKenna (78) American jazz pianist; known for his "three-handed swing", and was the leading proponent of solo piano style. Started with Boots Mussulli and Charlie Ventura in the 40's, worked with many of top swing and Dixieland musicians including Woody Herman. Gene Krupa, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Eddie Condon, Bobby Hackett but became primarily a soloist after 1967 (lung cancer) b. May 30th 1930.
2008: Dee Dee Warwick/Delia Mae Warrick (63) American soul singer; born in Newark, New Jersey, she started out singing with her sister Dionne Warwick and their aunt Cissy Houston in the New Hope Baptist Church Choir in Newark, NJ. The trio formed the Gospelaires who often performed with the Drinkard Singers. At a performance at the Apollo Theater in 1959, the Warwick sisters were recruited by a record producer for session work and Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick, along with Doris Troy, subsequently became a prolific New York City area session singing team. Dee Dee who is also cousin of singer, Whitney Houston is best-known for her hits during the 1960s, including the No.13 R&B hit "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me", also she was a two time Grammy nominee for "Foolish Fool" and "She Didn't Know" (died after long illness) b. Sept 25th 1945.

October 19
1988: Son House/Eddie James House Jr (86) American blues singer and guitarist, a pioneer of an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar, and his singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music. Born in Riverton, Mississippi, but raised in Tallulah, Louisiana, at 15 he began a preaching career. Son became more and more drawn to the blues, inspired by the work of Willie Wilson by his mid 20s he had taught himself guitar. He began playing alongside his good friend Willie Brown, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson and Fiddlin' Joe Martin around Robinsonville, MI, and north to Memphis, Tennessee, until 1942. His first recordings were for Paramount in Grafton Wisconsin in 1930; My Black Mama, Dry Spell Blues, Preachin' The Blues and an unreleased version of Walking Blues. Lyrically and musically they were masterpieces. He recorded again in the very early 40s including The Jinx Blues, Levee Camp Blues, Government Fleet Blues, Shetland Pony Blues, Fo'Clock Blues and Camp Hollers. When his dear friend and musical partner Willie Brown died, Son totally gave up playing guitar and left his music life behind. Luckily in the 60s he was tracked down by blues afficianodos Dick Waterman, Nick Perls and Phil Spiro. Al Wilson of Canned Heat helped Son back into saddle and soon he was again playing professionally. Over the next 10 years he appeared at all the world top festivals, Newport Folk Festival, the New York Folk Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival to mention a few. He toured extensively in the US and Europe and in 1965 he recorded some powerful tracks, Death Letter Blues, Preachin' Blues, Grinnin' In Your Face and more. In the summer of 1970, while touring Europe, a recording of his London concerts was released by Liberty Records. Sadly Son's health deteriorated, in 1974 he was forced to retired. He later moving to Detroit, where he remained until his death. Son was an important influence on the likes of Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Robert and Tommy Johnson. A seminal Delta blues figure, he remains influential today, with his music being covered by blues-rock groups such as The White Stripes and slide player John Mooney has combined Son's Delta style with power trio Rock and New Orleans R&B to carry Son's tradition into the 21st Century. Several of Son's songs were also featured in the 2006 film soundtrack "Black Snake Moan" (Son sadly died from cancer of the larynx) b. March 21st 1902.
1989: Alan Murphy (35) English rock session guitarist, famed for his collaborations with Kate Bush playing on her tour of the Europe & UK in 1978. Both a live video and EP were released with material taken form this tour. He also contributed to her albums Never for Ever, The Dreaming, Hounds of Love and the single "Rocket Man".and Go West. He performed with Fusion Orchestra in 1975. He was an in demand session musician, playing with many artists, including Go West, Long John Baldry, Joan Armatrading, Mike and the Mechanics, Amii Stewart, Scritti Politti, So and Miquel Brown. In 1988 he joined the group Level 42 as a full time band member and played with them until his death (weakened by the AIDS virus, he died of pneumonia) b. November 28th 1953.
1995: Don Cherry (58) African-American jazz cornetest; he became well known in jazz in 1958 when he performed and recorded with Ornette Coleman, first in a quintet with pianist Paul Bley and later in what became the predominantly piano-less quartet which recorded for Atlantic Records. Don also co-led the Avant-Garde session which saw John Coltrane replacing Ornette Coleman in the Quartet. He also recorded and toured with Sonny Rollins, was a member of the New York Contemporary Five with Archie Shepp and John Tchicai, recorded and toured with Albert Ayler and with bandleader and composer George Russell. His first recording as a leader was Complete Communion for Blue Note Records in 1965. The band included Coleman's drummer Ed Blackwell as well as saxophonist Gato Barbieri, whom he had met while touring Europe with Ayler. Don also ventured into the developing genre of world fusion music, incorporating influences of Middle Eastern, traditional African, and Indian music into his playing. He had studied Indian music with Vasant Rai in the early seventies. From 1978 to 1982, he recorded three albums for ECM with "world jazz" group Codona, consisting of himself, percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and sitar and tabla player Collin Walcott (died in Málaga, Spain, due to liver failure caused by hepatitis) b. November 18th 1995.
1997: Glen Edward Buxton (49) American lead guitarist and founder member of the Alice Cooper Band. In 1964, while at Cortez High School in Phoenix, Arizona, he co-founded a rock band called The Earwigs, along with high school students Dennis Dunaway and Vincent Furnier. They changed their name to The Spiders in 1965, then to The Nazz in 1967, to avoid legal entanglements with the Todd Rundgren-led "Nazz", Glen's band changed their name to Alice Cooper in 1968. He co-wrote o classic songs like "School's Out", "Elected," "I'm Eighteen", and "10 Minutes Before the Worm" and is credited as lead guitarist on 7 albums by the Alice Cooper band, including the chart-topping Billion Dollar Babies. Throughout the late '70s and '80s, he maintained a low profile, playing only occasional club gigs with obscure bands like Shrapnel and Virgin. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Glen number 90 on the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" (pneumonia) b. November 10th 1947.
2007: LaLa Brown/Yolanda Brown (21) American R&B singer and protégé of Lyfe Jennings. She was an up and coming young artist, best known for her Top 10 R&B hit single S.E.X. (La La & her producer, JeTannue Clayborn, were found dead in their Milwaukee Loud Enuff Productionz recording studio, both had gunshot wounds and had been dead at least a day before being discovered) b. May 20th 1986.
2008: Gianni Raimondi (85) Italian operatic tenor, particularly associated with the Italian composers; he made his debut there in 1948, as Ernesto in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, going on to perform world wide. Disappointingly he made few studio recordings, given the length of his career and the sheer number of internationally distinguished opera houses where he sang (?) b. April 17th 1923.
2008: Gail Robinson (62) US operatic soprano who sang with many of the world's leading opera companies during the 1970s and 1980s. She was a winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions which started her professional career (complications from rheumatoid arthritis) b. August 7th 1946.
2009: Paul Lagos (?) American drummer with the psychedelic folk band Kaleidoscope. He also played with the Johnny Otis Band and with John Mayall's "USA Union" tour and featured on the album. Paul formed Pure Food and Drug Act in the early '70s (heart attack?) b.????

October 20
1977: Ronnie Van Zant (29) US singer; lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and a founding member of the Southern Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. He was the oldest brother of .38 Special founder and vocalist Donnie Van Zant and current Lynyrd Skynyrd lead vocalist Johnny Van Zant. Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Ronnie formed Skynyrd late in the summer of 1964 with friends and schoolmates Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, Larry Junstrom, and Bob Burns. Lynyrd Skynyrd's name was inspired by a gym teacher the boys had in high school, Leonard Skinner, who disapproved of students with long hair. Their fan base grow rapidly throughout 1973, mainly due to their opening slot on The Who's Quadrophenia tour in the United States. Their debut self titled album produced the hit Freebird, the track achieved the No. 3 spot on Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitar Solos. Their second album in 1974, Second Helping, featured their most popular single, "Sweet Home Alabama", a tongue in cheek response to Neil Young's "Alabama" and "Southern Man". (Died in a plane crash. Four band members were killed along with the pilot, Walter McCreary and co-pilot, William Gray when the band's rented plane, a Convair 240, ran out of fuel and crashed into a swamp in Gillsburg, Missouri) b. Jan 15th 1948.
