Ray Sawyer

singer (Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show)

01.02.1937 - 31.12.2018

Ray Sawyer was an American singer and vocalist with the 1970s rock band, Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. Though primarily a backing vocalist and occasional percussionist on congas or maracas, he sang lead on their hit song "The Cover of Rolling Stone" and was a recognisable presence in the band owing to the eyepatch and cowboy hat he wore. He was also the uncle of the vocalist of Wild Fire, Zack Sawyer.

Guto Barros

guitarist

30.07.1957 - 25.12.2018

Guto Barros was a Brazilian guitarist and composer. He was one of the founders of the band Blitz, was an author of the classic "Você Não Soube Me Amar". Guto Barros played with Lobão on the album "Ronaldo Foi Pra Guerra" of band Lobão e Os Ronaldos. He was a sideman of Marina Lima, also had partnerships with Leo Jaime, Evandro Mesquita, among other.

Jerry Riopelle

singer, songwriter, guitarist

05.05.1941 - 24.12.2018

Jerry Riopelle was an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer born in Detroit, and raised in Tampa, Florida, and known primarily for his hard rock performances and for his record production. He mixed rock, country and jazz with R&B and was an inductee into the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame.

Riopelle produced and wrote for The Parade, Brewer & Shipley, We Five, and Shango. His songs have been covered by Leon Russell, Herb Alpert, Kenny Loggins, Rita Coolidge, Meat Loaf, and others. Jerry also wrote various pieces for Hollywood TV shows and films.

James Calvin Wilsey

guitarist, bassist

21.07.1957 - 24.12.2018

James Calvin Wilsey was an American musician. He played bass with San Francisco punk band the Avengers, but became better known as the lead guitarist for Stockton crooner Chris Isaak's band Silvertone. His playing was featured on Isaak's albums Silvertone, Chris Isaak, Heart Shaped World, and San Francisco Days.

Windu Andi Darmawan

drummer

08.08.1982 - 22.12.2018

Windu Andi Darmawan, also popularly known as Andi, was an Indonesian drummer who was part of the Indonesian pop band Seventeen from 1999 to 2018.

Muhammad Awal 'Bani' Purbani

bassist

09.03.1982 - 22.12.2018

Muhammad Awal Purbani was an Indonesian bassist and part of the popular Indonesian pop band Seventeen from 1999 - 2018

Herman Sikumbang

guitarist

17.03.1982 - 22.12.2018

Herman Sikumbang was an Indonesian guitarist who was also part of the popular Indonesian pop band Seventeen from 1999 to 2018.

Arthur Terence Galt MacDermot

pianist

18.12.1928 - 17.12.2018

Arthur Terence Galt MacDermot was a Canadian-American composer, pianist and writer of musical theatre. He won a Grammy Award for the song "African Waltz" in 1960. His most successful musicals were Hair (1967; its cast album also won a Grammy) and Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971). MacDermot also composed music for film soundtracks, jazz and funk albums, and classical music, and his music has been sampled in hit hip-hop songs and albums. He is best known for his work on Hair, and in particular three of the songs from the show; "Aquarius", "Let the Sunshine In", and "Good Morning Starshine", all three of which were number one hits in 1969.

Arthur Maia

bass player

09.04.1962 - 15.12.2018

Arthur Maia was a Brazilian composer and musician. Considered one of the best bass players in the world by professional critics, Maia played with many famous artists, such as Djavan, Gilberto Gil, Marisa Monte, Lulu Santos and Ney Matogrosso. His compositions usually present a fusion of jazz, funk, swing music and reggae.

During his career, Maia developed his own style of playing bass, mastering bass techniques and mixing several rhythms. His style made him famous and many artists invited him to record with them. In Brazil, he played with Jorge Benjor, Gal Costa, Lulu Santos, Caetano Veloso, Roberto Carlos, Martinho da Vila, Djavan, Milton Nascimento, Marisa Monte, Fernanda Froes, Leila Pinheiro e César Camargo Mariano; abroad, with Ernie Watts, Sheila E., Pat Metheny, Carlos Santana, George Benson, Paquito de Rivera e Plácido Domingo. Maia also played in many festivals around the world, such as Free Jazz Festival, Heineken Concerts, Paris Jazz Festival, Montreaux Jazz Festival etc.

Joe Osborn

bass guitar player

28.08.1938 - 14.12.2018

Joe Osborn was an American bass guitar player known for his work as a session musician in Los Angeles and Nashville during the 1960s through the 1980s.

