Arnold Schoenberg

popular name: John Coltrane

date_of_death: July 17, 1967

age: 40

cause_of_death: Liver cancer

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: John Coltrane was one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century, whose career transformed the sound and scope of modern jazz. He first gained national attention in the 1950s playing with bandleaders like Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, where his intense, exploratory style began to emerge. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he led his own groups and developed a deeply personal approach characterized by complex harmonies, rapid improvisation (“sheets of sound”), and spiritual depth. Whether on the soaring tenor saxophone solo on Milestones (with Miles Davis) or the majestic soprano recordings of My Favorite Things, Coltrane at his best made some of the finest jazz ever recorded. His landmark albums, including Giant Steps and A Love Supreme, pushed the boundaries of jazz structure and expression. Over time, Coltrane moved into more avant-garde and free jazz territories, reflecting his growing interest in spirituality and global musical traditions. Despite his relatively short career—cut short by his death in 1967—Coltrane’s innovations reshaped jazz and influenced generations of musicians across many genres.

popular name: Jerome Kern

date_of_death: November 11, 1945

age: 60

cause_of_death: Cerebral hemorrhage

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: If he had only written the score for Showboat, Jerome Kern's position as a musical genius would be secure. Instead he also wrote Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, The Way You Look Tonight and countless other songs for Broadway and the movies. Later in life he worked in Hollywood with Dorothy Fields and Johnny Mercer, creating Oscar-winning works with the films Swingtime and Lady Be Good. While in Hollywood Kern wrote hit songs for Dinah Shore, Glenn Miller, Peggy Lee and Bing Crosby. It all came to a sudden end when while walking to rehearsals for a revival of Showboat he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while walking at the corner of Park Avenue and 57th Street. He never regained consciousness and his long-time friend Oscar Hammerstein II remained at his side until his death six days later, all the while humming one of Kern’s favorite songs they had written together, “I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star”.

popular name: Cootie Williams

date_of_death: September 15, 1985

age: 74

cause_of_death: Kidney disease

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Cootie Williams was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter who is best remembered for his tenure with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Cootie first played professionally with the Young Family Band (which included the future tenor sax superstar Lester Young) when he was 14. In his later teens, he settled in New York and worked with James P. Johnson, Chick Webb, and Fletcher Henderson. Joining the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1929, among the hundreds of Ellington recordings on which he is featured, the “miniature concertos” “Echoes of Harlem” and “Concerto for Cootie” are especially noted; he also led a small ensemble of fellow Ellington band members, Cootie Williams and His Rug Cutters, on outstanding recordings. Williams left Ellington in 1940 and spent a year in Benny Goodman’s band. In the face of the general decline of the big band business, he led a big band for much of the 1940s and rhythm-and-blues units after that. He rejoined Ellington in 1962; by then he was a somewhat coarser but no less dramatic player. After Duke’s death he played in the Mercer Ellington band into the 1970s.