Joey Ramone

popular name: Coleman Hawkins

date_of_death: May 19, 1969

age: 64

cause_of_death: Liver disease

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Coleman Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and considered by many to be the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. Hawkins was one of the most influential tenor saxophonists in the history of jazz and a major figure in shaping the instrument’s role in the genre. He rose to prominence in the 1920s as a member of Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra, where his powerful tone and harmonic sophistication helped establish the tenor saxophone as a leading jazz instrument. In the 1930s Hawkins spent several years in Europe before returning to the United States and recording his landmark 1939 version of Body and Soul, a revolutionary performance that emphasized improvisation and advanced harmony and became one of jazz’s most celebrated recordings. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s he remained at the forefront of jazz, collaborating with emerging bebop musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk, showing a rare ability to adapt to new styles. Known for his rich, full tone and complex improvisations, Hawkins recorded extensively and continued performing internationally until the late 1960. Hawkins's virtuosic, arpeggiated approach to improvisation, with his characteristic rich, emotional, and vibrato-laden tonal style, was the main influence on a generation of tenor players that included Chu Berry, Charlie Barnet, Tex Beneke, Ben Webster, and Vido Musso. While Hawkins became known with swing music during the big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.

popular name: Tommy Dorsey

date_of_death: November 26, 1956

age: 51

cause_of_death: Asphyxia - aspiration of food in his sleep

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: A highly respected and influential trombonist, Tommy Dorsey—both independently and with his brother Jimmy—led several of the most popular big bands of the swing era. Dorsey was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombone playing. His theme song was "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". He famously gave a skinny, big-eared Italian-American kid with a cool, seductive voice a shot at stardom. That kid was Frank Sinatra. The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra is best remembered for standards such as "Opus One", "Song of India", "Marie", "On Treasure Island", and his biggest hit single, "I'll Never Smile Again".

popular name: Chris Cornell

date_of_death: May 18, 2017

age: 52

cause_of_death: Suicide by hanging

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Possessing a nearly four-octave range and one of the key figures in the 1990s Seattle grunge music movement, Chris Cornell was know as the lead singer and guitarist of Soundgarden and Audioslave as well as successful solo efforts. Voted "Rock's Greatest Singer" by readers of Guitar World Cornell sold over 30 million albums world-wide and was nominated for 16 Grammy Awards (winning 3).