His playing can be heard on records by such well-known groups as The Mamas & the Papas, The Association, The Grass Roots and The 5th Dimension. Osborn can be heard on Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water" and the 5th Dimension's version of "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In". Osborn played on many of Neil Diamond's major hits in the late 1960s and early to middle 1970s, including the hauntingly unique bass lines on "Holly Holy" in 1969. Osborn is also known for his discovery and encouragement of the popular brother-and-sister duo, the Carpenters, on whose albums he played bass throughout their career.

He can be heard playing on several of Nancy Sinatra's 1970's recordings and he was the bassist on the 1977 Christian album Forgiven by Don Francisco. He was playing behind such vocalists as Kenny Rogers, Mel Tillis, and Hank Williams, Jr.

Nancy Sue Wilson

singer

20.02.1937 - 13.12.2018

Nancy Sue Wilson was an American singer whose career spanned over five decades, from the mid–1950s until her retirement in the early–2010s. She was notable for her single "(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am" and her version of the standard "Guess Who I Saw Today". Wilson recorded more than 70 albums and won three Grammy Awards for her work. During her performing career Wilson was labeled a singer of blues, jazz, R&B, pop, and soul, a "consummate actress", and "the complete entertainer". The title she preferred, however, was "song stylist". She received many nicknames including "Sweet Nancy", "The Baby", "Fancy Miss Nancy" and "The Girl With the Honey-Coated Voice".

Angelo 'Sigaro' Conti

singer, guitarist (Banda Bassotti)

31.03.1956 - 11.12.2018

Angelo 'Sigaro' Conti was singer and guitarist of Banda Bassotti, an Italian ska-punk band formed in 1987 in Rome. Their songs are generally political in nature, focusing on Communist and anti-Fascist issues. Many are about Ireland and Latin America, as well. The band was inspired by The Clash and The Specials. The band was politically active from the beginning, attending protests and sympathizing with anti-Fascist movements in Italy.

John Henry 'Ace' Cannon

saxophonist

05.05.1934 - 06.12.2018

John "Ace" Cannon was an American tenor and alto saxophonist. He played and toured with Hi Records stablemate Bill Black's Combo, and started a solo career with his record "Tuff" in 1961, using the Black combo as his backing group. "Tuff" hit #17 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1962, and the follow-up single "Blues (Stay Away from Me)" hit #36 that same year.

Cannon was inducted into both the Rock and Soul Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2000. In May 2007, his hometown of Calhoun City, Mississippi, hosted its first annual Ace Cannon Festival, and on December 9, 2008, he was honored with induction into the Mississippi Musicians' Hall of Fame.

Peter Campbell McNeish (Pete Shelley)

singer, guitarist

17.04.1955 - 06.12.2018

Pete Shelley, born Peter Campbell McNeish, was an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He formed Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto in 1975, and was the lead singer and guitarist from 1977 when Devoto left, releasing "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" in 1978. The band broke up in 1981, reforming in 1989. Shelley also had a solo career, beginning with the release of Sky Yen in 1980, which had been recorded in 1974.

Perry Morris Robinson

clarinetist

17.09.1938 - 02.12.2018

Perry Morris Robinson was an American jazz clarinettist and composer. He was the son of the composer Earl Robinson and grew up in New York City. He attended the Lenox School of Jazz in Massachusetts in the summer of 1959. Robinson served in a U.S. military band in the early 1960s. His first record, Funk Dumpling (with Kenny Barron, Henry Grimes, and Paul Motian) was recorded in 1962. He also appeared with Grimes on The Call in 1965, on the ESP-Disk label.

Since 1973 he has worked with Jeanne Lee and Gunter Hampel's Galaxie Dream Band. He contributed to Dave Brubeck' s Two Generations of Brubeck and played with Burton Greene' s Dutch klezmer band Klezmokum. He was the featured clarinetist on Archie Shepp's LP Mama Too Tight on Impulse Records. He has led his own groups in performances and on record, with albums on the Chiaroscuro, WestWind, and Timescraper labels. More recently, he worked with William Parker and Walter Perkins on Bob's Pink Cadillac and several discs on the CIMP label.

From 1975 until 1977, Robinson was member of a band called Clarinet Contrast, featuring German clarinet players Theo Jörgensmann and Bernd Konrad. He has recorded with Lou Grassi as a member of his PoBand since the late Nineties, and with Lou Grassi, Wayne Lopes and Luke Faust in The Jug Jam, an improvisational jug band. He plays in a free jazz and world music trio along with tabla player Badal Roy and bassist Ed Schuller, with whom he recorded the CD Raga Roni. He has played with Darius Brubeck and Muruga Booker in the MBR jazz trio. Robinson also played an integral part in the formation of Cosmic Legends, an improvisational music/performance group led by composer/pianist Sylvie Degiez which included musicians Rashied Ali, Wayne Lopes, Hayes Greenfield, and Michael Hashim. In 2005 he was featured on his cousin Jeffrey Lewis' album City and Eastern Songs on Rough Trade Records, produced by Kramer. His most recent release was OrthoFunkOlogy in 2008 with the band Free Funk, also featuring Muruga Booker, Badal Roy, and Shakti Ma Booker.

