- Dec 6 Jack Hunter [John Averona], American big band vocalist (Elliot Lawrence Orchestra - "Apple Blossom Time"), dies at 72
- Dec 8 (Wilbur) "Buck" Clayton, American jazz trumpet player (Count Basie; Billie Holiday; Lester Young), and bandleader, dies at 80
- Dec 10 Headman Tshabalala, South African singer (Ladysmith Black Mambazo), shot and killed at 44
- Dec 12 (Albert Ronald) "Ronnie" Ross, Scottish jazz and session baritone saxophonist, dies of cancer at 58
- Dec 12 Lex Karsemeijer, Dutch tenor and choral director (Sweet 16, Pro Musica), dies
- Dec 16 Fred Scott, American actor and singing cowboy, known as "The Silvery-Voiced Buckaroo" (Melody of the Plains), dies at 89
- Dec 22 Ernst Krenek, Austrian-American concert, opera, and electronic music composer (Johnny Spielt Auf: Orpheus and Eurydike; Fibonacci-Mobile), dies at 91
- Dec 27 Edward M Love, American Broadaway dancer and choreographer, dies of AIDS at 43
- Dec 29 Harry Brannon, American popular radio singer of the 1940s (WOR- New York), and later clergyman, dies of Alzheimer's disease at 71
- Dec 31 Felicja Blumental, Polish-Brazilian concert pianist (Villa-Lobos' Piano Concerto No. 5; Penderecki's Partita for Harpsichord), dies at 83
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