Remembering the music legends we lost in 2025

As 2025 drew to a close, the music world said goodbye to an unusually wide-ranging group of icons and indefatigable lifers. From visionary pop architects to veteran writers, performers and scene-defining innovators, their absences leave real silence behind. What follows is a tribute to the artists whose work shaped eras, communities and personal soundtracks — and whose names will keep echoing long after the year ends.

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Peter Yarrow, Peter, Paul and Mary (May 31, 1938 – January 7, 2025)

Best known as a writer of the enduring hit “Puff, The Magic Dragon,” Peter Yarrow was one-third of Peter, Paul & Mary, the folk trio that helped spark a major revival in the 1960s. Their stripped-back approach and close harmonies resonated at a moment when audiences were gravitating toward songs that felt direct, human and socially aware. In that same era, they rose alongside fellow folk scene heavyweights, and their versions of “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Leaving on a Jet Plane” became staples of the time.

“Puff…” also became the subject of endless interpretation, including persistent claims that it carried coded references to drugs. The group initially split in 1970 — the same year Yarrow was convicted of “immoral and improper liberties” involving a 14-year-old girl. He served three months of a sentence described as “one-to-three” years. Peter, Paul & Mary reunited in 1978 and continued to perform until 2009. Yarrow died this year at 86 following bladder cancer.

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Sam Moore, Sam & Dave (October 12, 1935 – January 10, 2025)

Sam Moore made his name in the 1960s as one half of Sam & Dave, partnering with Dave Prater to become one of the era’s most electrifying R&B duos. Their sound fused deep gospel roots with the grit and heat of contemporary soul, thriving within a label ecosystem that helped define the sonic architecture of that period across soul, funk and early rock’n’roll.

Their signature moment arrived with “Soul Man,” written and produced by Isaac Hayes, which became their defining hit and later took on a second life through high-profile reinterpretations, including the 1978 rendition by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as The Blues Brothers. The song’s recurring resurgence also coincided with the duo finding new audiences — including opening for The Clash on a 1979 U.S. tour — and Moore revisiting the track in later years, including a re-recording with Lou Reed in 1986. Sam & Dave were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, introduced by Billy Joel. Moore died at 89 from complications after surgery, prompting tributes from numerous musicians, including Jon Bon Jovi, who called him one of the pioneers and greatest singers ever.

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Marianne Faithfull (December 29, 1946 – January 30, 2025)

Fourteen years separate Marianne Faithfull’s early, delicate pop beginnings from the hard-edged bite of her 1979 new wave landmark “Broken English,” and the distance between those two points contains a life that veered wildly between celebrity and survival. She began at a spectacular height: her breakthrough single “As Tears Go By” was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and her screen presence briefly made her a magnetic figure in film as well as music.

As the 1970s arrived, the brightness collapsed into darker territory. Faithfull’s struggles with anorexia and heroin addiction escalated, and she fell out of the spotlight, spending time homeless on the streets of London. Multiple attempts to restart her career eventually led to “Broken English,” a punk-tinged comeback that revealed a dramatically transformed voice — no longer girlish and clear, but roughened into a rasp that carried new gravity and emotional weight. From that point on, she made fearless choices: moving between blues, rock and jazz, turning toward unexpected collaborations, and even lending her voice to Metallica’s “The Memory Remains.” In her later years, she built a distinctive creative partnership with Warren Ellis.

Faithfull had already endured breast cancer and hepatitis C, but contracting COVID-19 became one of her steepest late-life battles. Her final album, 2021’s She Walks In Beauty, was created while she fought the virus. After she was discharged from hospital, she reflected in an interview that it helped her remember who she was beyond illness — not simply an “old sick person.” Faithfull died at 78 after years of health complications.

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Mike Ratledge, Soft Machine (May 6, 1943 – February 5, 2025)

Soft Machine emerged from the Canterbury scene, a fertile space where rock mingled with avant-garde ideas and musicians treated experimentation as a baseline rather than a special effect. Over time, the band evolved from psychedelic exploration into a jazz-fusion force that mirrored — and helped accelerate — similar shifts happening in American music.