Edwin Calvin Newborn

guitarist

27.04.1933 - 01.12.2018

Edwin Calvin Newborn was an American jazz guitarist. He was the brother of pianist Phineas Newborn Jr. (1931–89), with whom he recorded between 1953 and 1958. They also formed an R&B band, with their father Phineas Newborn Sr. on drums and Tuff Green on bass.

He played with Earl Hines starting in 1959. In the early 1960s, he toured with Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Forrest, Wild Bill Davis, Al Grey, and Freddie Roach, along with fellow Memphis jazz luminaries including Booker Little, George Coleman. Frank Strozier, and Louis Smith. Newborn also worked with Ray Charles, Count Basie, Hank Crawford, David "Fathead" Newman. Since the 1970s Newborn had remained mostly in Memphis, Tennessee, where he played regularly in local clubs well into the 1990s. His 1980 album Centerpiece hit No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard jazz albums chart, but much of his earlier material was not reissued on CD until 2005. He lived most recently in Jacksonville, Florida, and continued to perform throughout Northeast Florida until his death.

Joseph Leon 'Jody' Williams

guitarist, singer

 

03.02.1935 - 01.12.2018

Joseph Leon Williams, better known as Jody Williams, was an American blues guitarist and singer. His singular guitar playing, marked by flamboyant string-bending, imaginative chord voicings and a distinctive tone, was influential in the Chicago blues scene of the 1950s.

In the mid-1950s, Williams was one of the most sought-after session guitarists in Chicago, but he was little known outside the music industry, since his name rarely appeared on discs. His acclaimed comeback in 2000 led to a resurgence of interest in his early work and a reappraisal as one of the great blues guitarists. Williams was known for his imaginative chord selection, characterized by raised fives, and minor sixths and minor sevenths with flattened fives. He usually played with an unusual open E tuning, originally taught to him by Bo Diddley. In 2013, Williams was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame.

Ustad Imrat Khan

sitar and surbahar player

17.11.1935 - 22.11.2018

Ustad Imrat Khan is one of the world's greatest players of the surbahar, a deep-toned, sitar-like stringed instrument that was developed by his great-grandfather, Ustad Sahabdad Khan. For decades, Khan has recorded extensively on both his instruments. His full performance practice starts with a surbahar alap in dhrupad ang (embellished with more romantic touches), followed by a shorter alap on the sitar leading into gat in traditional Imdadkhani style.

Khan has toured in Europe, the Americas, and East and Southeast Asia. He spends a portion of each year teaching classical Indian music and instructing sitar students at Washington University in Saint Louis.

Imrat Khan is the senior performer of the Imdadkhani gharana, the school of sitar and surbahar performance named after his grandfather Imdad Khan.

Roy Bailey

guitarist, singer

20.10.1935 - 20.11.2018

Roy Bailey was an English socialist folk singer. Colin Irwin from the music magazine Mojo said Bailey represented "the very soul of folk's working class ideals... a triumphal homage to the grass roots folk scene as a radical alternative to the mainstream music industry."

Eddie C. Campbell

guitarist, singer

06.05.1939 - 20.11.2018

Eddie C. Campbell was an American blues guitarist and singer in the Chicago blues scene. In his early years as a professional musician, he played as a sideman with Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Little Johnny Taylor, and Jimmy Reed. In 1976, Willie Dixon hired him to play in the Chicago Blues All-Stars. Campbell's debut album, King of the Jungle, featuring Carey Bell on harmonica and Lafayette Leake on piano, was released the next year.

In 1984, Campbell left Chicago for Europe, living first in the Netherlands and later in Duisburg, Germany, where he remained for ten years before returning to Chicago. Campbell's last album was Spider Eating Preacher (Delmark, 2012). It was nominated for a Blues Music Award in 2013 in the category Traditional Blues Album.

James Augustus McNaughton (Trevor McNaughton)

singer (The Melodians)

16.12.1940 - 20.11.2018

Born in Hanover, the dreadlocked McNaughton started The Melodians in 1963 in Greenwich Farm, Kingston. Trevor McNaughton had the idea of putting a group together and contacted the then 14-year-old Tony Brevett, who had already had success in local talent shows. Brevett recruited his friend Brent Dowe and the group was formed, with Brevett taking on lead vocal duties.

