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Pop music and jazz figures

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Pop music and jazz figures

Bob Popescu, 77; co-owner of Catalina Bar & Grill, turned the Los Angeles club into one of the top jazz venues in the country (Jan. 5)

Ken Nelson, 84; longtime Capitol Records talent scout had an ear for country music (Jan. 6)

Lew Spence, 87; composed “Nice ‘n’ Easy,” the Grammy-nominated Frank Sinatra song (Jan. 9)

Pete Candoli, 84; leading high-register jazz trumpet player (Jan. 11)

John Stewart, 68; singer-songwriter who wrote the Monkees hit “Daydream Believer,” was part of the Kingston Trio and had a significant solo career (Jan. 19)

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Andy Palacio, 47; singer and guitarist who championed the language and culture of the Garifuna people of Belize (Jan. 19)

Teo Macero, 82; a producer of jazz albums for Miles Davis and other leading artists in the 1960s and ‘70s (Feb. 19)

“Aunty” Genoa Leilani Keawe, 89; falsetto-voiced singer and icon of traditional Hawaiian music (Feb. 25)

Buddy Miles, 60; rock and R&B drummer and singer whose eclectic career included stints working as a sideman for Jimi Hendrix (Feb. 26)

Raymond Kane, 82; a Hawaiian slack key guitar master (Feb. 27)

Mike Smith, 64; lead singer and keyboard player in the Dave Clark Five (Feb. 28)

Jeff Healey, 41; rock and jazz guitarist with the platinum-selling 1988 album “See the Light” (March 2)

Gloria Shayne Baker, 84; co-wrote the modern-day Christmas classic “Do You Hear What I Hear?” (March 6)

Judy Frankel, 65; singer recorded centuries-old Sephardic songs (March 20)

Israel “Cachao” Lopez, 89; Cuban bassist and composer credited with pioneering the mambo style of music (March 22)

William F. Ludwig II, 91; son of the founder of Ludwig Drum Co. who built a special kit for the Beatles’ Ringo Starr (March 22)

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Neil Aspinall, 66; Beatles road manager and head of Apple Corps for 40 years (March 23)

Gene Puerling, 78; leader of the innovative vocal quartet the Hi-Lo’s and a noted vocal arranger whose work influenced the sound of other groups, including the Beach Boys (March 25)

Cedella Booker, 81; mother of Bob Marley who wrote two biographies of him and recorded two albums (April 8)

Ozzie Cadena, 83; record producer recorded jazz giants for the Savoy label (April 9)

George T. Butler Jr., 76; influential jazz A & R man and record producer (April 9)

Joe Feeney, 76; an Irish American tenor who was one of the featured performers on Lawrence Welk’s television programs (April 16)

Danny Federici, 58; a keyboard player who was one of the original members of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band (April 17)

Chris Gaffney, 57; an Orange County singer-songwriter who played accordion and guitar on the regional bar scene and toured nationally with Dave Alvin (April 17)

Jimmy Giuffre, 86; saxophonist, clarinetist and composer whose career included big bands and minimalist trios (April 24)

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Humphrey Lyttelton, 86; jazz trumpeter who hosted the BBC radio game show “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue” (April 25)

Al Wilson, 68; soul singer and songwriter who had a number of 1970s hits, including “Show and Tell” (April 21)

Paul Davis, 60; a singer and songwriter whose soft-rock hit “I Go Crazy” stayed at the top of the charts for weeks after its release in 1977 (April 22)

Jim Hager, 66; half of the Hager twins who satirized country life on the TV show “Hee Haw” (May 1)

Jerry Wallace, 79; pop/country singer had a hit in the 1950s with “Primrose Lane” (May 5)

Eddy Arnold, 89; country music superstar who transformed the genre (May 8)

Larry Levine, 80; engineer for Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” (May 8)

Bob Florence, 75; bandleader and composer won Grammys and Emmys (May 15)

Bruce “Utah” Phillips, 73; an influential figure in American folk music who built a grass-roots following with his songs and spoken-word performances that hearkened back to the days of Woody Guthrie (May 23)

