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Tony Allen Drummer and co-creator of Afrobeat died April 30, 2020

Tony Allen was a Nigerian drummer, composer and songwriter who lived and worked in Paris, France. Tony Allen was born Tony Oladipo Allen in Lagos, Nigeria on August 12, 1940, and began playing drums at the age of 18, while working as an engineer for a radio station. He was influenced by the music his father who listened to Jùjú, a popular Yoruba music from the 1940s, but also American jazz, and the growing highlife scene in Nigeria and Ghana. Tony Allen worked hard to develop a unique and distinctive style on the drums, feverishly studying records and magazine articles…
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Gospel Singer Troy Sneed died on April 27, 2020

Troy Sneed (December 14, 1967 – April 27, 2020) was an American gospel musician. Troy Sneed was born Troy Lenard Sneed Jr. on December 14, 1967, in Perry, Florida. He played football in college at Florida A&M University, but an injury on the field put an end to his playing days. He joined the choir at the university, and after graduating he became teacher at Jax Beach Elementary School in Jacksonville, Florida. Troy Sneed married Emily Frances Ianson on July 2, 1993, and they started their own record label Emtro, which is a blend of their first names. Their label…
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Derek Jones from Falling in Reverse died April 21, 2020

Derek Jones (June 5, 1984 – April 21, 2020) was an American guitarist, best known as the rhythm / lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist for the post-hardcore band Falling in Reverse. He was also previously the guitarist of the band A Smile from the Trenches until he left in 2010. Derek Jones was born in Lake Forest, California. He first started playing the saxophone but switched to the guitar. As a teenager he formed and played in several bands and he had his first tour at 19 years old. In 2007, Derek Jones joined the band A Smile from the…
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Bassist Matthew Seligman died April 17, 2020

Matthew Seligman (July 14, 1955 – April 17, 2020) was an English bass guitarist, best known for his work with the new wave music scene of the 1980s. Matthew Seligman was born in Cyprus, and his family moved to Wimbledon, London, England when he was eight months old. He was inspired to learn bass by hearing the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Andy Fraser from Free, and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads. Matthew Seligman was a founding member of Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club, which also included his friend Thomas Dolby (English musician, producer, entrepreneur and teacher). He played…
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Jazz Saxophonist Lee Konitz died April 15, 2020

Lee Konitz (October 13, 1927 – April 15, 2020) was an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist. He performed in a wide range of jazz styles, including bebop, cool jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Lee Konitz’s association with the cool jazz movement of the 1940s and 1950s included him playing in the legendary Miles Davis’s “Birth of the Cool” sessions, and working with pianist Lennie Tristano. He was one of only a few alto saxophonists of his era to retain a distinctive style, when Charlie Parker exerted a massive influence on most others. Like other students of Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz…
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John Prine, Folk Legend, died on April 7, 2020 from COVID-19 (coronavirus)

John Prine (October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American country folk singer-songwriter. He was active as a composer, recording artist, and live performer from the early 1970s until his death, was known for an often humorous style of country music with elements of protest and social commentary, and was widely regarded as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation. John Prine was born and raised in the Maywood suburb of Chicago and started playing guitar at age 14. He attended classes at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, and Proviso East High School in…
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Bill Withers died on March 30, 2020, aged 81

William Harrison (Bill) Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American former singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. He recorded several major hits, including “Lean on Me”, “Ain’t No Sunshine”, “Use Me”, “Just the Two of Us”, “Lovely Day”, and “Grandma’s Hands”. He won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for four more. His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. Bill Withers was the youngest of six children and born in the small…
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Ellis Marsalis Jr, New Orleans jazz piano legend, died April 1, 2020

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 while studying classical music at Dillard University, where he graduated in 1955 before attending graduate school at Loyola University New Orleans. In the 1950s and…
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Adam Schlesinger, Fountains of Wayne Singer, died March 31, 2020

Adam 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 Lyons Schlesinger was the son of publicist Barbara (née Bernthal) and Stephen Schlesinger and grew up in Manhattan and Montclair, New Jersey. He attended Montclair High School and went on to Williams College where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. He was a founding member of the bands Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, and Tinted…
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Wallace Roney, US jazz trumpeter, died March 31, 2020

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 Roney had already made his recording debut at the age of just 15 with Nation and Haki Mahbuti, and at that time met, among others,…
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