They were one of the most successful acts of the 1966-68 rocksteady era, recording mainly for producer Duke Reid. Many of their songs, including Little Nut Tree and By The Rivers of Babylon, are reggae classics.

Norris Weir

singer (The Jamaicans)

23.10.1946 - 17.11.2018

Reverend Norris Weir was founding member of the legendary group, The Jamaicans and winner of the 1967 festival song, “Ba Ba Boom”. Weir has been an ordained minister of religion since 2010. He has recorded 10 gospel albums.

Cyril Pahinui

guitarist, singer

21.04.1950 - 17.11.2018

Cyril Pahinui was a slack-key guitarist and singer of Hawaiian music. He has contributed to more than 35 Hawaiian musical releases and three Grammy Award-winning compilations of Hawaiian music. His 1994 album 6 & 12 String Slack Key won the Nā Hōkū Hanohano award for Instrumental Album of the Year and contains "No Ke Ano Ahiahi", perhaps the greatest 12-string kī hō'alu (slack key) and vocal recording ever made. His 2007 album He'eia won the Nā Hōkū Hanohano award for Island Music Album of the Year.

In 2013, Pahinui received a fellowship from the Native Arts & Culture Foundation to produce Let's Play Music! Slack Key with Cyril Pahinui & Friends, a program of traditional Hawaiian music developed for PBS Hawaii. In 2014, he received a Nā Hōkū Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award for perpetuating the craft of slack key music through performance and teaching. He was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2017.

Geoffrey Betts (Al James)

bassist (Showaddywaddy)

13.01.1945 - 16.11.2018

Bassist Al James, whose real name was Geoffrey Betts, was one of the founding members of the pop group Showaddywaddy. Al James was with the group for 35 years and retired in 2008.

Roy Linwood Clark

guitarist, banjo player, singer

15.04.1933 - 15.11.2018

Roy Linwood Clark was an American singer and musician. He is best known for having hosted Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1997. Clark was an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and helping to popularize the genre.

During the 1970s, Clark frequently guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and enjoyed a 30-million viewership for Hee Haw. Clark was highly regarded and renowned as a guitarist and banjo player, skilled in the traditions of many genres, including classical guitar, country music, Latin music, bluegrass, and pop. He had hit songs as a pop vocalist (e.g., "Yesterday, When I Was Young" and "Thank God and Greyhound"), and his instrumental skill had an enormous effect on generations of bluegrass and country musicians. He became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1987, and, in 2009, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Ivan Nikolayevich Smirnov

guitarist

09.09.1955 - 15.11.2018

Ivan Nikolayevich Smirnov was regarded as one of the greatest guitar players in Russia. He was proficient in many different styles, such as fusion, world, Russian folk, folk-jazz, and new flamenco. Smirnov lived in Russia and played with musicians such as Mikhail Smirnov, Sergey Klevensky, Dmitry Safonov, and Aleksei Kozlov.

Hugh Alexander McDowell

celist (Electric Light Orchestra)

31.07.1953 - 06.11.2018

Hugh Alexander McDowell was an English cellist best known for his membership of the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and related acts.

Mark Fosson

guitarist, singer

1950 - 02.11.2018

Mark Fosson was an American singer-songwriter and American primitive guitarist who grew up in eastern Kentucky, where he began writing songs while he was still in his early teens. He got his start in the mid to late 1960s, playing in local rock bands until going into service with the Air Force in 1971, and returning home around 1974. In the late 1970s, he sent some song demos to John Fahey's West Coast-based Takoma Records, and Fahey, impressed with what he heard, offered Fosson a recording deal. Fosson lost no time in relocating to Los Angeles and began recording, but as bad luck would have it, Takoma was in some difficulty, and the label soon folded. Fahey allowed Fosson to retain the master tapes of the sessions, however.

Now located on the West Coast, Fosson met fellow songwriter Edward Tree, and the two began working together, forming the Bum Steers, a country-tinged group, in the late 1980s, eventually being invited to play the Grand Ol' Opry at the request of Porter Wagoner. Fosson's material appeared on several soundtracks through the 1990s.

In 2001, he began collaborating with singer-songwriter Lisa O'Kane, who recorded several of his songs, including the No. 1 European single "Little Black Cloud" and Fosson also began recording a solo project, Jesus on a Greyhound, which was released on New Light Entertainment/Universal. The record drew positive reviews and Fosson was frequently compared to Americana music artists such as Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Joe Ely, John Prine and Guy Clark. The Fahey material finally saw the light of day as The Lost Takoma Sessions from Drag City Records in 2006. His song "Another Fine Day" was included on Volume 3 of the Imaginational Anthem acoustic guitar compilation from Tompkins Square Records.