Hugh Jarrett, 78; a member of Elvis Presley’s backup band the Jordonaires (May 31)

Bo Diddley, 79; a primal rock and blues musician who helped cast the sonic template of rock more than 50 years ago with a signature syncopated rhythm that became universally recognized as “the Bo Diddley beat” (June 2)

Bill Finegan, 91; an architect of the big band sounds of Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller who later traded in commercial success to co-create the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra (June 4)

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Danny Davis, 83; a bandleader and record producer who founded the Nashville Brass (June 12)

Esbjorn Svensson, 44; Swedish jazz pianist whose fusion of lyrical melodies and rock-inspired electronics broke fresh ground in modern jazz (June 14)

Ira B. Tucker, 83; lead singer of the Dixie Hummingbirds gospel group since the late 1930s (June 24)

Bobby Durham, 71; a jazz drummer who teamed with Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald (July 7)

Earl Lee Nelson, 79; half of the soul-music singing duo Bob & Earl, who were best known for writing the R&B classic “Harlem Shuffle” (July 12)

Gerald Wiggins, 86; jazz pianist played with his trio and accompanied many great singers (July 13)

Jo Stafford, 90; a singer who was a favorite of soldiers during World War II and whose recordings made the pop music charts dozens of times in the 1950s (July 16)

Joe Beck, 62; jazz guitarist who played with Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra and James Brown (July 22)

Johnny Griffin, 80; a jazz musician who was once billed as the “world’s fastest saxophonist” (July 25)

Lee Young, 94; jazz drummer who played with Nat King Cole and was one of the first African Americans to integrate a studio orchestra (July 31)

Lou Teicher, 83; half of the popular piano duo Ferrante & Teicher who scored four Top 10 hits in the 1960s (Aug. 3)

Isaac Hayes, 65; seminal figure in R & B and soul music who wrote theme from “Shaft” (Aug. 10)

Don Helms, 81; steel guitarist whose aching instrumental cry gave voice to the anguish and joy in virtually all the key recordings by Hank Williams (Aug. 11)

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Jerry Wexler, 91; who coined the term “rhythm and blues,” discovered Aretha Franklin and helped bring African American music to a wide audience as a key executive of Atlantic Records (Aug. 15)

Johnny Moore, 70; a trumpeter and founding member of the Jamaican ska and reggae band the Skatalites (Aug. 16)

Dorival Caymmi, 94; Brazilian composer who enjoyed wide influence in his country and helped launch the career of Carmen Miranda (Aug. 16)

Pervis Jackson, 70; bass singer and original member of 1970s R & B group the Spinners (Aug. 18)

LeRoi Moore, 46; saxophonist with the Dave Matthews Band (Aug. 19)

Buddy Harmon, 79; popular Nashville session drummer played on more than 18,000 recordings (Aug. 21)

Ralph Young, 90; vocalist was half of Sandler & Young singing team popular in the 1960s to the 1980s (Aug. 22)

Jerry Reed, 71; a country singer who became a good ol’ boy actor in car chase movies such as “Smokey and the Bandit” (Sept. 1)

Connie Haines, 87; big band singer who performed with Frank Sinatra and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in the 1940s (Sept. 22)

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Charlie Walker, 81; a Grand Ole Opry star best known for his country music hit “Pick Me Up on Your Way Down” (Sept. 12)

Nappy Brown, 78; R & B and blues singer wrote “(Night Time Is) the Right Time,” which became a hit for Ray Charles (Sept. 13)

Richard Wright, 65; keyboard player and founding member of rock band Pink Floyd (Sept. 15)

Norman Whitfield, 67; Grammy-winning songwriter and forward-thinking producer who helped shape the direction of Motown Records in the 1960s and ‘70s (Sept. 16)

Earl Palmer, 83; legendary session drummer played on rock classics including “Tutti Frutti” and “La Bamba” (Sept. 19)

George “Wydell” Jones, 71; wrote the doo-wop hit “Rama Lama Ding Dong” and performed it as a member of the Edsels (Sept. 27)

