Elvin Shepherd

popular name: Michel Legrand

date_of_death: January 26, 2019

age: 86

cause_of_death: Septicemia

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: It is difficult to pin the multi-talented Michel Legrand down into one single category. This amazingly versatile French singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, conductor and producer has enjoyed a whirlwind career, excelling in an impressively broad range of domains from film soundtracks and French 'chanson' to jazz and classical music. An international star, who has won as much respect in the States as he has in Europe, Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to his vast repertoire of songs. His scores for two of the films of French New Wave director Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), earned Legrand his first Academy Award nominations. Legrand won his first Oscar for the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), and additional Oscars for Summer of '42 (1971) and Barbra Streisand's Yentl (1983). In the end Legrand composed more than two hundred film and television scores and won three Oscars, five Grammys and was nominated and/or won American Emmy awards, Australian Film Institute awards and too many other great honors to list here.

popular name: Rockin' Dopsie

date_of_death: August 26, 1993

age: 61

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Rockin’ Dopsie (pronounced DOOP-sie), along with Boozoo Chavis and Clifton Chenier, is widely acknowledged to be one of the originators of zydeco music. Dopsie played music for dancing, assimilating R&B influences into zydeco and sometimes covering R&B hits in a zydeco style. He performed around Louisiana, and recorded occasionally for small independent labels in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1980s, he started to gain attention in the US. He played accordion on the zydeco-influenced song "That Was Your Mother" on Paul Simon's Graceland album in 1986. He recorded the album Crowned Prince Of Zydeco in 1987. Dopsie also recorded with Bob Dylan and Cyndi Lauper, and in 1992 appeared in the film Delta Heat. His own last album, "Louisiana Music," was his first for a major label. The album received a Grammy nomination after it was released in November 1991.

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.''