Roy Anthony Hargrove

trumpeter

16.10.1969 - 02.11.2018

Roy Anthony Hargrove was an American jazz trumpeter. He won worldwide notice after winning two Grammy Awards for differing types of music, in 1997 and in 2002. Hargrove primarily played with jazz luminaries such as Wynton Marsalis and Herbie Hancock.

Hargrove was the bandleader of the progressive group The RH Factor, which combined elements of jazz, funk, hip-hop, soul, and gospel music. Its members have included Chalmers "Spanky" Alford, Pino Palladino, James Poyser, Jonathan Batiste and Bernard Wright.

Hargrove used a jazz sound with a lot of groove and funk, performing and recording with neo soul singer D'Angelo, resulting in Voodoo. Hargrove also performed the music of Louis Armstrong in Roz Nixon's musical production "Dedicated To Louis Armstrong" as part of the Verizon Jazz Festival. In 2002, he collaborated with D'Angelo and Macy Gray, the Soultronics, and Nile Rodgers, on two tracks for Red Hot & Riot, a compilation album in tribute to the music of afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. He acted as sideman for jazz pianist Shirley Horn and rapper Common on the album Like Water for Chocolate and in 2002 with singer Erykah Badu on Worldwide Underground.

Glenn Schwartz

guitarist, singer (James Gang, Pacific Gas & Electric)

20.03.1941 - 02.11.2018

Glenn Schwartz was the American original guitarist for The James Gang, based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The band did not have a recording contract, nor did the group gain any attention until Joe Walsh joined the band.

Schwartz left the James Gang in late December 1967 when he moved to California. He later joined the Los Angeles based blues band Pacific Gas & Electric where he first came to the attention of rock audiences, and, in 1970, scored a national top 20 hit with the song "Are You Ready?".

Tired of the rock and roll life, he left PG&E to join a pioneering Gospel rock group All Saved Freak Band, which was the musical evangelistic arm of an Ohio religious group-turned-cult, the Church of the Risen Christ, headed by Larry Hill. Schwartz's life in this cult with Rev. Larry Hill is explored in the book, Fortney Road: Life, Death, and Deception in a Christian Cult by Jeff C. Stevenson (2015). All told, Schwartz recorded four albums with the Freak Band before leaving it in 1980.

Through the 1990s and 2000s, Schwartz played weekly blues gigs at bars in Cleveland's The Flats neighborhood, often with his brother, Gene. Changes at venues and health issues kept him from playing live for a few years, but Schwartz returned to the stage for a 75th birthday show and an impromptu jam at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival with Joe Walsh and The Arcs, featuring Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. As of 2016, Schwartz has brought his celebrated guitar playing — and preacher-style stage presence — back to Cleveland bars regularly and has gone back into a Nashville studio with Auerbach.

Jimmy Farrar

singer (Molly Hatchet, Gator Country)

08.12.1950 - 29.10.2018

Jimmy Farrar was a singer, songwriter and musician born in La Grange, Georgia, and the original lead singer of the Raw Energy band. He was also known as the second lead singer of the American Southern Rock band Molly Hatchet from 1980 to 1982, and in more recent years, Gator Country.

Todd 'Youth' Schofield

guitarist (Warzone, Murphy's Law, Danzig)

 

15.05.1971 - 27.10.2018

Todd Schofield, known as Todd Youth, was an American guitarist, best known for his work with Warzone, Murphy's Law and Danzig.

Tony Joe White

guitarist, singer, harmonica player

23.07.1943 - 24.10.2018

Tony Joe White was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for his 1969 hit "Polk Salad Annie" and for "Rainy Night in Georgia", which he wrote but was first made popular by Brook Benton in 1970. He also wrote "Steamy Windows" and "Undercover Agent for the Blues", both hits for Tina Turner in 1989; those two songs came by way of Turner's producer at the time, Mark Knopfler, who was a friend of White. "Polk Salad Annie" was also recorded by Elvis Presley and Tom Jones.

María de Montserrat Bibiana Concepción Caballé i Folch (Montserrat Caballé)

singer

12.04.1933 - 06.10.2018

María de Montserrat Viviana Concepción Caballé i Folch was a Spanish operatic soprano. She sang a wide variety of roles, but is best known as an exponent of the works of Verdi and of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. She was noticed internationally when she stepped in for a performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at Carnegie Hall in 1965, and then appeared at leading opera houses. Her voice was described as pure but powerful, with superb control of vocal shadings and exquisite pianissimo.