A key reason their music felt so absorbing was co-founder Mike Ratledge. His keyboards added depth and shimmer to the band’s long-form jams, threading melody and texture through Hammond organ swells and electric piano lines. Ratledge also composed standout pieces such as “Slightly All The Time,” featured on the group’s 1970 album Third. Beyond Soft Machine, he worked with artists including Syd Barrett and Mike Oldfield, then stepped away in 1976 with his reputation secure. He pivoted into a prolific career composing commercial music. Ratledge died at 81 after what was described as a brief illness.

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Rick Buckler, The Jam (December 6, 1955 – February 17, 2025)

The Jam were among the defining British bands of the late 1970s, combining sharp style — including their iconic mod look — with a musical range that could shift from punk snap to soul influence without losing their identity. Though their lifespan was short and they split in 1982, their chemistry as a trio remained the most enduring part of their legend.

Drummer Rick Buckler was the engine behind that chemistry, powering everything from the teenage urgency of “In The City” to the tougher, funkier edges of “The Gift.” After the band ended, he continued working in music in behind-the-scenes roles, while also keeping the group’s spirit alive through performances of Jam material in From The Jam, a project that at one point also featured former bandmate Bruce Foxton. Buckler died at 69 following a short illness.

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Bill Fay (September 9, 1943 – February 22, 2025)

Bill Fay became one of modern music’s clearest examples of the “rediscovered” cult artist — someone who released deeply felt work, vanished from the conversation, then returned to find that the world had been quietly catching up. In 1998, he was stunned to learn that his early-1970s albums — his self-titled debut and Time Of The Last Persecution — were being reissued after years of obscurity.

He later recalled a moment of private hope while gardening and listening to his songs on cassette, thinking that some of them were good and that perhaps someone might hear them one day. They did. Younger listeners and musicians gravitated to his folk songwriting, which could move from pastoral calm to biblical intensity, and he was embraced by artists across the indie spectrum. Fourteen years later, he returned with new music, releasing three albums between 2012 and 2020. Fay died at 81 from complications related to Parkinson’s disease.

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Roberta Flack (February 10, 1937 – February 24, 2025)

Roberta Flack stood out among the many influential artists of the 1960s and 1970s because she could bridge worlds with uncommon elegance — particularly the space between contemporary soul and folk songwriting. “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” arguably her best-known recording, distills her gift in a few minutes: a folk tune reimagined as a slow-burning R&B ballad, where the silences and breathing room between notes create as much drama as the melody itself.

Her partnerships also fueled major moments. Collaborations with Donny Hathaway and writer Eugene McDaniels helped produce some of her most celebrated hits, including “Where Is The Love” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love.” Her gentle vocal style and instrumental fluency later became a key reference point for neo-soul in the 1990s, with reinterpretations of her songs becoming landmarks in their own right. Flack died at 88 from cardiac arrest.

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David Johansen, New York Dolls (January 9, 1950 – February 28, 2025)

The New York Dolls were a sensory jolt — a collision of drag aesthetics, abrasive rock and wildly theatrical performance that felt perfectly suited to New York’s post–Velvet Underground underground culture. At the centre stood David Johansen, the group’s vocalist and principal songwriter, who died at 75 from cancer.

Though the Dolls never completely broke through commercially with their first two albums — 1973’s self-titled debut and 1974’s Too Much Too Soon — their impact was enormous. They helped energise the city’s punk scene, influencing acts such as the Ramones, Television, Richard Hell, Blondie and Patti Smith. Johansen’s love for 1960s pop — particularly groups like The Shangri-Las and the maximalist sheen associated with Phil Spector — gave the Dolls an additional charm: a gleeful sweetness buried inside their vulgar swagger.