Nick Reynolds, 75; a founding member of the Kingston Trio who jump-started the revival folk scene of the late 1950s (Oct. 1)

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Neal Hefti, 85; a former big band trumpeter, arranger and composer who wrote the memorable themes for “The Odd Couple” and “ Batman” (Oct. 11)

Levi Stubbs, 72; Four Tops frontman whose dynamic and emotive voice drove such Motown classics as “Reach Out [I’ll Be There]” and “Baby I Need Your Loving” (Oct. 17)

Dee Dee Warwick, 63; R & B singer who recorded hits in the 1960s and was a supporting singer for her sister Dionne Warwick (Oct. 18)

Dave McKenna, 78; a master jazz pianist who embraced the music of the Great American Songbook (Oct. 18)

Harold “Hal” Kant, 77, the Grateful Dead’s longtime principal lawyer and corporate general counsel who spent more than three decades helping protect the legendary rock band’s lucrative musical legacy (Oct. 19)

Merl Saunders, 74; keyboardist best known for his collaborations with Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia (Oct. 24)

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Ray Ellis, 85; a versatile pop music arranger who wrote the charts for hits by the Four Lads, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, Doris Day and Johnny Mathis (Oct. 27)

Mae Mercer, 76; a deep-voiced blues singer who spent much of the 1960s performing at a blues bar in Paris (Oct. 29)

Shakir Stewart, 34; the executive who succeeded Jay-Z as the head of hip-hop music label Def Jam Recordings (Nov. 1)

Yma Sumac, 86; “Peruvian Songbird” whose exotic voice was a 1950s sensation (Nov. 1)

Jimmy Carl Black, 70; original drummer for Frank Zappa’s band Mothers of Invention (Nov. 1)

Rosetta Reitz, 84; ardent feminist started record label for women in jazz and blues (Nov. 1)

Jheryl Busby, 59; a music executive who led a revival of Motown Records while president and chief executive of the company from 1988 to 1995 (Nov. 4)

Jody Reynolds, 75; 1950s rockabilly singer and songwriter whose one and only Top 10 hit, “Endless Sleep,” was the first of a wave of melodramatic “teen tragedy” tales (Nov. 7)

Miriam Makeba, 76; South African singer who wooed the world with a beautiful voice but was banned from her country for anti-apartheid activities (Nov. 10)

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Mitch Mitchell, 61; drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of the 1960s (Nov. 12)

Roberta Zito, 65; former backup singer with Nat King Cole and mother of San Francisco Giants pitcher Barry Zito (Nov. 13)

Charles Ottaviano, 66; his intimate Van Nuys nightclub Charlie O’s developed a loyal following of jazz enthusiasts (Nov. 17)

Rear Adm. George Morrison, 89; retired Naval officer was father of rock star Jim Morrison (Nov. 17)

Alan Gordon, 64; songwriter penned the Turtles’ No. 1 hit “Happy Together” (Nov. 22)

Robert Lucas, 46; blues singer and former frontman for Canned Heat (Nov. 23)

Odetta Holmes, 77; folk singer was a voice of the civil rights movement and championed black history (Dec. 2)

Elmer Valentine, 85; co-founder Whiskey a Go Go, the legendary West Hollywood night club (Dec. 3)

Dennis Yost, 65; lead singer of the 1960s soft-rock group the Classics IV (Dec. 7)

Davey Graham, 68; trailblazing British folk guitarist who influenced guitarists as diverse as Paul Simon and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin (Dec. 15)

John Byrne, 61; wrote and sang “Psychotic Reaction,” the only hit for the San Jose band Count Five (Dec. 15)

Page Cavanaugh, 86; a pianist-singer whose trio was a popular nightclub and recording group (Dec. 19)

Delaney Bramlett, 69; wrote classic rock song “Let It Rain,” and worked with musicians George Harrison and Eric Clapton (Dec. 27)

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Freddie Hubbard, 70; jazz trumpeter won a Grammy for the “First Light” album (Dec. 29)

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