COVID-19 (coronavirus)

Ellis Marsalis Jr, New Orleans jazz piano legend, died April 1, 2020 from COVID-19 (coronavirus)

Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. (November 14, 1934 – April 1, 2020) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was a jazz pianist and educator. Although he was active since the late 1940s, Ellis Marsalis Jr came to greater attention in the 1980s and 1990s as the patriarch of a musical family, with his sons Branford Marsalis and Wynton Marsalis rising to international acclaim. Ellis Marsalis Jr played saxophone during high school but switched to piano…
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Adam Schlesinger, Fountains of Wayne Singer, dead at 52 of COVID-19 (coronavirus)

Adam Schlesinger died 2020

Adam Lyons Schlesinger (October 31, 1967 – March 31, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and guitarist who won three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and the ASCAP Pop Music Award, and was also nominated for Academy, Tony, and Golden Globe Awards. Adam Schlesinger grew up in Manhattan and Montclair, New Jersey, and attended Montclair High School. He went on to Williams College where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. He…
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Wallace Roney, US jazz trumpeter, dies aged 59 from COVID-19 (coronavirus)

wallace roney died 03312020

Wallace Roney (May 25, 1960 – March 31, 2020) was an American jazz trumpeter, born in Philadelphia. He was found to have perfect pitch at the age of four, and began his musical and trumpet studies at Philadelphia’s Settlement School of Music before going onto the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, in Washington, D.C, where he studied trumpet with Langston Fitzgerald of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.  When he entered the Duke Ellington School, Wallace…
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Joe Diffie, country music singer, died March 29, 2020 from COVID-19 (coronavirus)

Joe Logan Diffie (December 28, 1958 – March 29, 2020) was an American country music singer born into a musical family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1958. After working as a demo singer in the 1980s, he signed with Epic Records’ Nashville division in 1990, and between then and 2004, Joe Diffie charted 35 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, five of which peaked at number one. These were his debut release “Home”, “If…
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Alan Merrill died March 29, 2020 from COVID-19 (coronavirus)

Alan Merrill (February 19, 1951 – March 29, 2020) was born Allan Preston Sachs and was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and model. In the early 1970s, Alan Merrill was the first Westerner to achieve pop star status in Japan. He was the co-writer of, and lead singer on, the first released version of the song “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”, which was recorded by the Arrows in 1975. Allan Preston Sachs (Alan Merrill) …
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Manu Dibango, jazz legend, dies aged 86 from COVID-19 (coronavirus)

Manu Dibango dies aged 86

Emmanuel N’Djoké “Manu” Dibango (December 12, 1933 – March 24, 2020) was a Cameroonian musician and songwriter who played saxophone and vibraphone. He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music. He was best known for his 1972 single “Soul Makossa.” Manu Dibango was born in Douala, Cameroon. His father, Michel Manfred N’Djoké Dibango, was a civil servant, and his mother a fashion designer, running her own small business. Both her ethnic…
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