1977: Steve Gaines (27) US guitarist and vocalist with the Lynyrd Skynyrd band. Born in Seneca, Missouri and raised in Miami, Oklahoma. He began playing guitar after seeing The Beatles in concert as a teenager. He played with RIO Smokehouse, The Ravens, Rusty Day, Detroit and Crawdada, before joining the Lynyrd Skynyrd band, replacing guitarist Ed King in 1976. His skills were a major contribution to the band, as proven on the 1977 album Street Survivors. (same aircrash as above) b. Sept 14th 1977.
1977: Cassie Gaines (29) US singer and older sister of Steve Gaines. Cassie was a member of the female gospel vocal trio The Honkettes, who in 1975 became the backup singers for Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd (air crash as above) b. Jan 9th 1948.
1977: Dean Kilpatrick (?) Assistant road manager of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band (air crash as above) b. ????
1983: Merle Travis (65) US country music singer, songwriter; his lyrics often discussed the exploitation of coal miners. (died of a massive heart attack at his Tahlequah, Oklahoma home).
1984: Albert "Budd" Johnson (73) American tenor saxophonist; made his recording debut while working with Louis Armstrong's band in 1932-1933, but is more known for his work with Earl Hines. It is contended that he led Hines to hire "modernists."().
1992: Werner Torkanowsky (66) German conductor in both the concert hall and opera house; he was born in Berlin, Germany, and raised on a kibbutz in Israel, and relocated to the United States in 1948 to study the violin. From 1954 to 1958, he studied conducting under Pierre Monteux. Following his debut with the Ballets Espagnoles, he became Music Director of Jerome Robbins's "Ballet USA." In 1959, Werner made his debut with the New York City Opera, with Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium. He went on to conduct many major orchestras, including those in Israel, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Detroit, as well as at the Spoleto Festival (?) b. March 30th 1926
1997: Henry "The Sunflower" Vestine (52) American guitar player born in Takoma Park, Maryland; at an early age he accompanied his father on canvasses of black neighborhoods for old recordings, Henry became an avid collector, eventually coming to own tens of thousands of recordings of blues, hillbilly, country, and Cajun music. Throughout the early to mid 1960s Henry played in various musical configurations and eventually was hired by Frank Zappa for the original Mothers of Invention. But Henry is known mainly as a member of the band Canned Heat. He was with the group from its start in 1966 to July 1969. In later years he played in local bands but occasionally returned to Canned Heat for a few tours and recordings. In 2003 Henry was ranked 77th in Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" (died from heart and respiratory failure in a hotel outside Paris after the band had completed a tour of France) b. December 25th 1944.
2005: Shirley Horn (71) American jazz singer, pianist; she collaborated with many jazz greats including Miles Davis, influencing each other; Dizzy Gillespie, Toots Thielemans, Ron Carter, Carmen McRae, Wynton Marsalis and others. She was most noted for her ability to accompany herself with nearly incomparable independence and ability on the piano while singing. She was nominated for nine Grammy Awards during her career, winning in 1999 for Jazz Vocal Album for "I Remember Miles", a tribute to her friend and encourager. Preferring to perform in small settings, as with her trio, she recorded with orchestra too, as on the 1992 album "Here's to life", which is highly rated by her fans, the title song being generally considered as her signature song. A video documentary of Shirley's life and music was released at the same time as "Here's To Life" and shared its title. She was officially recognized by the 109th US Congress for "her many achievements and contributions to the world of jazz and American culture", and performed at The White House for several U.S. presidents. Shirley was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music in 2002. She was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award in 2005., the highest honors that the United States bestows upon jazz musicians (She had been battling breast cancer and diabetes when she died from complications of a massive stroke) b. May 1st 1934.
2007: Paul Raven (46) English rock bassist born in Wolverhampton, best known for his work in the seminal punk-goth-metal-electronic group Killing Joke, playing with them through its most commercially successful period, appearing on the 'Fire Dances', 'Night Time' and 'Brighter than a Thousand Suns' albums, before leaving during the recording of 1988's 'Outside the Gate', rejoining in time for 1990's 'Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions'. He later played in the alternative rock/ industrial rock bands Prong and Ministry. His early musical career included stints in Neon Hearts and the 1982 glam rock band, Kitsch. (heart attack) b. january 16th 1961.
2009: Liam Maher (41) UK singer, who fronted the baggy band Flowered Up, which he helped form in Camden, London in 1989 along with keyboardist Tim Dorney, guitarist Joe Maher, bassist Andy Jackson, drummer John Tovey, and Barry Mooncult, who wasn't really a member of the band but danced on-stage with a giant flower around his neck. The band appeared on the covers of both NME and Melody Maker before releasing the club anthem 'It's On' in the summer of 1990, which was followed up with 'Phobia' that autumn; both reached the Top 40 on the U.K. charts. Flowered Up were best known for their Top 20 single 'Weekender', the 12-minute, 55-second track being their highest charting single. They released their only album 'A Life With Brian' in 1991 and the band split in 1994. Liam signed up to Alan McGee's Poptones record label in 2001, but the deal fell through before anything was released. Flowered Up, reunited in 2005 for several gigs with Happy Mondays (details of Liams death not yet released) b. ????

October 21
1965: Bill Black (39) US: bass and double bass player with Elvis Presley, also bandleader of The Bill Black's Combo (died four months after surgery to remove a brain tumour).
1969: Jack Kerouac (47) beatnik writer; considered by some as the King of the Beatniks as well as the Father of the Hippies (cirrhosis of the liver).
1990: Jo Ann Kelly (46) English blues singer and guitarist favouring delta style rather than rocking out with a heavy band behind her, but with a huge voice, and a strong guitar. Born in Streatham, South London . She established a musical partnership with the British blues musician Tony McPhee, and appeared on two McPhee compiled albums for Liberty Records, "Me And The Devil" in 1968 and "I Asked for Water, She Gave Me Gasoline" in 1969. At the end of the 1960s, with an album on a major record label in the United States, both Johnny Winter and Canned Heat tried to recruit Jo Ann into their ranks. However, she stayed and played the UK's nightclub scene, and participated in many musical projects with her brother Dave Kelly and performed on the European circuit, with the guitarist Pete Emery or in bands, including the Terry Smith Blues Band (In 1988, Jo Ann began to suffer from headaches. In 1989 she had an operation to remove a malignant brain tumour, she seemed to have recovered, but the following year she tragically collapsed and died after touring again with her brother) b. January 5th 1944.
1995: Maxene Andrews (79) US high harmony singer in The Andrews Sisters; all sissters were born in Minnesota. Throughout their long career, the sisters sold over 75 million records and became the best-selling female vocal group in the history of popular music setting records that remain unsurpassed to this day. The sisters charted with 113 Billboard hits, 46 of these reaching Top 10 status. They were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998. Maxene started a solo career in 1979 releasing the album 'Maxene: An Andrews Sister' in 1990. Her last performance was on October 8th 1995, in the show 'Swing Time Canteen', at New York City's Blue Angel Theatre. (?) b. January 3rd 1916.
1995: Richard Shannon Hoon (28) American singer, songwriter and guitarist; born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana, after graduating from McCutcheon High School he fronted two local bands Styff Kitten and Mank Rage. He also composed his first song at this time "Change". He relocated to LA where he met musicians Brad Smith and Rogers Stevens and they formed the band Blind Melon, and soon had a recording contract with Capitol Records. He also met up with Axl Rose of Guns 'n' Roses, who were recording their albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. Richard sang backing vocals on several of the tracks, including "The Garden" and "Don't Cry". Axl also invited him to appear in the video for "Don't Cry". In 1992, Blind Melon released their self-titled debut album, it sold poorly until the single "No Rain" was released in September of 1993 and the album went quadruple-platinum. In 1994, they their second album 'Soup', released in 1995. They went on tour to promote the album, which sadly was Richard's last album and tour (found dead on the band's tour bus of a heart attack, due to a cocaine overdose, while in New Orleans) b. September 26th 1967.
2003: Elliott Smith (34) Folk-punk singer, songwriter; Heatmiser/solo (suicide).
2007: Paul Fox (56) British guitarist, singer; a founder member of the UK punk band, The Ruts. When the original lead singer Malcolm Owen died of a heroin overdose the band continued with Paul on vocals, renaming themselves Ruts DC. After the break-up of the band in the early 1980s, he joined a London rock band called Dirty Strangers, who recorded two albums, on which The Rolling Stones guitarists, Keith Richards and Ron Wood, both guested on. He went on to form Choir Militia, in 1983. This band soon folded after which he worked with Screaming Lobsters in 1987 and Fluffy Kittens from 1991 to 1994, retaining hard-core fan interest. From this point on his musical career was combined with carpentry, but he cut singles with the Chelsea Punk Rock Allstars in 1997, and ska legend Laurel Aitken in 2000. Paul revived the Ruts name and songs in 2006, touring with a line up known as Foxy's Ruts (lung cancer) b. April 11th 1951.
