Musicians Who Died in May 2021

May 2 Tommy West [Picardo], American record producer (Jim Croce; Anne Murray), and singer-songwriter, dies of complications from Parkinson's disease at 78
May 3 Lloyd Price, American R&B singer ("Lawdy Miss Clawdy"; "Stagger Lee"; "Personality"), dies at 88
May 5 (Ivor) "Nick" Kamen, British pop singer-songwriter (Each Time You Break My Heart; I Promised Myself), and model (Levi's), dies of bone marrow cancer at 59
May 6 Pervis Staples, American gospel vocalist (The Staple Singers -"Uncloudy Day"), dies at 85
May 8 Curtis Fuller, American jazz trombonist (Yusef Lateef; John Coltrane; Farmer/Golson Jazztet), dies at 88
May 14 Ester Mägi, Estonian composer 'First Lady of Estonian music', dies at 99
May 14 Sándor Balassa, Hungarian composer (Requiem for Lajos Kassák; The Third Planet), and educator (Liszt Ferenc Academy, 1981-95), dies at 86
May 18 Franco Battiato, Italian pop, rock, and new wave singer, songwriter (“La Voce del Padrone” (“The Master’s Voice”), and filmmaker ("Lost Love"), dies at 76
May 19 Alix Dobkin, American folk and feminist singer-songwriter (Lavender Jane Loves Women), dies of a brain aneurysm and stroke at 80
May 19 Joey Cathcart, American rock guitarist (Nelson - "Love & Affection"), dies of brain cancer at 53
May 20 Florian Pilkington-Miksa, English rock drummer (Curved Air), and sculptor, dies of pneumonia at 70
May 20 Freddy Marks, English actor, singer and entertainer (Rod, Jane and Freddy), dies of cancer at 71
May 20 Roger Hawkins, American session drummer (the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section - Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin), dies at 75
May 21 Carla Fracci, Italian ballerina (La Scala Theatre Ballet), dies at 84
May 21 Juraj Hatrík, Slovak composer (Monumento malinconico; Dispute Over a Plastered Dwarf), and educator, dies at 80
May 23 Cristóbal Halffter, Spanish conductor, and composer (Yes, speak out, yes; Lazarus), dies at 91
May 24 Samuel E. Wright, American stage and screen actor and singer (Jesus Christ Superstar; Ball Four; The Little Mermaid; The Lion King), dies of prostate cancer at 74
May 26 Patrick Sky [Lynch], American musician, folk singer, songwriter, record producer, and uilleann bagpiper (Songs That Made America Famous), dies of cancer at 80
May 27 William Jay Sydeman, American avant-garde composer, dies at 93
May 29 B.J. Thomas, American singer ("Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head"; "Hooked On A Feeling"; "Growing Pains Theme"), dies of lung cancer at 78
May 31 Phil Johnstone, British songwriter, keyboardist, and record producer (Robert Plant), dies at 63