1997 in Music - Deaths

Deaths

• January 1 - Townes Van Zandt, country-folk musician, 52
• January 2 - Randy California, rock guitarist, 45 (drowned)
• January 5 – Burton Lane, composer and lyricist, 84
• January 10 – Kenny Pickett (The Creation), 54
• January 18 - Keith Diamond, songwriter, 46
• January 21 – Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's manager, 87
• January 22
  • Richard Berry, songwriter (notably wrote "Louie Louie"), 61
  • Billy Mackenzie, Scottish singer, 39
• February 10 – Brian Connolly, vocalist (Sweet), 51 (liver failure)
• February 23 - Tony Williams, jazz drummer, 51
• March 9 – The Notorious B.I.G., rapper, 24 (shot)
• March 10 - LaVern Baker, R & B singer, 67
• March 17 – Jermaine Stewart, vocalist, 39 (AIDS)
• March 24 – Harold Melvin, soul musician, 57
• [[April 8 – Laura Nyro, singer-songwriter, 49 (ovarian cancer)
• April 9
  • Mae Boren Axton, songwriter and music promoter, 82
  • Yank Rachell, blues guitarist, 87
• April 19 - Eldon Hoke, metal/punk singer and drummer, 39
• May 29 – Jeff Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist, 30 (drowned)
• June 2 – Doc Cheatham, jazz trumpeter, 91
• June 4 – Ronnie Lane, member of The Small Faces, 51 (multiple sclerosis, pneumonia)
• June 7 - Arthur Prysock, jazz singer, 68
• June 16 – John Wolters (Dr Hook), 52 (liver cancer)
• June 19 - Bobby Helms, country singer, 63
• June 20 – Lawrence Payton (The Four Tops), 59
• June 24 – Prince Nico Mbarga, Nigerian highlife musician, 47
• August 1 – Sviatoslav Richter, pianist, 82
• August 2 – Fela Kuti, Nigerian musician and composer, 58 (Kaposi's sarcoma)
• August 5 - Don Steele, American disc jockey, 61
• August 10 – Conlon Nancarrow, composer, 84
• August 12 - Luther Allison, blues guitarist, 57
• August 16 – Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, qawwali singer and world music ambassador, 48
• September 5 – Sir Georg Solti, conductor, 84
• September 8 – Derek Taylor, press agent for The Beatles, 65
• September 18 – Jimmy Witherspoon, blues singer, 77
• September 19 – Rich Mullins, singer, 41
• October 12 – John Denver, American folk singer-songwriter and folk rock musician, 53 (air crash)
• October 19 – Glen Buxton, guitarist for the original Alice Cooper Band, 49 (pneumonia)
• October 20 - Henry Vestine, guitarist (Canned Heat), 52
• November 6 – Epic Soundtracks, English singer-songwriter, drummer of Swell Maps, Crime and the City Solution and These Immortal Souls, 38
• November 20 - Robert Palmer, writer, musicologist, clarinetist and producer, 52
• November 22 – Michael Hutchence, singer of INXS, 37 (hanging)
• December 1 – Stephane Grappelli, French violinist, 89
• December 2 - Michael Hedges, composer and guitarist, 43 (car accident)
• December 16 - Nicolette Larson, pop singer ("Lotta Love"), 45 (cerebral edema)
• December 19 - Jimmy Rogers, blues musician, 73
• December 28 – Henry Barraud, French composer, 97
• December 31 – Floyd Cramer, pianist, 64