2007: Lance Hahn (40) US guitarist and frontman with punk band J Church (kidney disease)
2008: Peter Levinson (74) US music industry biographer; he spent nearly fifty years in the music industry as a promoter and representative for stars such as Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Lalo Schifrin, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chuck Mangione, Dave Brubeck, Rosemary Clooney, Erroll Garner, Stan Getz, Peggy Lee, Bill Evans, Dexter Gordon, Maynard Ferguson, Pete Fountain, Art Garfunkel, Bud Shank, Phyllis Diller, George Shearing, Chick Corea, Jim Hall, Benny Carter, Charlie Byrd, Louie Bellson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jack Lemmon and Mel Torme. His publicity work also extended into television and film. He contracted amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 2006, which prevented him from speaking; he used a type-to-speech computer and continued writing (he died after a fall at his home in Malibu, California) b. July 1st 1934.
2009: Clinton Ford/ Ian George Stopford Harrison (77) British singer who had his first taste of chart success in 1959, with a cover of the Red Foley penned song "Old Shep", his next chart entry was "Too Many Beautiful Girls" in a trad jazz style, followed by his biggest hit, a rendition of the 1935 George Formby song "Fanlight Fanny". This led to an album that reached No.16 in the UK Albums Chart in May 1962. After touring for a while with Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen, he returned for a stint at Liverpool's Cavern Club, to find that the market for trad jazz and country n western styled novelties had been replaced by the beat music of a certain local band called The Beatles. He was though, in great demand on BBC Radio programmes, such as Saturday Club where a live singer was required, to sing standards and also covers of current hit songs. His final UK hit "Run To The Door" was issued on the Piccadilly Records label in 1967 (died after a long illness in the Isle of Man where he had been living for many years) b. November 4th 1931.
2009: Sirone/ Norris Jones (69) American jazz bassist and composer, he worked in Atlanta late in the 1950s and early in the 1960s with "The Group" alongside George Adams; he also recorded with R&B musicians such as Sam Cooke and Smokey Robinson. He moved to New York in the middle '60s, where he co-founded the "Untraditional Jazz Improvisational Team" with Dave Burrell. He also worked with Marion Brown, Gato Barbieri, Pharoah Sanders, Noah Howard, Sonny Sharrock, Sunny Murray, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, and Sun Ra. In 1971 he co-founded the Revolutionary Ensemble with Leroy Jenkins and Frank Clayton, also in the 1970s and early 1980s Sirone recorded with Clifford Thornton, Roswell Rudd, Dewey Redman, Cecil Taylor, and Walt Dickerson. In the 1980s, he was member of Phalanx, a group with guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer, drummer Rashied Ali, and tenor saxophonist George Adams, before relocating to Germany in 1989, where he lived the remainder of his life (died in Berlin, Germany) b. September 28th 1948.

October 22
1935: Komitas Vardapet (66) Armenian priest, composer, choir leader, singer, music ethnologist, music pedagogue and musicologist. Regarded as the founder of modern Armenian classical music. The music academy in Yerevan is named him. There also exists a worldwide renowned string quartet named after Komitas (rumors of earlier schizophrenia or venereal disease and stress that he never fully recovered, he died in a psychiatric clinic in Paris, France) b. September 26th or October 8th 1869.
1943: Leon Roppolo (41) American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, guitarist born in Lutcher, Louisiana, upriver from New Orleans. He was a prominent early jazz clarinetist, best known for his playing with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. He also made some recordings with Original Memphis Five and California Ramblers musicians in New York in 1924 as well as working with other New Orleans bands such as the Halfway House Orchestra, with which he recorded on saxophone. Leon's compositions include the jazz standards "Farewell Blues" and "Milenberg Joys", "Gold Leaf Strut" or "Golden Leaf Strut", "Tin Roof Blues", and "Make Love to Me" (tertiary syphilis) b. March 16th 1902.
1958: Jay Perkins () bass guitarist; worked with his brother Carl Perkins (brain tumour)?
1969: Tommy Edwards (47) vocalist, pianist, and composer; most remembered for his 1958 Billboard No. 1 "It's All In The Game"(died after suffering a brain aneurysm in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia).
1973: Pablo Casals/Pau Casals i Defilló (96) Spanish Catalan cellist and later conductor. He made many recordings throughout his career, of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, also as conductor, but he is perhaps best remembered for the recording of the Bach Cello Suites he made from 1936 to 1939. In 1897 he appeared as soloist with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, and was awarded the Order of Carlos III from the Queen. In 1899, Casals played at The Crystal Palace in London, and later for Queen Victoria at Osborne House, her summer residence, accompanied by Ernest Walker. On November 12 and December 17, 1899, he appeared as a soloist at Lamoureux Concerts in Paris, to great public and critical acclaim. He toured Spain and the Netherlands with the pianist Harold Bauer in 1900-1901; in 1901-1902 he made his first tour of the United States; and in 1903 toured South America and on January 15th 1904, Pablo was invited to play at the White House for President Theodore Roosevelt, These are just a few hi-lites from his long career. Pablo was an ardent supporter of the Spanish Republican government, and after its defeat in 1939, he vowed not to return to Spain until democracy had been restored, sadly he did not live to see the end of the Franco dictatorial regime. He was posthumously honoured by the Spanish government under King Juan Carlos I which, in 1976, issued a commemorative postage stamp to Pau Casals in honour of the centenary of his birth and in 1989 he was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (Pablo died in San Juan, Puerto Rico) b. December 29th 1876.
1986: Jane Dornacker (39) Albuquerque-born actress, keyboardist, songwriter, weather reporter; founded the all-woman rock group Leila and the Snakes. (helicopter crash during a live traffic report for WNBC radio in New York. Listeners heard her terrified voice screaming "Hit the water, hit the water" as the helicopter from which she and pilot Bill Pate were reporting, fell from the sky and crashed into the Hudson River).
1989: Ewan MacColl/James 'Jimmie' Miller (74) UK folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, record producer and the father of the late Kirsty MacColl. In 2001, The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook was published, with the words and music to 200 of his songs ().
2005: Franky Gee (42) US singer with German Europop band Captain Jack (suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while walking with his son in Palma, Mallorca, Spain. He went into a coma and subsequently died five days later).
2009: Don Lane/Morton Donald Isaacson (75) American-born Australian entertainer, talk show host and singer. He began his working life as a nightclub performer and singer, uappearing at many clubs in Hawaii, Los Angeles and New York. He appeared on one episode of the Ed Sullivan program in the late 1950s as one half of a double act. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in the early 1950s and was commissioned as an officer serving in the artillery. He later toured for two years entertaining the troops. He worked alongside Johnny Carson, Sammy Davis, Jr., Wayne Newton and others. Lane also played Professor Harold Hill in the Las Vegas production of The Music Man. He relocated to Australia where Don became a multi-award winner including 1966: Most Popular Male and Most Popular Live Show (Tonight with Don Lane); 1967: Most Popular Male and Most Popular Live Show (Tonight with Don Lane); 1968: Best Male Personality and Best Show (Tonight with Don Lane); 1969: Best Male Personality and Best Show (Tonight with Don Lane); 1970: Best Male Personality and Best Local Show (Tonight Show with Don Lane); 1974: Most Popular Male and Most Popular Show (The Don Lane Show); and he recieved 4 National Logie awards:Gold Logie; Most Popular Male Personality; Victoria: Most Popular Male; and Most Popular Show (died from dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease) b. November 13th 1933.

October 23
1950: Al Jolson/Asa Yoelson (64) American singer, songwriter, blackfaced minstrel, comedian, born in Seredžius, Lithuania, then a part of the Russian Empire. His career lasted from 1911 until his death in 1950, during which time he was commonly dubbed "the world's greatest entertainer”. Between 1911 and 1928, Jolson had nine sell-out Winter Garden shows in a row, more than 80 hit records, and 16 national and international tours. Yet by some, he's best remembered today for his leading role in the first, full length, talking movie ever made, The Jazz Singer, released in 1927. Hits many hits include: Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody, I've Got My Captain Working for Me Now, Swanee, Avalon, California, Here I Come and I'm Sitting on Top of the World. Numerous well-known singers were influenced by his music, including Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, and Bob Dylan, who once referred to him as "somebody whose life I can feel (sadly he died of a massive heart attack, Broadway lowered it's lights for ten minutes in Al's honor) b. March 26th 1886.
