Musicians and singers who died in December 2020

At the end of 2020 we suddenly and unexpectedly lost our dear friend and colleague Joakim Flowjob.
… via instagram.com

Eugene Wright, whose nimble and rock-steady bass playing anchored the Dave Brubeck Quartet during its most popular and prolific decade, from the late 1950s through the late ‘60s, died on Wednesday in Los Angeles
… via wbgo.org

A pearl of northern Australia’s music scene, Henry Gibson ‘Seaman’ Dan, has died at 91, his family has confirmed.
An ARIA award-winning musician and National Indigenous Music Awards Hall of Fame entrant, the Torres Strait Island singer and guitarist was best known for his albums of sweet, seaside ballads.
… via net.au

A big family rock band, Elpamas is in mourning.
Elpamas keyboard player Edi Daromi is reported to have died.
… via jpnn.com

Word has come that jazz pianist Frank Kimbrough has died of a sudden heart attack.
A few memories:
One of the very first concerts I saw in NYC in the fall of 1991 was a trio of Frank, Ben Allison, and Jeff Williams at some obscure venue in the East Village. It was really great, in part because Frank was clearly influenced by Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols, and Paul Bley.
… via ethaniverson.com

Bob Seger is remembering his lifelong friend and bandmate, Alto Reed, who has passed away at the age of 72 after battling colon cancer. Reed, a Detroit native, was the saxophonist for the Silver Bullet Band for nearly 50 years.
… via mlive.com

The jazz pianist, conductor and composer Claude Bolling, who wrote many scores for films like that of “Borsalino” and arranged “La Madrague”, famous song by Brigitte Bardot, has died at the age of 90 , his entourage announced to AFP on Wednesday.
Mr. Bolling, who suffered from various pathologies, died on Tuesday at Saint-Cloud hospital, west of Paris.
… via lepoint.fr

It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that we share with you the news that Kenyan “K-Maxx” Hopkins suddenly and unexpectedly passed away on December 29, 2020. He was a brother, an amazing musician, and a cherished friend to all.
… via instagram.com

The musician, composer and singer Gosta Linderholm is dead, the family confirms for Ekot. He turned 79 years old.
He grew up in Stockholm and started as a jazz musician in bands such as Jazz Doctors and Sweden’s jazz band, the band that had its breakthrough with the song “Britta’s restaurant” in 1970.
… via svt.se

Phyllis McGuire, of the famed trio, The McGuire Sisters, passed of natural causes on Tuesday, December 29, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada surrounded by family and friends. She was 89.
… via dignitymemorial.com

The longtime R&B band Tierra announced that band leader and cofounder Rudy Salas has died. Salas died on Tuesday at age 71.
Tierra was a groundbreaking Latino music group from Los Angeles that began in the 1970s and is still a standard on El Paso oldies radio.
… via elpasotimes.com

Mexican composer and singer Armando Manzanero died Monday morning after battling Covid-19 for weeks.
Manzanero, who was 85, died at a hospital in Mexico City, Mexico’s Society for Authors and Composers confirmed to CNN.
… via cnn.com

According to reports from Deutschlandfunk Kultur, he died on Monday (December 28, 2020) in Berlin. Dittrich was born in Gornsdorf, Saxony, in 1930. From 1960 to 1976 he taught at the Berlin Academy of Music “Hanns Eisler” in the GDR and then worked as a freelance composer
… via wdr.de

Veteran pianist Fou Ts’ong died on Monday from COVID-19 at the age of 86, according to media reports.
Fou Ts’ong was battling COVID-19 in the UK, his student Kong Jianing confirmed on Sunday.
… via chinadaily.com.cn

On December 28, 2020, Vladimir Efimenko, the soloist of the vocal-instrumental ensemble Сутер’s “Leisya, song” (Лейся, песня), died. His friends and colleagues reported this on the VIA page on Instagram.
He joined the ensemble back in 1977 and until recently performed on tour in Russia and the CIS in the “golden” line-up.
… via eg.ru

The Turkish clarinet legend, Mustafa Kandıralı, known to be one of the best clarinet virtuosos not only in the country but also in the world, has died at the age of 90 due to organ failure.
Kandıralı, whose original surname is Kadıoğlu, was born in the northwestern province of Kocaeli’s Kandıra district in 1930.
… via hurriyetdailynews.com

