Arnold Schoenberg

popular name: Michael Bloomfield

date_of_death: February 15, 1981

age: 37

cause_of_death: Cocaine and methamphetamine poisoning

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Michael Bloomfield was an American guitarist and composer who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrumental prowess, as he rarely sang before 1969. Respected for his guitar playing, Bloomfield knew and played with many of Chicago's legendary blues musicians such as as Sleepy John Estes, Yank Rachell, Little Brother Montgomery, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters before achieving his own fame and was instrumental in popularizing blues music in the mid-1960s. In 1965, he played on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, including the single "Like a Rolling Stone", and performed with Dylan at that year's Newport Folk Festival. Bloomfield was ranked No. 22 on Rolling Stone's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2003 and No. 42 by the same magazine in 2011. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2012 and, as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

popular name: Les Brown

date_of_death: January 4, 2001

age: 88

cause_of_death: Lung cancer

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Les Brown was an American musician, big band leader and composer best known for his nearly seven decades of work with the big band Les Brown and His Band of Renown (1938-2001). The Band of Renown began in the late 1930s, initially as the group Les Brown and His Blue Devils, led by Brown while he was a student at Duke University. During his tenure the band had ten number-one hit songs including "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm", "Sweet and Hot" and "Sentimental Journey" featuring Doris Day. Les Brown and the Band of Renown also performed with Bob Hope on radio, stage and television for almost fifty years. They did 18 USO Tours for American troops around the world, and entertained over three million people. Les Brown was the first president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Today the band performs under the direction of his son, Les Brown, Jr.

popular name: Jimmie Lunceford

date_of_death: July 12, 1947

age: 45

cause_of_death: Coronary occlusion

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Jimmie Lunceford was one of the most underrated American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleaders in the golden years of the Swing Era. Any list of the greatest bands of the swing era usually starts with those of Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. Except in select circles, Jimmie Lunceford's orchestra is apt to be farther down the list. Yet the Lunceford band, for a few brief years in the 1930's, was one of the most exciting big jazz bands that ever played. The Lunceford band managed to be both tightly rehearsed and loose enough to swing with a tangible swagger, and its arrangements constantly took listeners by surprise, both with its original compositions and in its unexpected treatment of pop songs. But the Lunceford Orchestra didn't last as long as Basie, Goodman or Ellington simply due to the fact that Jimmie Lunceford was tight with a dollar. For the rest of the 1930's the Lunceford band rolled along on a seeming stream of success. But toward the end of the decade the cozy family began to disintegrate. The band spent months on the road playing endless one-night stands because that brought in more money than longer engagements. The money came in, but it did not filter down. There were occasional days off (without pay) and even vacations were unpaid. ''When you're young, you can go a long way on ambition,'' Ed Wilcox said afterward. ''But when you get older you want some of the things older people have, and Jimmie didn't want to give enough money. Jimmie was used to treating us like little boys who left Memphis with him, but we had become grown men and we needed more.''