1964: Bill Daniles () drummer with Buddy and the Kings (all four members of US band Buddy and the Kings were killed when their hired Cesna Skyhawk piloted by Bill Daniles, crashed nose first killing all on board. They were on their way to a gig in Harris County. Singer with the group Harold Box had replaced Buddy Holly in The Crickets after Buddy's death in a plane crash).
1964: Harold Box () Singer with Buddy and the Kings :- as above.
1968: Naima Wifstrand (78) Swedish film actor, operetta singer, troubadour, director and composer. She studied music and singing in Stockholm at the Swedish Royal Academy of Music and in 1910 she went to London and further trained for Raymond von zur Mühlen. After her studies she was one of the most acknowledged operetta singers in Scandinavia. She worked at Oscarsteatern, Sweden's foremost operetta and musical stage, 1913-1918 and for years to come toured Sweden and Scandinavia. Her big break-through came as Countess Stasi in Emmerich Kálmán's operetta Die Csárdásfürstin in 1916. She worked in the 1920s mainly at the opera houses in Oslo and Copenhagen. For many years she lived in London where she also performed with troubadour-songs alone along with her guitar. A curiosity here is that when the first attempts at broadcasted television took place in Britain Wifstrand actually became one of the first "TV-stars", so to speak, as she appeared on TV already in the 1930s and performed a number of songs. She had a big acting career and was internationally most notable for strong supporting parts in her later years in a number of Ingmar Bergman-films (?) b. September 4th 1890
1978: Maybelle Carter (69) American country musician, best known as a member of the historic Carter Family act in the 1920s and 1930s and as a member of Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters. She was a member of the original Carter Family, formed in 1927 by her brother-in-law, A. P. Carter, who was married to her cousin, Sara, also a part of the trio. It was perhaps the first commercial rural Country music group. Maybelle was the guitarist and also played autoharp and banjo; she created a unique sound for the group with her innovative 'scratch' style of guitar playing, also called Carter Family picking, where she used her thumb to play melody on the bass and middle strings, and her index finger to fill out the rhythm. Maybelle 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. In 2001 she was initiated into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor, and ranked No.8 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women of Country Music in 2002. In 2005, she was portrayed by Sandra Ellis Lafferty in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line (?) May 10th 1909
1984: James Petrillo (92) leader of the U.S. musicians union; in his youth Petrillo played the trumpet, he finally made a career out of organizing musicians into the union starting in 1919 ().
1999: Bobby Willis () manager and husband of Cilla Black (cancer).
2003: Tony Capstick (59) UK comedian, actor, singer and broadcaster (heart attack).
2002: Adolph Green (87) American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for some of the most beloved movie musicals, particularly as part of Arthur Freed's production unit at MGM, during the genre's heyday. They shared a unique comic genius and sophisticated wit that enabled them to forge a six-decade-long partnership that produced some of Hollywood and Broadway's greatest hits. Their first Broadway effort was On the Town, a musical romp about three sailors on leave in New York City. At MGM they wrote the screenplay for Good News, starring June Allyson and Peter Lawford, The Barkleys of Broadway for Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, and then adapted On the Town for Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, and the classic Singin' in the Rain. Among their other credits are the Mary Martin version of Peter Pan for both Broadway and television, a streamlined Die Fledermaus for the Metropolitan Opera, and stage musicals for Carol Burnett, Leslie Uggams, and Lauren Bacall, among others. Their many collaborators included Garson Kanin, Cy Coleman, Jule Styne, and André Previn. These are just a few of which they wrote for the screen, stage and television. In 1958, they appeared on Broadway in A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, a revue that included some of their early sketches. It was a critical and commercial success, and they brought an updated version back to Broadway in 1977. They received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1991 and were nominees for 12 Tony Awards and winners of seven (he died at his home in Manhattan) b. December 2nd 1914.
2004: Robert Merrill (87) American operatic baritone; In his early radio appearances as a crooner he was sometimes billed as Merrill Miller. While singing at bar mitzvahs and weddings and Borscht Belt resorts, he met an agent, Moe Gale, who found him work at Radio City Music Hall and with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. With Toscanini conducting, he eventually sang in two of the famous maestro's NBC broadcasts of famous operas, La traviata with Licia Albanese, in 1946, and Un ballo in maschera with Herva Nelli, in 1954. Both of those broadcasts were eventually released on both LP and CD. His 1944 operatic debut was in Verdi's Aida at Newark, New Jersey, with the famous tenor Giovanni Martinelli, then in the later stages of his long operatic career. Relatively late in his singing career, he became known for singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Yankee Stadium. He first sang the national anthem to open the 1969 baseball season, and it became a tradition for the Yankees to bring him back each year on Opening Day and special occasions. In honor of Robert's vast influence on US vocal music, on Feb 16th 1981 he was awarded the prestigious University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit; the National Medal of Arts in 1993 and in 1996 he was presented with The Lawrence Tibbett Award from the AGMA Relief Fund, honoring his fifty years of professional achievement and dedication to colleagues (died at home in New Rochelle, New York, while watching Game 1 of the 2004 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals) b. June 4th 1917.
2009: Sohrab Fakir Khaskhely (75) Pakistani folk singer, playing the yaktaro, a single stringed instrument and chappar, wooden clappers. He started singing with his uncles at eight years old and went to Khan Sahab Khety Khan in Rohri for more musical education. He sung his first song, Kadhy Kadam Kaya Khan Bahar Ker, at shrine of Kush Khair Muhammad. and started his career on Radio Pakistan, Khairpur with the famous song Raag . Sohrab went on to become the greatest Sindhi folk singer in his style of music. Sadly, a paralytic stroke had recently left Saaiin Sohrab voiceless. He spent some of his final days at a Sufi shrine in Sindh (kidney disease) b. ??.??.1934

October 24
1986: Johnny Dyani (40) South African jazz double bassist and pianist who played with such musicians as Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, David Murray and Leo Smith. ()
1989: Sahib Shihab/Edmond Gregory (64) American jazz saxophonist; first played alto sax professionally for Luther Henderson at age 13, before studying at the Boston Conservatory and playing with trumpetist Roy Eldridge. In the mid forties he played lead alto with Fletcher Henderson. During the late 1940s, he played with Thelonious Monk and also found time to appear on many recordings by artists including Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Benny Golson, Tadd Dameron and on John Coltrane’s first full session as leader for Prestige, First Trane. In the early 50's he played with Dizzy Gillespie's big band and switched to baritone. In 1959, he toured Europe with Quincy Jones, after getting fed up with racial politics in USA, he relocated to Scandinavia, where he worked for Copenhagen Polytechnic, and wrote scores for television, cinema and theatre. In 1961, he joined The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band remaining a key figure for 12 years. In the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest, he accompanied Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson for the Swedish entry Nygammal Vals. In 1973, he returned to the United States working as a session man for rock and pop artists and also doing some copywriting for local musicians. He spent his remaining years between New York and Europe and played in a successful partnership with Art Farmer (?) b. June 23rd 1925.
2001: Kim Gardner (53) English rock bassist born in Dulwich, London; in 1964 Kim and friend Ron Wood together with Tony Munroe, Ali McKenzie and Pete McDaniels formed The Thunderbirds. Changing their name to The Birds they released several singles, including “No Good Without You Baby” and "Leaving Here". After which Kim and Ron joined the Mod band The Creation. In 1968 Kim joined up with Tony Ashton and Roy Dyke to form Ashton, Gardner & Dyke, a jazz- rock band and had the hit single "Resurrection Shuffle". He was also a member of “Quiet Melon” with Rod Stewart. Kim relocated LA in 1974 and spent the rest of the 1970s as both a touring musician and session musician. During this time he played on twenty-seven albums for such artists as Jackie Lomax, George Harrison, Bo Diddley and Eric Clapton and toured with bands including Pacific Gas & Electric. In 1982 he opened a pub in Hollywood, The Cat and Fiddle where he also desplayed his art work. In the mid 1980s he was a member of Ian Wallace's Tea Bags group Kim’s last recording was a collaboration with Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience with guests including Bruce Gary, Mick Taylor, Carmine Appice, Jackie Lomax, Brian Auger and Ivan Neville (cancer) b.January 27th 1948.