Tunisian artist Zouhaïra Salem passed away this Sunday, December 27, 2020, at the age of 80, after a long battle with an illness.
Originally from Beja, Zouhaïra Salem, whose original name is Zouhaïra Brahmi, was one of the most outstanding voices of Rachidia, alongside Oulaya and Naama.
… via tunisienumerique.com

Guitarist, singer and songwriter Amadeu Casas has died this Saturday at the age of 66.
The Barcelona musician was a reference in the blues in Catalonia, being a founding member of groups such as Blues Reunion, Blues Messengers, Slide Company and Tandoori Lenoir.
… via elpuntavui.cat

Venezuela regrets the physical departure of the musician and actor Víctor Cuica, who “made history with the saxophone, marked it and stayed there,” said the Minister of Popular Power for Culture, Ernesto Villegas, through his Twitter account @VillegasPoljak
… via tunisienumerique.com

Tony Rice, the bluegrass guitarist and vocalist known for his elegant, innovative flatpicking, died Friday at his home in Reidsville, North Carolina. He was 69. Rice’s death was confirmed by the International Bluegrass Music Association, which inducted him into its Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
… via rollingstone.com

Musician Engin Nurşani, son of folk poet Aşık Ali Nurşani, had throat cancer last year and had to take a break from his music career. Nurşani, who was treated at a private hospital in Üsküdar, was taken to intensive care 11 days ago due to lung infection.
… via sozcu.com.tr

Jaan Rääts belonged to a group of composers who came to music in the second half of 1950 and brought a lot of freshness and a new way of thinking with their works. Rääts developed a style of expression with a pronounced anti-romantic attitude, which was characterized by angular melody, activity, playfulness, enjoyment of rhythms, repetition principles, rapidly changing “shots” reminiscent of different styles and collage-like technique.
… via delfi.ee

Roland Cedermark died the night before Christmas Eve. Cedermark was born and raised in Härjedalen and became known throughout the country for his accordion music.
Roland Cedermark was born in 1938 in Älvros in Härjedalen, he lived for a time in Sveg but later moved to Sigtuna due to his work as a musician.
… via svt.se

Mojmir Sepe – Mojzes, a Slovenian composer and conductor, died at the age of 91. The Maestro has embellished our lives with timeless songs like Earth Dancing, Summer Night, No Words, Among Honest People, We Rarely Meet and others.
… via 24ur.com

British songwriter Geoff Stephens past away at 86 on December 24. Elvis recorded This Is Our Dance, Heart Of Rome and Sylvia from his pen. Stephens won a Grammy for Winchester Cathedral in 1966.
… via elvisnews.com

John Fletcher, best known as Ecstasy from the pioneering rap group Whodini, has died, the group’s Grand Master Dee has confirmed. The cause of death was unclear at the time of this article’s publication; he was 56.
… via variety.com

Rei Nakanishi, a Japanese songwriter who wrote lyrics for a number of hit songs of the Showa era (1926-1989) and a prominent author, died of myocardial infarction at a Tokyo hospital on Wednesday, it was learned Friday. He was 82.
… via nippon.com

It’s a title that will go down in the history of local music: “The Assassin”, a song that all generations have loved to hum. Its interpreter Jean-Paul Volnay died today in France following a long illness. He was 68 years old.
… via francetvinfo.fr

Leslie West, born Leslie Weinstein, has passed away. The iconic guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and storyteller has left a legacy that to this day is celebrated by peers and fans across The World.
… via skhmusic.com

Singer Rika Zaraï died on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday at the age of 82. Born in Jerusalem, the singer notably marked the music for her song “So I sing”, released in 1969 or Casatschok the same year.
… via ladepeche.fr

Musician Lam Phuong died at the age of 83, on the evening of December 22, after curing a stroke in Fountain Valley, California.
Relatives said the musician died after two weeks of hospitalization.
… via vnexpress.net

K.T. Oslin, the first female songwriter to win the CMA Award for Song of the Year, for her 1987 hit “80’s Ladies,” died Monday at 78. Oslin had been battling Parkinson’s disease and was diagnosed with Covid-19 last week, according to her friend, the journalist Robert K. Oermann, who confirmed her death.
… via rollingstone.com

