Al Jackson Jr.

popular name: Scrapper Blackwell

date_of_death: October 7, 1962

age: 59

cause_of_death: Murdered (solved but no arrest)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Scrapper Blackwell, together with Leroy Carr are arguably the two most underrated blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s. What is undeniable is the two together created some of the most recorded blues classics including How Long, How Long Blues, Mean Mistreater Mama and When the Sun Goes Down

popular name: Albert Ayler

date_of_death: November 25, 1970

age: 34

cause_of_death: Suicide by drowning

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer and the older brother of jazz trumpeter Donald Ayler. Ayler began recording music during the free-form jazz era of the 1960s and evoked incredibly strong and disparate reactions from critics and fans alike. Said Jon Goldman, an enthusiast who knew and recorded both brothers here. "It was out of the mainstream. It's still way out of the mainstream." On November 25, 1970, his body was found floating in the East River, at the foot of Congress Street Pier, in Brooklyn.

popular name: Johnny Hodges

date_of_death: May 11, 1970

age: 62

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Johnny Hodges was one of the most influential alto saxophonists in jazz history and is best known for his long association with Duke Ellington. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1907 and raised in nearby Boston, Hodges began as a pianist and drummer before focusing on saxophone. By the late 1920s he had joined Ellington’s orchestra, where his rich tone, lyrical phrasing, and expressive vibrato quickly made him one of the band’s standout soloists. For nearly four decades—mainly from 1928 until his death in 1970—Hodges helped define the Ellington sound, delivering memorable performances on compositions such as Passion Flower, Isfahan, and Prelude to a Kiss. During the early 1950s Hodges briefly left Ellington to lead his own small groups, recording popular rhythm-and-blues–inflected instrumentals and albums for labels like Verve Records. Despite this successful period as a bandleader, he rejoined the Ellington Orchestra in 1955 and remained a central figure in the ensemble’s recordings and international tours. Renowned for his smooth, blues-tinged style and elegant ballad playing, Hodges influenced generations of saxophonists and remains a defining voice of swing-era jazz.