Caballé became popular to non-classical music audiences in 1987, when she recorded, at the request of the IOC, "Barcelona", a duet with Freddie Mercury, which became an official theme song for the 1992 Olympic Games. She received several international awards and also Grammy Awards for a number of her recordings.

Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian (Charles Aznavour)

singer

22.05.1924 - 01.10.2018

Charles Aznavour was a French-Armenian singer, lyricist, and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his distinctive tenor voice: clear and ringing in its upper reaches, with gravelly and profound low notes. In a composer/singer/songwriter career spanning over 70 years, he recorded more than 1,200 songs interpreted in nine languages. He wrote or co-wrote more than 1,000 songs for himself and others.

Aznavour was one of France's most popular and enduring singers. He sold 180 million records during his lifetime and was dubbed France's Frank Sinatra, while music critic Stephen Holden described Aznavour as a "French pop deity". He was also arguably the most famous Armenian of his time. In 1998, Aznavour was named Entertainer of the Century by CNN and users of Time Online from around the globe. He was recognized as the century's outstanding performer, with nearly 18% of the total vote, edging out Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan. Jean Cocteau said: "Before Aznavour, despair was unpopular".

Aznavour sang for presidents, popes and royalty, as well as at humanitarian events. In response to the 1988 Armenian earthquake, he founded the charitable organization Aznavour for Armenia along with his long-time friend impresario Levon Sayan. In 2009, he was appointed ambassador of Armenia to Switzerland, as well as Armenia's permanent delegate to the United Nations at Geneva.

Gerald (Jerry) González

trumpeter, percussionist

05.06.1949 - 01.10.2018

Jerry González was an American bandleader, trumpeter and percussionist of Puerto Rican descent. Together with his brother, bassist Andy González, he played an important role in the development of Latin jazz during the late 20th century. During the 1970s, both played alongside Eddie Palmieri and in Manny Oquendo's Conjunto Libre, and from 1980 to 2018 they directed The Fort Apache Band. From 2000 to 2018, Jerry González resided in Madrid, where he fronted Los Piratas del Flamenco and El Comando de la Clave.

Otis Rush

guitarist, singer

29.04.1934 - 29.09.2018

Otis Rush Jr. was an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. His distinctive guitar style featured a slow-burning sound and long bent notes. With qualities similar to the styles of other 1950s artists Magic Sam and Buddy Guy, his sound became known as West Side Chicago blues and was an influence on many musicians, including Michael Bloomfield, Peter Green and Eric Clapton.

Rush was left-handed and strummed with his left hand while fretting with his right. His guitars, however, were strung with the low E string at the bottom, in reverse or upside-down to typical guitarists. He often played with the little finger of his pick hand curled under the low E for positioning. It is widely believed that this contributed to his distinctive sound. He had a wide-ranging, powerful tenor voice.

Martyn Jerel Buchwald (Marty Balin)

singer, guitarist, keyboard player (Jefferson Airplane)

30.01.1942 - 28.09.2018

Marty Balin born Martyn Jerel Buchwald was an American singer, songwriter, and musician best known as the founder and one of the lead singers and songwriters of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.

Alois 'Zipflo' Weinrich

violinist, bassist

16.06.1964 - 23.09.2018

Alois "Zipflo" Weinrich was an Austrian jazz musician (violin, bass).

Charles Nicholas (Chas) Hodges

vocalist, pianist, guitarist, bassist, banjo player

28.12.1943 - 22.09.2018

Charles Nicholas Hodges was an English musician and singer who was the lead vocalist of the musical duo Chas & Dave.

Martin (Maartin) Allcock

multi-instrumentalist (guitar, keyboards, violin, bass guitar, pipes)

(Fairport Convention, Jethro Tull, The Mission)

05.01.1957 - 16.09.2018

Maartin Allcock (born Martin Allcock) was an English multi-instrumentalist musician and record producer. Born in Middleton, Lancashire (now Greater Manchester), England, Allcock studied music at Huddersfield and Leeds. He began playing professionally in January 1976, playing in dance bands and folk clubs. His first tour was in 1977 with Mike Harding as one of the Brown Ale Cowboys. He went to Brittany in 1978, for a temporary stay, but ended up remaining longer than intended, and learned to cook while there. On returning to Manchester he studied and qualified to become a chef, working in the Shetland Islands in 1980.