Chad Stuart, the bespectacled half of the British Invasion-era Chad and Jeremy, has died. The cause was pneumonia. Stuart turned 79 on Dec. 10.
… via bestclassicbands.com

It is with great sadness that The Leeds International Piano Competition announces the death of its founder and President Emeritus Dame Fanny Waterman at the age of 100.
Dame Fanny died peacefully this morning in her residential care home in Ilkley, Yorkshire.
… via leedspiano.com

The outstanding Dominican musician Vinicio Franco died on Saturday night, at the age of 87.
Franco was admitted to the Ramón de Lara hospital after catching COVID-19.
… via diariolibre.com

Dik Dik announced the death of Emilio Salvaderi, known as Pepe Salvaderi, musician and founder of the group together with Giancarlo Sbrizolo and Pietro Montalbetti.
… via ilfattoquotidiano.it

Jeff Clayton, the acclaimed jazz saxophonist, flutist and bandleader who worked with such legendary artists as Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Madonna and Count Basie, died Dec. 17 in Los Angeles. He was 65.
… via mercurynews.com

Stanley Cowell, a pianist, composer and educator who demonstrated a vast range of possibilities for jazz over the last 50 years, died on Thursday at Bayhealth Hospital in Dover, Del. He was 79.
… via wbgo.org

Music maestro Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan passed away at 66 on Thursday, December 17, 2020.
… via indianexpress.com

Ewan MacLeod, the Scottish TV star and DJ best known for helping to launch the Beat 106 radio station, has died aged 48.
… via nme.com

Carl Mann was the “Last Son of Sun,” one of the final artists that Sam Phillips introduced to the world. A child prodigy from West Tennessee, Mann arrived in Phillips’ orbit at the end of the Sun Records founder’s golden run in the 1950s.
… via commercialappeal.com

Hundreds of tributes have been paid to an “amazing” local woman who sadly passed away earlier this week.
Popular Marjory Dougal was best known for her work as the Vice President and former General Manager of Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, where she worked hard on a project to bring the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq over to Edinburgh.
… via edinburghlive.co.uk

Albert Griffiths, founder member of The Gladiators has died age 74.The information has been confirmed by his son, and his already viral on social media.
… via selajahfary.com

Sam Jayne, the frontman of the indie band Love as Laughter, has died. Jayne was last heard from on Dec. 7 and was reported missing shortly thereafter. He was 46.
The NYPD confirmed to Variety that Jayne was found in his car and the cause of death is yet to be determined.
… via variety.com

Previously, the cause of death of the 64-year-old musician Andrey Sapunov (Андрей Сапунов) was a heart attack.
Sapunov was born on October 20, 1956 in Krasnoslobodsk. In 1982, after the breakup of the “Воскресение” group, he decided to complete his musical education
… via business-gazeta.ru

The Polish violinist Nicolas Chumachenco passed away yesterday at the age of 76. Born in 1944, in Krakow, he was uniquely linked to our country. He was the director of the Reina Sofía Chamber Orchestra, a project promoted by Musiespaña.
… via plateamagazine.com

One of the greatest Croatian jazz guitarists and the winner of numerous music awards, Damir Kukuruzović, passed away at the age of 45, reports Sisak.info
… via onet.pl

The bassist and vocalist of the punk group Siekiera, Dariusz Malinowski, has died – confirmed “Fakt”. Sad information was provided by Tomasz Budzyński, the team’s first leader.
… via gloria.hr

Country music legend Charley Pride has died at the age of 86 of complications from COVID-19 in Dallas, his representative announced Saturday.
Pride was known as a trailblazer for Black artists in the world of country music.
… via cbslocal.com

Kenneth Alwyn (born 28 July 1925, died 10 December 2020) was an English conductor, composer and writer. Described by BBC Radio 3 as “one of the great British Musical Directors”, he was known for his many recordings, including with the London Symphony Orchestra on Decca’s first stereophonic recording
… via kennethalwyn.co.uk

The samba world is in mourning. Ubirany Félix do Nascimento, better known as Ubirany, died at the age of 80, one of the founders of the traditional group Fundo de Quintal, due to complications at Covid-19, on the morning of this Friday, the 11th.
… via globo.com

Well-known musician Narendra Bhide passed away due to heart attack on Thursday. He was 47.
… via freepressjournal.in