2008: Premasiri Khemadasa (71) Sri Lankan musician and composer; a Maestro with a mission known as "Khemadasa Master" is one of the most influential composers in Sri Lankan music. Exploring the various styles of music around the world he endeavored to develop a unique style of music. He combined Sinhala folk tunes, Hindustani music, Western music and many other streams of music in his compositions while adapting them to fit contemporary music (died while receiving treatments at a private hospital) b. January 25th 1937
2008: Merl Saunders (74) American multi-genre pianist and keyboards born in San Mateo, California, favored the Hammond B-3 console organ. He came to notice in the 1970s when he began collaborating with Jerry Garcia, with whom he had begun playing in 1971 at a small Fillmore Street nightclub called the Matrix. Merl went on to lead his own bands, as Merl Saunders and Friends, playing live dates with Garcia, Mike Bloomfield, David Grisman, Tom Fogerty, Vassar Clements, Kenneth Nash, John Kahn and Sheila E. He has worked with musicians Paul Pena, Bonnie Raitt, Phish, Miles Davis, and B.B. King, and also recorded with The Dinosaurs, a "supergroup" of first-generation Bay Area rock musicians (complications from a broken hip) b. February 14th 1934.

October 25
1980: Virgil Fox (68) American organist; known especially for his flamboyant "Heavy Organ" concerts of the music of Bach. These groundbreaking events appealed to audiences in the 1970s who were more familiar with rock 'n' roll music, and were staged complete with light shows. His many recordings made on the RCA Victor and Capitol labels, mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, have been re-mastered and re-released on compact disc in recent years (prostate cancer).
1985: Gary Holton (33) Actor and singer (drug overdose).
1990: Ikey Robinson (86) jazz & blues banjoist, singer ().
1991: Bill Graham (60) American rock concert promoter, who flourished from the 1960s until his death. (helicopter crash hitting a 200' utility tower in Sonoma County, California).
1992: Roger Miller (56) American singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known for his honky tonk-influenced novelty songs. His most recognized tunes included the chart-topping country/pop hits "King of the Road", "Dang Me" and "England Swings", all from the mid-1960s Nashville Sound era. Roger won an outstanding 11 Grammy Awards, as well as winning Broadway's Tony award for writing the music and lyrics for Big River, which won a total of 7 Tonys including best musical in 1985. He was voted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1995. His 11 Grammy Awards held the record as the most won by any artist until Michael Jackson's 1982 album Thriller. In Erick, Oklahoma where he grew up, a thoroughfare was renamed "Roger Miller Boulevard" and a museum dedicated to him was built on the road in 2004 (cancer) b. January 2nd 1936.
1993: Howie Blauvelt () American bassist with Ram Jam and with Billy Joel in the Hassles (heart attack)?
1998: Warren Wiebe (45) American vocalist and session artist from San Diego. After playing bass with several bands, he was discovered by David Foster and Burt Bacharach in Los Angeles in 1987. He did the duet "Listen to Me" with Celine Dion for the movie of the same name. It was never officially released. He was one of several lead vocalists who contributed to the 1991 charity record "Voices That Care". He is also famous for performing the song "Human Touch", a ballad which was used as one of the ending theme songs for the 1996 anime After War Gundam X (?) b. July 18th 1953.
2000: William Martin () Drummer, Sam The Sham & the Pharaohs (heart attack)?
2002: Sir Richard Harris (70) actor, singer, producer (Hodgkin's disease).
2003: Robert Strassburg (88) American conductor, composer, musicologist and music educator of the twentieth century. His studies in music were completed under the supervision of such leading composers as Igor Stravinsky, Walter Piston and Paul Hindemith with whom he studied at Tanglewood. His formal academic studies were completed at the New England Conservatory of Music and Harvard University where he obtained a fellowship in composition. He also completed a doctorate in Fine Arts at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. As a musicologist Dr. Strassburg is regarded as a leading authority on the compositions of the composer Ernest Bloch (?) b. August 30th 1915.
2004: John Peel /John Robert Parker Ravenscroft OBE (65) BBC's longest serving radio DJ; known for his eclectic taste in music and his honest and warm broadcasting style, John was a popular and respected DJ and broadcaster. He was one of the first to play reggae and punk on British radio. His significant influence on alternative rock, Pop, British hip hop and dance music is acknowledged ... READ MORE ... (sadly died of a heart attack while on holiday in Peru) b. August 30th 1939.
2008: Muslim Magomayev (66) Azerbaijani operatic and pop singer; started as a baritone opera singer earning fame in Rossini's "Barber of Seville"; his arias from Puccini's "Tosca", Hajibeyov's "Koroghlu" and "Shah Ismayil". In the mid 60's he became a pop idol for several generations of music lovers in the USSR. He also wrote several film soundtracks, acted in films and hosted TV and radio broadcasts devoted to prominent musicians of the 20th century (died after a long illness with heart disease) b. August 17th 1942.
2009: Heinz-Klaus Metzger (77) German music critic and theorist, he studied piano under Carl Seemann in Freiburg and composition under Max Deutsch in Paris. In the 1960s, he was one of the first European commentators on John Cage, and spokesman of the movement called compositional Anarchy, which resulted in the so called Kölner Manifest of 1960, and serving as a copy editor of the magazine Collage in Palermo. From 1965 until 1969 he worked as a music critic for the Zürcher Weltwoche (Zürich world weekly). In 1969, he founded, together with his partner, composer and conductor Rainer Riehn, the 'Ensemble Musica Negativa', where they embraced the performance of radical new music. From 1977 to 2002 Metzger and Riehn founded, edited, researched, and provided texts criticism for the musicology series "Musik-Konzepte" (The concepts of music), Munich text+kritik-edition; for this they received the Deutscher Kritikerpreis (German critics prize) in 1983. Also, they edited the two first volumes of the Kompositionen von Adorno (?) b. February 6th 1932

October 26
1952: Hattie McDaniel (57) US singer, actress; best remembered for her Academy Award-winning role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind, but she had a big singing career too, touring with the Showboat company and others (cancer).
1966: Alma Cogan (34) UK singer (stomach cancer).
1994: Wilbert Harrison (65) American singer, pianist, guitarist, harmonica player, born in Charlotte, North Carolina, began performing in a calypso-based style releasing 2 singles "This Woman Of Mine" and "Letter Edged In Black" before moving to Newark, New Jersey, where he had his first Billboard No.1 record in 1959 with the song "Kansas City". The song was written in 1951 and was one of the first credited collaborations by the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. His next No.1 hit came in 1969 with "Let's Stick Together." His other hits included, "C.C. Rider" "Stagger Lee" "My Love" "Girls On Parade" "Clementine" "My Babe" "New York's World Fair" and "Until The Real Thing Comes Along" and his last hit, "My Heart Is Yours" in '71 although Wilbert continued to perform for many years (?) b. January 5th 1929.
1995: Gorni Kramer/Kramer Gorni (81) Italian accordian, double bass player, bandleader, composer, songwriter; he learnt the accordian as a child, then studied double bass at the Conservatory in Parma and obtained his diploma in 1930. He started working as a musician for dance bands, then in 1933, aged 20, he formed his own jazz group. In 1949 Gorni Kramer started working for Garinei and Giovannini, a very famous duo of impresarios who produced musical comedies. Writing music for their shows was his main activity for the following ten years. Their most successful productions were Gran Baldoria, Attanasio cavallo vanesio, Alvaro piuttosto corsaro, Tobia candida spia, Un paio d’ali. He went on to be one of the most famous Italian songwriters, musicians and band leaders of the 20th Century and he wrote over a thousand songs (died in Milan) b. July 13th 1913.
1996: Scott Murray/Murray Schaff (69) US sax player and singer with Murray Schaff and his Aristocrats in the 50's, known as a very uninhibited act in show business. Later had his own trio and bands under the name of Scott Murray, he also owned the Open End nightclub in New York City in the 60's (?).
1999: Hoyt Wayne Axton (61) American country music singer-songwriter, and a film and television actor born in Duncan, Oklahoma. His mother, Mae Boren Axton, co-wrote the classic rock 'n' roll song "Heartbreak Hotel", which became the first major hit for Elvis Presley. Hoyt became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voice. Since he first appeared on TV in The Story of a Folksinger in 1963, he has appeared in many films and TV productions. As well as singing his own songs, a lott of his songwriting efforts became well known by other artists throughout the world, including Jealous Man", "Della and the Dealer", "The Pusher", "Snowblind Friend", "No-No Song" "Joy to the World" (which many know better by its opening lyric, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog!"), "Lion in Winter", "When the Morning Comes"and "Greenback Dollar". (sadly died after a series of heart attacks) b. March 25th 1938.