In 1981 he joined the Bully Wee Band, a Celtic folk group, which led to an 11-year stint as lead guitarist with British folk rock band Fairport Convention from October 1985 to December 1996, and concurrently four years as keyboardist with rock band Jethro Tull from January 1988 to December 1991. In summer 1991 he also played keyboards for The Mission. From the early 2000s he began working freelance from his home on the west coast of Snowdonia as a session man and record producer with the Welsh language Sain record label.

Allcock's session career included more than 200 albums, including Robert Plant, Beverley Craven, Judith Durham, Breton guitarist Dan Ar Braz (six albums), Ralph McTell, Dave Swarbrick, Cat Stevens, and Dafydd Iwan. He began producing Welsh music in 2005 and has produced ten albums for Sain Records in Caernarfon. He was UK bass guitarist and tour manager for Nashville songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman.

Cecil James McNeely (Big Jay McNeely)

saxophonist

29.04.1927 - 16.09.2018

Cecil James McNeely better known as Big Jay McNeely was an American rhythm and blues saxophonist.

Max Bennett

bassist

25.05.1928 - 14.09.2018

Max Bennett was an American jazz bassist and session musician. Bennett grew up in Kansas City and Oskaloosa, Iowa, and went to college in Iowa. His first professional gig was with Herbie Fields in 1949, and following this he played with Georgie Auld, Terry Gibbs, and Charlie Ventura. He served in the Army during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953, and then played with Stan Kenton before moving to Los Angeles. There he played regularly at the Lighthouse Cafe with his own ensemble, and played behind such vocalists as Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez through the 1970s. He also recorded with Charlie Mariano, Conte Candoli, Bob Cooper, Bill Holman, Stan Levey, Lou Levy, Coleman Hawkins and Jack Montrose.

Bennett recorded under his own name from the late 1950s and did extensive work as a composer and studio musician in addition to jazz playing. Often associated with The Wrecking Crew, he performed on many records by The Monkees and The Partridge Family.

In 1969, Bennett served as the principal bassist for Frank Zappa's Hot Rats project. He also played on later Zappa albums such as Chunga's Revenge.

His studio work also included bass on the 1969 Lalo Schifrin soundtrack to the 1968 film Bullitt as well as Greatest Science Fiction Hits Volumes 1-3 with Neil Norman & His Cosmic Orchestra.

In 1973, Guerin and Bennett joined Tom Scott's L.A. Express alongside Joe Sample and Larry Carlton. After recording their eponymous debut album, the jazz fusion quintet served as the core band for Mitchell's Court and Spark (1974). A subsequent iteration of the group (including guitarist Robben Ford and pianist Larry Nash) backed Mitchell on the live Miles of Aisles (1974) and recorded two smooth jazz albums for Caribou Records following Scott's departure in 1976. After the band's dissolution, Bennett formed his own group, Freeway. He continued to perform with his last group, Private Reserve, until his death in 2018.

Erich Kleinschuster

trombonist

23.01.1930 - 12.09.2018

Erich Kleinschuster was an Austrian trombonist and bandleader. Kleinschuster was born in Graz, and learned to play piano before picking up trombone; his first major engagement was as a member of Fridl Althaler's Radio Graz dance orchestra. As a member of the International Youth Band, he appeared at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, and worked with Johannes Fehring from 1958 to 1965, in addition to playing with Kenny Clarke and Francy Boland's ensemble. He played with Friedrich Gulda in 1965, then put together a six-piece ensemble the following year, which performed frequently on Österreichischer Rundfunk. He founded Vienna's Jazzinstitut in 1968 and was the leader of Österreichischer Rundfunk's big band from 1972 until 1981; he was the conductor for the Austrian entries of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1972 and 1976. Among his jazz associations in the 1970s were Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, George Gruntz, Peter Herbolzheimer, Gerry Mulligan, and Toots Thielemans.

In 1981 he moved back to Graz and became a lecturer in music at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, a position he held until 1998; he also put together a youth orchestra, JAM, which toured in the early 1990s.

Conway Victor Savage

pianist, keyboardist, organist, singer 

 

27.07.1960 - 02.09.2018

Conway Victor Savage was an Australian rock musician. He was a member of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, providing piano, organ and backing vocals from 1990. From 1993, Savage had a solo career and released albums, Nothing Broken (2000), Wrong Man's Hands (2004) and Rare Songs & Performances 1989–2004. He also collaborated with other artists for their albums, such as Soon Will Be Tomorrow (with Suzie Higgie, 1998) and Quickie for Ducky (with Amanda Fox and Robert Tickner, 2007).

