Deaths
- January 19 – Harry Shields, American musician (b. 1899)
- February 1 – Harry Roy, British bandleader (b. 1900)
- February 7 – Dock Boggs, banjo player (b. 1898)
- March 6 – Thurston Dart, English harpsichordist and conductor (b. 1921)
- March 17 - Piero Coppola, Italian conductor, pianist and composer, 82
- March 21 – Nan Wynn, US singer (b. 1915)
- March 26 – Harold McNair, saxophonist and flute player (b. 1931) (lung cancer)
- March 30 - Harold Craxton, pianist and composer, 85
- March 31 – Karl King, composer and bandleader (b. 1891)
- April 6 – Igor Stravinsky, composer (b. 1882)
- April 17 – Carmen Lombardo, US singer, composer and saxophonist, 67
- May 2 – Edith Day, US actress, singer and dancer (b. 1896)
- May 30 – Marcel Dupré, organist and composer (b. 1886)
- June 11 – Ambrose, English bandleader and violinist (b. 1896)
- June 18 – Libby Holman, US singer and actress (b. 1906)
- June 26 - Inia Te Wiata, New Zealand Māori bass-baritone opera singer, 56 (cancer)
- July 3 – Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, 27 (unknown cause)
- July 6 – Louis Armstrong, US jazz pioneer (b. 1901)
- July 25 – Leroy Robertson, American composer, 74
- August 9 – Leslie Kong, Jamaican record producer (b. 1933)
- August 13 – King Curtis, jazz and blues musician (b. 1934) (murdered)
- August 15 - Edythe Baker, boogie-woogie pianist, 71
- August 17 – Tab Smith, saxophonist, 62
- August 25 – Ted Lewis, singer and bandleader, 81
- August 27 – Lil Hardin Armstrong, wife and musical collaborator of Louis Armstrong, 73
- September 13 - George Lambert, operatic baritone and voice teacher, 70
- October 2 – Bola de Nieve, Cuban singer, pianist, and songwriter, 60
- October 3 – Seán Ó Riada, composer and bandleader, 40 (cirrhosis of liver)
- October 12 – Gene Vincent, singer, 36 (stomach ulcer)
- October 24 – Carl Ruggles, composer, 95
- October 29 – Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band, 24 (motorcycle accident)
- November 4 – Ann Pennington, American actress & dancer, 77
- November 18 – Junior Parker, blues musician, 39 (brain tumour)
- November 22 – Zez Confrey, popular composer and pianist, 76
- December 8 - Marie Collier, operatic soprano, 44 (death from a fall)
- December 21 – Charlie Fuqua, vocalist (The Ink Spots)
- December 28 – Max Steiner, composer, 83
- date unknown - Marie-Anne Asselin, operatic mezzo-soprano and voice teacher
Read more about this topic: 1971 In Music
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“This is the 184th Demonstration.
...
What we do is not beautiful
hurts no one makes no one desperate
we do not break the panes of safety glass
stretching between people on the street
and the deaths they hire.”
—Marge Piercy (b. 1936)
“Death is too much for men to bear, whereas women, who are practiced in bearing the deaths of men before their own and who are also practiced in bearing life, take death almost in stride. They go to meet death—that is, they attempt suicide—twice as often as men, though men are more “successful” because they use surer weapons, like guns.”
—Roger Rosenblatt (b. 1940)
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)