October 27
1949: Ginette Neveu (30) French violinist; a violin virtuoso who dazzled audiences in her Europe and UK with her performances, and listeners around the world with her recordings.(Ginette and her brother boarded a plane for an America tour. The plane crashed in the Azores, with no survivors).
1980: Steve Took (31) UK drummer, percussion, bass, piano and harmony vocals; Tyrranosaurus Rex (choked on a cherry stone, after some magic mushrooms had numbed his throat).
1990: Xavier Cugat/Francisco d'Asís Javier Cugat Mingall de Bru y Deleufo (90) Spanish violinist, band leader of Catalan origin who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba; one of the pioneers of Latin-American dance music. During his eight decade long career, Xavier helped to popularize the tango, the cha-cha, the mambo and the rhumba. In the late 1920s, as sound began to be used in films, he put together another tango band that had some success in early short musical films. By the early 1930s, he began appearing with his group in feature films. He took his band to New York for the 1931 opening of Waldorf Astoria Hotel, for 16 years he helmed the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel's Orchestra. He shuttled between New York and Los Angeles for most of the next 30 years, alternating hotel and radio dates with movie appearances (He died in Barcelona, his band continued to perform under the direction of dancer, musician and vocalist Ada Cavallo) b. January 1st 1900.
2000: Walter Berry (60) Austrian bass-baritone opera singer; He studied voice at the Vienna Music Academy and made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1947 ().
2000: Winston Grennan (56) Jamaican drummer, famous session player from 1963 to 1973 in Jamaica and in New York City through the 1970s and '80s. He has toured and recorded with Bob Marley to Marvin Gaye to to Dizzy Gillespie to The Rolling Stones and dozens in between. He appeared in the film 9 1/2 Weeks in 1985, with his Ska Rocks band, which he assembled in the 1980's and which stayed active in various incarnations until his death. (cancer) b. September 16th 1944.
2002: Tom Dowd (77) Producer, engineer. Engineered numerous jazz dates by Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, the Modern Jazz Quartet and Ray Charles, among others; a producer for Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Chicago, MeatLoaf and the James Gang. (emphysema).
2004: Claude Helffer (82) French pianist born in Paris, noted particularly for his advocacy of 20th-century music. During the War he entered the élite École polytechnique and fought for the Resistance. After the War he studied theory and composition with René Leibowitz. He made his début in Paris in 1948 and from 1954 appeared regularly in the concerts of the Domaine musical. Claude gave many premières of new works and was the dedicatee of several notable works, including Erikhthon - Xenakis, 1974; Concerto - Boucourechliev, 1975; Stances - Betsy Jolas, 1978; Concerto No. 1 - Luis de Pablo, 1980; Envoi - Gilles Tremblay, 1982; and Modifications - Michael Jarrell, 1983. He gave master classes all over the world, most notably at the Salzburg Summer Academy (?) b. June 18th 1922.
2007: Ricky Parent (41) American drummer; he spent his childhood in New Jersey and New York learning to play the drums from the age of 5 on his Mickey Mouse drum kit. His main main influence was John Bonham, others have included Buddy Rich, Tony Williams, Terry Bozzio, and Simon Phillips. He relocated to LA and got his first high profile gig with War & Peace, a band fronted by Jeff Pilson. When Vince Neil left Motley Crue, Ricky was called on to lay down some drum tracks for Vince’s solo project, before he joined Enuff Z’nuff. Ricky relocated to the band’s home base of Chicago becoming an official member in 1992 where he was a mainstay of the group on stage and in the studio until 2004 when he took a leave of absence after being diagnosed with cancer. Over thee years Ricky has been involved in other bands and projects including a brief stint with Alice Cooper as well as playing with Sass Jordan and Tod Howarth's Frehleys Comet (cancer) b. September 5th 1966.

October 28
1949: Ginette Neveu (30) French violinist; a child prodigy, Ginette took lessons from her mother and made her solo debut at the age of seven with the Concerts Colonne in Paris. After studying under Line Talluel, later Jules Boucherit at the Paris Conservatory, she completed her training with instruction from George Enescu, Nadia Boulanger, and Carl Flesch. She went on to sign a two year touring contract giving solo performances at the leading concert halls of Germany, Poland, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Canada. She was able to make her London debut in 1945 after WW11. Ginette gave her last concert on October 20, 1949. (Ginette and her brother boarded an Air France flight en route to another series of concert engagements. All 48 passengers on board the flight, died when the plane flew into a mountain after two failed attempts to make a landing at the São Miguel Island airport in the Azores)*August 11th 1919.
1964: Heinrich Gustavovich Neuhaus (76) Soviet pianist and pedagogue born in Elisavetgrad now Kirovohrad, Ukraine. In 1902 aged 14, he gave a recital in Elisavetgrad with the 11-year-old Mischa Elman and in 1904 gave concerts in Dortmund, Bonn, Cologne and Berlin. After which he studied with Leopold Godowsky in Berlin and from 1909 until the outbreak of World War I at his master classes in Vienna Academy of Music. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1922 to 1964. He was made a People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1956. His pedagogic book The Art of Piano Playing (1958) is regarded as one of the most authoritative and most widely used treatments on the subject (?) b. April 12th 1888
1965: Earl Bostic (52) American alto saxophonist born in Tulsa, he turned professional at age 18 when he joined Terence Holder's 'Twelve Clouds of Joy'. He made his first recording with Lionel Hampton in October 1939. He went on to form his own bands which became important training grounds for up-and-coming jazzmen with the likes of John Coltrane, Blue Mitchell, Benny Golson, Stanley Turrentine, and Jaki Byard. His popular hits included "Flamingo", "Harlem Nocturne", "Temptation", "Sleep" and "Where or When", which showed off his characteristic growl on the horn. (sadly died of a heart attack) b. April 25th 1913.
1975: Oliver Nelson (43) US jazz saxophonist; began learning to play the piano when he was six, and started on the saxophone at eleven. From 1947 he played in "territory" bands around Saint Louis, before joining the Louis Jordan big band from 1950 to 1951, playing alto saxophone and arranging. After six albums as leader between 1959 and 1961 with such musicians as Kenny Dorham, Johnny Hammond Smith, Eric Dolphy, Roy Haynes, King Curtis and Jimmy Forrest, Oliver's big breakthrough came with The Blues and the Abstract Truth, on Impulse!, featuring the tune "Stolen Moments," now considered a standard. This made his name as a composer and arranger, and he went on to record a number of big-band albums, as well as working as an arranger for Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Eddie Davis, Johnny Hodges, Wes Montgomery, Buddy Rich, Jimmy Smith, Billy Taylor, Stanley Turrentine, Irene Reid, Gene Ammons and many others and he led all-star big bands between 1966 and 1975. Oliver also spent a great deal of time composing music for television and films, including Death of a Gunfighter, Ironside, Night Gallery, Columbo, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, and Longstreet, and producing and arranging for pop stars such as Nancy Wilson, James Brown, the Temptations, and Diana Ross (heart attack) b. June 4th 1932
2001: Gerard Hengeveld (90) Dutch classical pianist, music composer and educationalist; especially known for his compositions of study material for piano. Other compositions include two piano concertos, a violin sonata, and a sonata for cello. He was an able interpreter and performer of the music of Bach for piano and harpsichord. He gave regular concerts in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, some captured on record (?) b. December 7th 1910.
2003: Oliver Sain (71) American saxophone player, band leader, songwriter, producer, Archway studio owner and all-around St. Louis music legend; exerted an influence on the evolution of St. Louis soul and R&B that is rivaled only by that of his close friend and infrequent collaborator Ike Turner. In 1949, he moved to Greenville, Mississippi to join his stepfather, pianist Willie Love, as a drummer in a band fronted by Sonny Boy Williamson, soon leaving to join Howlin’ Wolf where he acted as a drummer on and off for the following decade. After returning from the US Army draft he took up the saxophone. Oliver is credited with launching the career of Little Milton, who became a vocalist is Oliver’s band, and discovering Bobby McClure and Fontella Bass, who he originally hired as pianist for Little Milton. (sadly he died from a bone cancer that had followed on from a previous bladder cancer he developed in 1995) b. March 1st 1932.