Singer Joseph “Mojo” Morganfield, a son of blues legend Muddy Waters, died Thursday morning, according to his publicist Lynn Orman Weiss.
… via suntimes.com

Jason Slater, an original member of Third Eye Blind, has died at the age of 49.
The musician was taken to a hospital in Maui in November and sadly died on Wednesday morning after suffering liver failure.
… via metro.co.uk

Harold Budd, the acclaimed composer known for his minimalist works and collaborations with Brian Eno, died Tuesday. He was 84. Steve Takaki, Budd’s manager, confirmed his death, adding that the cause of death was complications due to the coronavirus.
… via rollingstone.com

LD Beghtol — a collaborator with the Magnetic Fields who sung some of 69 Love Songs’ greatest moments — has died. The Magnetic Fields broke the sad news this morning, revealing Beghtol had passed away on Monday (December 7). While a cause of death is currently unclear, he would have been 55 or 56.
… via exclaim.ca

Composer, pianist and music teacher Vadim Petrov died at the age of 88. His work has about 1,400 titles, from symphonies to music to evenings. The most famous include music from Krkonoše fairy tales, fairy tales about a mole or the stories of Spejbl and Hurvínek.
… via idnes.cz

Howard Wales, the musician Jerry Garcia described as his favorite collaborator, died at the age of 77 yesterday, his family confirmed.
The keyboardist failed an audition for the Grateful Dead in 1970 because his approach didn’t match the group’s. He appeared on their album American Beauty that same year, and Garcia himself kept the relationship going.
… via ultimateclassicrock.com

The conductor of the choir and orchestra, pedagogue, Lithuanian and Kaunas city political and public figure, winner of the National Prize Petras Bingelis died. He was 77 years old.
… via lrt.lt

James “Jamey” Pacheco, drummer for American hard rock band Babylon A.D., has announced the sad news that his brother and former Babylon A.D. drummer/backing vocalist, Eric Pacheco, has passed away at the age of 53.
… via bravewords.com

At the age of 92, the legend of the Odessa opera Galina Polivanova / Halyna Polyvanova died. This was announced by the soloist of the Odessa Opera House Elena Starodubtseva.
… via vgorode.ua

The opera singer and actor Klaus Ofczarek is dead. He died on Sunday at the age of 81, as the Volksoper announced. For many years, the Haus am Gürtel was the home of the native Viennese.
… via orf.at

Džej Ramadanovski said in a recent interview that he is in strict quarantine due to his health problems and that the corona virus would be fatal for him.
As he stated, he was most afraid of the crown, so he did not leave the house.
… via alo.rs

A skilled multi-instrumentalist, he co-founded the New York Arabic Orchestra and directed Lebanon’s national conservatory of music. He died of complications of Covid-19.
… via nytimes.com

Franco Bolignari, a jazz singer who for years has lent his voice to cinema and TV, passed away at the age of 91. In addition to having been in the RAI orchestra for years, one of his best-known works is the recording of the song “Crudelia De Mon” made for the Italian version of the film La carica dei 101, and was also the voice of the track “15 years almost 16” for the film “All together passionately”.
… via fanpage.it

Quebec pianist and composer Andre Gagnon died Thursday at the age of 84 from Lewy bodydisease, a neurodegenerative disorder, says his record label Audiogram.
During a career spanning 40 years, Gagnon embraced many styles from baroque, to classical and disco.
… via thestar.com

On December 3, 2020, Volodymyr Huba, a prominent composer, member of the NSU and member of the National Union of Composers, died.
This was announced on Facebook by the Honored Artist of Ukraine and winner of the State Prize of Ukraine. O. Dovzhenko, Serhiy Trimbach.
… via kyiv.ua

The very great Scottish bassist Ron Mathewson passed away shortly before midnight yesterday 3 December 2020. He had been admitted to hospital with Covid in mid-November.
… via londonjazznews.com

This Tuesday the death of Luis César Aguirre “El Capi” was announced, a founding member of the Mexican rock group Los Estrambóticas, which emerged in the mid-90s and which left in 2000 with problems with the rest of the members.
… via mediotiempo.com

Dan Morrison, the drummer for Melbourne punk/ska band Area-7, has died after an injury from a fall over the weekend.
Dan was a founding member of Area-7. The band formed in Melbourne as a Madness cover band in 1994.
… via noise11.com