Randolph Edward 'Randy' Weston

pianist 

 

06.04.1926 - 01.09.2018

Randolph Edward "Randy" Weston was an American jazz pianist and composer whose creativity was inspired by his ancestral African connection.

Weston's piano style owed much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, whom he cited in a 2018 video as among pianists he counted as influences, as well as Count Basie, Nat King Cole and Earl Hines. Beginning in the 1950s, Weston worked often with trombonist and arranger Melba Liston.

Described as "America's African Musical Ambassador", he said: "What I do I do because it's about teaching and informing everyone about our most natural cultural phenomenon. It's really about Africa and her music.

Edward Calhoun 'Ed' King

guitarist, bassist (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Strawberry Alarm Clock) 

 

14.09.1949 - 22.08.2018

Edward Calhoun King was an American musician. He was a guitarist for the psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock and guitarist and bassist for the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1972 to 1975 and again from 1987 to 1996.

Leslie Carswell Johnson (Lazy Lester)

guitarist, harmonica player, singer 

 

20.06.1933 - 22.08.2018

Leslie Johnson, better known as Lazy Lester, was an American blues musician who sang and played the harmonica and guitar. His career spanned the 1950s to 2018.

Best known for regional hits recorded with Ernie Young's Nashville-based Excello Records, Lester also contributed to songs recorded by other Excello artists, including Slim Harpo, Lightnin' Slim, and Katie Webster. Cover versions of his songs have been recorded by (among others) the Kinks, the Flamin' Groovies, Freddy Fender, Dwight Yoakam, Dave Edmunds, Raful Neal, Anson Funderburgh, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. In the comeback stage of his career (since the late 1980s) he recorded new albums backed by Mike Buck, Sue Foley, Gene Taylor, Kenny Neal, Lucky Peterson, and Jimmie Vaughan.

Spencer Patrick Jones

guitarist, singer 

 

28.10.1956 - 21.08.2018

Spencer Patrick Jones was a New Zealand guitar player and singer-songwriter from Te Awamutu. From 1976 he worked in Australia and was a member of various groups including The Johnnys, Beasts of Bourbon, Paul Kelly and The Coloured Girls, Chris Bailey and The General Dog, Maurice Frawley and The Working Class Ringos, and Sacred Cowboys. He also issued ten albums as a solo artist. In May 2012 Australian Guitar magazine rated Jones as one of Australia's Top 40 best guitarists.

Aretha Louise Franklin

singer, pianist 

 

25.03.1942 - 16.08.2018

Aretha Louise Franklin was an American singer, songwriter, civil rights activist, actress, and pianist. Franklin began her career as a child singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan where her father C. L. Franklin was minister. At age 18, she embarked on a secular career recording for Columbia Records. However, she achieved only modest success. Franklin found acclaim and commercial success after signing with Atlantic Records in 1966. Hit songs such as "Respect", "Chain of Fools", "Think", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", and "I Say a Little Prayer", propelled Franklin past her musical peers. By the end of the 1960s, Aretha Franklin had come to be known as "The Queen of Soul".

She continued to record acclaimed albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967), Lady Soul (1968), Spirit in the Dark (1970), Young, Gifted and Black (1972), Amazing Grace (1972), and Sparkle (1976) before experiencing problems with her record company. Franklin left Atlantic in 1979 and signed with Arista Records. She appeared in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers before releasing the successful albums Jump to It (1982), Who's Zoomin' Who? (1985), and Aretha (1986) on the Arista label. In 1998, Franklin returned to the top 40 with the Lauryn Hill-produced song "A Rose Is Still a Rose", later issuing the album of the same name, which went gold. That same year, Franklin earned international acclaim for her performance of "Nessun dorma" at the Grammy Awards, filling in at the last minute for Luciano Pavarotti, who had cancelled after the show had already begun. In 2015, she paid tribute to singer/songwriter and honoree Carole King by singing "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" at the Kennedy Center Honors.

Franklin recorded 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries, and 20 number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in history. Franklin's other well-known hits include "Rock Steady", "Call Me", "Ain't No Way", "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)", "Spanish Harlem", "Day Dreaming", "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)", "Something He Can Feel", "Jump to It", "Freeway of Love", "Who's Zoomin' Who", and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (a duet with George Michael). She won 18 Grammy Awards, including the first eight awards given for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance from 1968 through to 1975, and she is one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide.

Franklin received numerous honors throughout her career, including a 1987 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the first female performer to be inducted, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012. Franklin is listed in two all-time lists by Rolling Stone magazine, including the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2008, she was ranked by Rolling Stone as the No. 1 greatest singer of all time.[