FURTHER INFORMATION From Sally Greenhouse
Oliver bore an astonishing family resemblance to his beloved and doting Aunt, Addie Philips, who had migrated to St Louis from a sharecropper's family in the Mississippi Delta in her teens. Addie attended his gigs for decades , as one of his most faithful fans.Their speaking voices, incredibly, were also incredibly similar.
In her nursing home room, back in Shelby Mississippi, where she had to return after a major heart attack in her mid-70's, Addie had 3 framed portraits on her wall: her mother, at 106 years of age; her nephew, Oliver Sain, the son of her older sister; and myself, whom she raised in Clayton, Missouri. He died 14 months after her passing, August 15, 2002. She, too, was an extraordinary being.. Thankyou Sally
2004: Gil Mellé (72) American artist, jazz musician and film composer, Mellé played the tenor and baritone saxophone with George Wallington, Max Roach, Tal Farlow, Oscar Pettiford, Ed Thigpen, Kenny Dorham and Zoot Sims. In the 1950s, his paintings and sculptures were shown in New York galleries and he created the cover art for albums by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins. As a film and TV composer, he was one of the first to use electronic instruments, which he built himself, either alone or as an added voice among the string, wind, brass, and percussion sections of the orchestra and he was the first to compose a main theme for a television series arranged entirely for electronic instruments - Rod Serling's Night Gallery. His 125 film credits include My Sweet Charlie, That Certain Summer, The Savage is Loose, The Andromeda Strain, The Judge and Jake Wyler, several Columbo TV movies, Frankenstein: The True Story, The Six Million Dollar Man, Night Gallery and Kolchak: The Night Stalker (Heart attack) b. December 31st 1931.
2007: Porter Wayne Wagoner (80) US country music singer; famous for his flashy Nudie suits and blond pompadour. He was a featured performer on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee and moved to Nashville, joining the Grand Ole Opry in 1957. He introduced a young Dolly Parton to his long-running television show, The Porter Wagoner Show which ran on syndicated television from 1960 to 1981.. Together, "Porter and Dolly" were a well-known duet team for many years. His 81 charted records include two No.1 hit "Satisfied Mind" and “Misery Loves Company”; and many top 10 hits including “I've Enjoyed As Much of This As I Can Stand”; “Sorrow on the Rocks”; “Green Green Grass of Home”; “Skid Row Joe”; “The Cold Hard Facts of Life”; and “The Carroll County Accident”. Among his hit duets with Dolly Parton were a covers of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind"; "We'll Get Ahead Someday"; "Just Someone I Used To Know"; "Better Move it on Home"; "The Right Combination"; "Please Don't Stop Loving Me" and "Making Plans". He also won three Grammy Awards for gospel recordings (lung cancer) b. August 12th 1927.
2007: Jimmy Makulis (72) Greek singer born in Athens; he became a successful singer in his native Greece before moving to Germany in the mid 1950s. In 1956 he had a hit with "Auf Cuba sind die Mädchen braun". His biggest hit was "Gitarren klingen leise durch die nacht", No.4 in 1959, and he continued to chart until 1964. He sang "Sehnsucht" ("Longing") representige Austria in the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest. He relocated to the USA in 1965 livig and performing in Las Vegas. He moved back to his native Greece in 1985, and in 1990 took part in the selection for that year's Greek Eurovision entry, finishing fifth. He returned to Germany in the early 1990s (died following heart surgery in an Athens hospital) b. April 12th 1935.
2009: Taylor Mitchell/Taylor Josephine Stephanie Luciow (19) Canadian singer, guitarist and songwriter raised in Toronto; she had graduated from the Etobicoke School of the Arts with a major in musical theatre and had released an album 'For Your Consideration' in March 2009. Taylor performed in the Winnipeg Folk Festival in July and had just started a tour of the Maritimes on October 23rd 2009, and was to perform in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. A few days before her death, Taylor was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award for Young Performer of the Year. (Taylor was attacked by two coyotes while hiking on the Skyline Trail in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia. Tragically, she later died in hospital from the injuries) b. August 27th 1990

October 29
1953: William Kapell (31) American classical pianist; critics considered him the most promising American pianist of the post-World War II generation (Flying back to US from his last performance in Geelong of his 37 concert tour of Australia, the plane hit King's Mountain, outside San Francisco; all of the crew and passengers were killed instantly).
1963: Michael Holliday/Norman Milne (37) UK singer born in Liverpool who sang in a very similar style to Bing Crosby. While working as a seaman in the Merchant Navy, Michael entered a talent contest at Radio City Music Hall in New York, which he won. This inspired him to seek a career in show business. In 1951 he secured two summer season’s work as a vocalist with Dick Denny's band at Butlin's Holiday Camp, Pwllheli, Wales. He made his first TV appearance on The Centre Show on 22 July 1955, which was seen by Norrie Paramor, then head of A&R for EMI's Columbia record label. He went on to have a long string of hits in the in the UK, including two number one singles, "The Story of My Life" in 1958 and "Starry Eyed" in 1960. (Michael suffered badly from stage fright and had a nervous breakdown in 1961; he committed suicide two years later) b. November 26th 1924.
1969: George Murphy "Pops" Foster (77) Bassist; Pops was one of the first important bassists and he kept the tradition of slap bass solos alive into the late '60s. Foster was playing in bands around New Orleans as early as 1906. He also played trumpet & tuba (he died in San Francisco were in his later years he had made his home).
1971: Duane Allman (24) American guitarist born in Nashville, Tennessee; in 1960, Duane was motivated to take up the guitar by the example of his younger brother, Gregg. They played in several bands while in school before forming the Escorts which eventually became the Allman Joys. In 1965, the Allman Joys went on the road, performing throughout the Southeast and eventually based themselves in Nashville and St. Louis. After a short stint with The Hour Glass, he was hired by FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to play on an album with Wilson Pickett's Hey Jude, 1968 album. Duanes work on that album got him hired as a full-time session musician, and was featured on releases by artists including Clarence Carter, King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Otis Rush, Percy Sledge, Johnny Jenkins, Boz Scaggs, Delaney & Bonnie and jazz flautist Herbie Mann. He was noted for his mastery of the slide guitar as well as intensity and soulfulness on "standard" lead and rhythm guitar. On March 26th 1969, Duane on slide guitar and lead guitar and Gregg on organ and vocals, formed The Allman Brothers band, along with Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson. Their debut album, The Allman Brothers Band, was recorded in New York in September 1969 and released a couple months laterwas follrd by intense touring, they went on to become one of the most influential rock groups of the 1970s. As well as his work with his new band, Duane also did some work with Eric Clapton's Derek and the Dominos and still worked occasionally as a session musician. (Duane tragically died in a motorbike accident, only months after their great success of At Fillmore East and the release of the relating album. He lost control of his Harley Sportster while trying to swing left, striking the back of the truck or its crane ball) b. November 20th 1946.
1979: Raymon "Tiki" Fulwood (34) American drummer; in the late 1960s, he was the house drummer for the Uptown Theater in Philadelphia when he met guitarist Eddie Hazel and bassist Billy Bass Nelson core of the The Parliaments musical backing group, soon he replaced drummer Harvey McGee. The group later became known as Funkadelic. He also played drums in the Tyrone Davis band between stints with P-Funk, and later was briefly employed by Miles Davis. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic (stomach cancer) b. May 23rd 1944
1981: Georges Brassens (60) French singer-songwriter, many of his songs have been translated into 20 languages (cancer).
1986: Jerome Darr (75) American guitarist; Washboard Serenaders/Buddy Johnson's band, Jonah Jones and many others, he was also a very busy studio musician ().
1998: Paul Misraki (90) French composer of popular music and film scores, born in Constantinople now Istanbul, Turkey, he showed aptitude for music at an early age. He went to Paris to study classical composition, and by the 1930s had become an established jazz pianist, arranger and writer of popular songs; around this time he began composing film scores, with his first known work being for Jean Renoir's first sound film, On purge bébé, for which he was uncredited. As a composer and lyricist of popular songs, his first hit was 1934's "Tout va tres bien," and during his careers in France, America and Argentina he wrote successful songs in French, English and Spanish. Over the course of over 60 years, Paul wrote the music to 130 films, scoring works by directors like Jean Renoir, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Becker, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Orson Welles, Luis Buñuel and Roger Vadim. For his work, he was made a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (died of natural causes in Paris) b. January 28th 1908.
2003: Franco Corelli (82) Italian tenor operatic singer; New York's Metropolitan Opera (He died in Milan, having suffered a stroke earlier that year).
