Deaths
- January 7 – Colin McPhee, Canadian composer and musicologist, 63
- January 9 – Big Boy Goudie, jazz saxophonist,
- January 15 – Jack Teagarden, jazz trombonist and vocalist, 58 (pneumonia/heart attack)
- January 22 – Marc Blitzstein, composer, 58
- January 27 - Leib Glantz, musicologist, 65
- February 25 – Johnny Burke, lyricist, 55
- April 4 – Georgia Caine, Broadway star, 87
- May 10 – Carol Haney, dancer and choreographer, 39 (pneumonia)
- June 10 – Louis Gruenberg, pianist and composer, 79
- June 29 – Eric Dolphy, American jazz saxophonist, flautist and bass clarinettist, 36 (diabetic coma)
- July 1 – Pierre Monteux, French conductor, 89
- July 10 – Joe Haymes, bandleader and arranger, 57 (heart failure)
- July 31 – Jim Reeves, American country singer, 40 (plane crash)
- August 14 – Johnny Burnette, rockabilly singer, 30 (drowned)
- September 20 – Lazare Lévy, French pianist and teacher, 82
- September 28
- Nacio Herb Brown, songwriter and film/TV composer, 68
- George Dyson, English composer, 81
- Harpo Marx, American comedian and musician, 75
- October 10
- Eddie Cantor, comedian, singer and songwriter, 72
- Heinrich Neuhaus, Soviet (of German extraction) pianist and teacher, 76
- October 15 – Cole Porter, songwriter and composer, 73
- October 29 – Vasily Agapkin, Soviet composer
- November 5 – Buddy Cole, jazz pianist and orchestra leader, 45 (heart attack)
- November 30 – Don Redman, US arranger, bandleader and saxophonist
- December 2 – Sam H. Stept, Russian-born US songwriter, pianist and conductor, 67
- December 9 – Edith Sitwell, poet and collaborator of William Walton
- December 11
- Alma Mahler-Werfel, songwriter and widow of Gustav Mahler
- Sam Cooke, singer, 33 (shot)
- December 14 – Francisco Canaro, Uruguayan violinist and tango orchestra leader, 76
- December 21 – Theodor Blumer, composer and conductor, 83
- date unknown - Gali Penchala Narasimha Rao, film composer
Read more about this topic: 1964 In Music
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