- Oct 2 Coleridge Goode, Jamaican-British jazz double bassist (Joe Harriot Quintet), dies at 100 [1]
- Oct 3 Dave Pike, American jazz vibraphone and marimba player, dies at 77
- Oct 6 Billy Joe Royal, American country and pop singer ("Down in the Boondocks"), dies at 73
- Oct 8 Jim Diamond, Scottish singer-songwriter (I Should Have Known Better), dies at 64
- Oct 9 N. Ramani, Indian flutist, dies at 80
- Oct 10 Saša Britvić, Croatian conductor (Croatian Baroque Ensemble, 1999-2015), and pedagogue, dies at 51
- Oct 11 John Berg, American art director, 4-time Grammy Award-winner for album art (Columbia Records, 1961-85), dies of pneumonia at 83
- Oct 12 Armin Kircher, Austrian organist, composer, and conductor, dies of heart failure at 48
- Oct 16 John Jennings, American guitarist and music producer (Mary Chapin Carpenter; John Gorka). dies of kidney cancer at 61
- Oct 20 Cory Wells [Emil Lewandowski], American rock vocalist (3 Dog Night - "Joy to the World"), dies at 74
- Oct 20 Don Rendell, English jazz musician and arranger, dies at 89
- Oct 23 Bill Keith, American bluegrass, country, and session banjoist, and tuning instrument tuner inventor, dies of cancer at 75
Maureen O'Hara (1920-2015)
Oct 24 Irish-American actress (Miracle on 34th Street; The Quiet Man; Only The Lonely), and singer, dies at 95
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