2008: Mike Baker (45) American lead singer with the progressive metal band Shadow Gallery, also performed guest vocals on the single "Day Sixteen: Loser" from Ayreon's 2004 album The Human Equation. (heart attack) b. September 2nd 1963

October 30
1522: Jean Mouton (63) singer, composer, teacher; he was one of the most important motet composers of the French Renaissance period, he was a court composer for a king. Of his music, 9 Magnificat settings, 15 masses, 20 chansons, and over 100 motets survive (He died in St. Quentin, France and is buried there).
1945: Xian Xinghai (40) Chinese composer. Although he composed in all the major musical forms which includes two symphonies, a violin concerto, four large scale choral works, nearly 300 songs and an opera, he is best known for his Yellow River Cantata upon which the Yellow River Concerto for piano and orchestra is based. During the Sino-Japanese War, '37-'45, he wrote vocal works that encouraged the people to fight the Japanese invaders, including Saving the Nation, Non-Resistance the Only Fear, Song of Guerrillas, The Roads Are Opened by Us, The Vast Siberia, Children of the Motherland, Go to the Homefront of the Enemy, and On the Taihang Mountains, among others. In 1938 he became dean of the Music Department at Lu Xun Institute of Arts in Yan'an. It is at this time that he composed the famous Yellow River Cantata and the Production Cantata. In 1940 Xian went to the Soviet Union to compose the score of the documentary film Yan'an and the Eighth Route Army. In 1941 the German invasion of the Soviet Union disrupted his work and he attempted to return to China by way of Xinjiang but the local anti-communist warlord, Sheng Shicai, blocked the way and he got stranded in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan. It was here that he composed the symphonies Liberation of the Nation and Sacred War, and the suites Red All Over the River and Chinese Rhapsody for winds and strings. Both the Xinghai Conservatory of Music and the Xinghai Concert Hall in Guangzhou were named after him (Tuberculosis; he developed pulmonary tuberculosis due to overwork and malnutrition. After the war, he went back to Moscow for medical treatment but could not be completely cured and died in a hospital nearby the Moscow Kremlin) b. June 13th 1905.
1968: Malcolm Hale (27) lead guitar, trombone, vocals, Spanky And Our Gang ( (died of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty space heater).
1984: Wells Kelly () Drummer, Orleans / Meat Loaf (heroin overdose).
2000: Steve Allen (78) American composer and pianist; also comedian and writer instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show. Allen is called the father of TV talk shows. (cardiac arrest triggered by a minor traffic accident that occurred earlier that day).
1927: Bill LeSage (73) UK pianist, vibraphonist with the Johnny Dankworth Seven and others; part of the first wave of British bebop musicians to emerge in the late 1940s, and remained a lifelong devotee and highly skilled exponent of the form throughout a long and distinguished career (cancer).
2002: Jam Master Jay / Jason William Mizell (37) US rapper, the founder and DJ of Run-DMC, prior to this he played drums and bass in earlier garage bands. He founded the 'Scratch DJ Academy' in Manhattan for children interested in DJing. In 1989, he established the label Jam Master Jay Records, which scored a strong success in 1993 with the band Onyx. He also connected Chuck D with Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin. (murdered by an assassin's single bullet at his recording studio in Queens, New York) b. January 21st 1965.
2003: Steve O'Rourke (63) manager Pink Floyd (suffered a stroke and died while in Miami, Florida, USA).
2007: Linda S. Stein (62) American former manager of the Ramones and others; left band management and became a "real estate agent to the stars" (murdered in her apartment by former personal assistant Natavia Lowery)
2007: Robert Gerard Goulet (73) Grammy and Tony Award winning American entertainer, born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. after his family moved to Edmonton he attended the famous voice schools founded by Herbert G. Turner and Jean Letourneau, and later became a radio announcer for radio station CKUA. Upon graduating from Victoria Composite high school, he received a scholarship to The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Robert rose to international stardom in 1960 as Lancelot in Lerner and Loewe's hit Broadway musical Camelot. His long career as a singer and actor encompassed theatre, radio, television and film (He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung desease, while awaiting a lung transplant) b. November 26th 1933.
2008: Didier Sinclair (43) French pioneer of french "FM", techno DJ, music producer and artistic director of FG Dj Radio. He started out on France's youth-oriented NRJ radio in 1982, and went on to score his first recording success with the album "Groove2me" in 1999. The following year, his "Lovely Flight" became an international hit, and Sinclair became a regular behind the turntables in big techno clubs (died after a long illness) b. 1966
2009: Norton Buffalo (58) American singer-songwriter and blues harmonica player, born and raised in California; after playing with such Bay Area groups as Clover, The Moonlighters, and Elvin Bishop, he joined the "farewell" European tour of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen in early 1976, and was recorded on the band's final live album We've Got A Live One Here!. Later in 1976 he joined the Steve Miller Band's 'Fly Like an Eagle national tour and played harmonica on the band's hit follow-up album Book of Dreams. His association with the Steve Miller Band lasted over 30 years. By the late 1970s Norton had formed his own band, The Stampede, recording two albums: Lovin' in the Valley of the Moon and Desert Horizon. In the late 70s and early 80s he was a member of the Mickey Hart band, High Noon. He also worked in films, appearing in 'The Rose', 'Heaven's Gate' and others. Throughout his career Norton performed and recorded music often as a session musician, and had appeared on 180 albums. He played harmonica on two tracks on The Doobie Brothers' Grammy award winning 1978 album Minute By Minute. He was also nominated for a Grammy in 1992 for "Best Country Instrumental Performance" for the tune "Song For Jessica" from his 1991 Duet CD R&B with Guitarist Roy Rogers (lung cancer) b. September 28th 1951.

October 31
1989: Roger Scott (46) UK radio DJ (cancer).
1995: Erika Morini (91) Austrian violinist born in Vienna, she made her début in Berlin, in 1917, and her American début at New York on January 26th 1921 was one of the musical sensations of the year, and since then she performed in the United States often, both in recital and with the foremost orchestras. She relocated to New York in 1938, and began spelling her first name Erica. She made her first visit to London in 1923. Erica retired in 1976 (died in New York soon after the theft of her Stradivari violin) b. January 5th 1904.
2000: Watanabe Kazuki (19) Japanese guitarist born in Shibuya, Tokyo. After playing some roles in a few TV programs and a film, in 1997 as lead guitarist, he went on to form and lead the band Raphael which was one of the visual kei bands in Japan. They released their debut album "Lilac" on April 7th 1998. This was followed by the release of four further albums. He also had a side-project called Yuri Juujidan all their tracks were instrumental, Watanabe died before he could put his voice to them (drug overdose) b. April 7th 1981.
2003: Dr. Srinivasa Iyer (95) Indian vocalist; one of the great Carnatic vocalists of the twentieth century. He was the youngest recipient of the Sangeetha Kalanidhi awarded by the Music Academy in 1947. He succeeded Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar as Principal of the Swathi Thirunal College of Music at Thiruvananthapuram, a post he held for 23 years, until the age of 55. He also became the Chief Producer of Carnatic music at All India Radio, Madras from 1957 to 1960. In later life, he concentrated on concert performances and tutoring youngsters. He gave public concerts even after the age of 90 (?) b. July 25th 1908.
2005: John "Beatz" Holohan (31) American drummer raised in Long Island NY who gained his nickname from 80's rapper Big Daddy Kane. John worked as a band director for the Saint John's University pep band and played in many bands although he is best known for his work in the alternative rock group Bayside from 2004 until his untimely death. His only release with Bayside was their 2004 self titled album. (At approximately 3:13am in Cheyenne, WY, after leaving their Boulder, Colorado show, Bayside's tour van hit a patch of ice, skidded off the road, and flipped over, John tragically died in the accident) b. March 15th 1974.
2008: Sir John Pearse (69) British-born guitarist and folk singer; he wrote and presented the first ever series of televised guitar lessons for the BBC, "Hold Down a Chord". Moving to the USA in '78, he designed products for the Martin Guitar Company & co-founded Breezy Ridge Instruments, for the purpose of marketing his line of guitar strings, guitar accessories, it became the vehicle for his musical inventions and theories (passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home in Germany) b. 1939
2009: Chen Lin (39) Chinese pop singer; she rose to stardom with her 1993 album entitled I Can Never Understand Your Love, which reached the top of the Chinese album charts selling 1.5 million copies. Chen also had several hit singles including "I Choose What I Want" and "Give up Your Love" (suicide by jumping from the ninth floor of an apartment in Chaoyang District, Beijing) b. January 31st 1970.

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