The Final Chorus

DEREK SMITH, 85, on Aug. 21 in New York City. Born in London, his first professional gig was at age 14 when someone rolled a

IRVING FIELDS, 101, on Aug. 20 in New York City. Considered the last of the legendary cocktail pianists who tickled the ivories in swank nightspots

Belgian musician Jean-Baptiste “Toots” Thielemans, who turned the lowly harmonica into a virtuoso jazz instrument, died Aug. 22 in Brussels. He was 94. Thielemans, a

The world of Jazz has lost a legend. Heart failure on August 6 at the age of 86 ended the colorful career of the great

SIR CHARLES THOMPSON, 98, on June 16 in Japan. A swing and bebop pianist, organist, composer and arranger, he was playing private parties with the

JOHN CHILTON, 83, on Feb. 23 in London, UK following a brief illness. A Grammy-winning jazz writer who also played the trumpet, he was George

DAVID REESE, 63, on Feb. 3 in New York City. Curator of the Louis Armstrong House Museum since 2012, he had an impressive resume of historic preservation

ERNESTINE ANDERSON, 87, on March 10 in Seattle, Washington. A jazz and blues singer whose career spanned six decades, her voice was once described by

ERNIE SANTOSUOSSO, 93, on Oct.19 in Norwell, Mass. Considered the dean of Boston jazz critics, he penned some 3,550 reviews and interviews for The Boston Globe over

Standout drummer Joe Ascione has lost his 18-year battle with Multiple Sclerosis. He passed away in Queens, New York on March 11, three days before

For nearly 50 years, Arkansas-born Dan Hicks picked guitar and sang songs that cleverly blended the best of American music styles. Hicks died Feb. 6,

RICHARD “Mush” MUSHLITZ, 86, on Jan. 20 in Newburgh, Indiana. The banjo-playing co-founder of The Salty Dogs when he was an undergraduate at Purdue University.

GLENN JENKS, 69, on Jan. 21 in Camden, Maine. As a teen studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and went on to graduate

WILLIAM DUNHAM, 88, on Jan. 11 in New York City. Organized one of the early traditional jazz bands, the Grove Street Stompers, that performed Monday

New Orleans pianist Allen Toussaint died suddenly Nov. 9, 2015, while on tour in Madrid, Spain. A soft-spoken, sharp-dressing icon of the Crescent City music

DALLAS “DAL” RICHARDS, 97, of prostate cancer on Dec. 31 in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. A popular bandleader whose career spanned eight decades from the 1930s

KITTY KALLEN, 94, on Jan. 7 at her home in Cuernavaca, Mexico. As a young girl from Philadelpia, she sang on The Children’s Hour, a