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Angie Stone (December 18, 1961 – March 1, 2025)

Neo-soul in the 1990s wasn’t simply a revival — it was a reshaping of American popular music that absorbed the evolution of hip-hop and rebuilt a bridge between past and present. Angie Stone’s career embodied that continuum. She began in 1979 as part of The Sequence, a pioneering hip-hop trio and the genre’s first all-female act, and later became lead vocalist of R&B group Vertical Hold in 1988. But it was her solo run — launched in 1999 with Black Diamond — that fully revealed her depth as a neo-soul artist.

Stone was a powerhouse vocalist with a songwriter’s relentless work habits. She commanded stages while also staying active behind the curtain, supporting and sharpening other artists’ work. She provided backing vocals for performers like Lenny Kravitz and Joss Stone, while also contributing writing and studio work connected to figures such as D’Angelo and Erykah Badu. Her career ended suddenly at 63 after a car crash.

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Roy Ayers (September 10, 1940 – March 4, 2025)

Roy Ayers followed a path similar to other jazz innovators of his generation: he came up in the bebop-rich 1960s scene, then helped transform jazz into something newly porous in the decade that followed. Like Herbie Hancock, he became a bridge between jazz tradition and the hybrid styles that rose in the 1970s.

Ayers, a vibraphonist who died at 84 after a long illness, began as a sideman before stepping into leadership roles by the end of the 1960s. The 1970s suited him: he leaned eagerly into funk, disco and soul as the frontman of Roy Ayers Ubiquity. The title track of the 1976 album Everybody Loves the Sunshine became a cultural evergreen through countless samples, covers and reinterpretations — especially within hip-hop. Ayers remained active for decades, collaborating widely and touring internationally well into his seventies.

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Brian James, The Damned (February 18, 1951 – March 6, 2025)

Before The Damned later adopted a flamboyant goth identity, they began as ragged punk outsiders, releasing their Stooges-tinged debut Damned Damned Damned in 1977. Lead guitarist Brian James was central to that early surge, his sharp riffs lighting up key tracks such as “Neat Neat Neat” and “So Messed Up.”

Later the same year, the band shifted from garage urgency to a surreal psychedelic edge on their second album Music For Pleasure, working with producer Nick Mason. The album’s underwhelming reception was followed by the band’s first break-up in early 1978. The Damned reunited later without James, though he rejoined them for stretches in 1988–89 and later for a one-off tour in 2022. James died at 74 from undisclosed causes.

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Roy Thomas Baker (November 10, 1946 – April 12, 2025)

Roy Thomas Baker spent his life at mixing boards from the age of 14, and his early career produced a startling client list for someone so young — engineering for artists as varied as Frank Zappa and David Bowie. But it was his studio work with Queen, especially across their first four albums and the defining “Bohemian Rhapsody,” that turned him into a producer celebrated for grandeur and precision.

His later production credits remained equally imposing. He helped sharpen The Cars’ breakout debut, and worked with artists including Journey, Ozzy Osbourne, Mötley Crüe, Foreigner and Guns N’ Roses. Baker died at 78, with the cause not disclosed.

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David Thomas, Pere Ubu & Rocket From The Tombs (June 14, 1953 – April 23, 2025)

Post-punk is often framed as a primarily UK phenomenon, but American band Pere Ubu were unmistakably kindred spirits — largely because of the imagination and force of vocalist and songwriter David Thomas. Thomas died at 71 from complications of kidney disease.

Pere Ubu’s roots connect to Thomas’ earlier, short-lived garage rock group Rocket From The Tombs. While both bands were frequently tagged as punk, Thomas resisted the label, instead pushing toward eccentric, literary experimental rock that never behaved like a genre product. Over four decades of recordings, his manic intensity and off-kilter vision helped shape the DNA of countless artists, including Joy Division and the Pixies.

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Freddie Aguilar (February 5, 1953 – May 27, 2025)

A folk hero in the Philippines, Freddie Aguilar helped lay foundations for a major national pop tradition known as Original Pilipino Music. His 1978 song “Anak,” written as an apology letter to his parents after leaving home to pursue music, became the best-selling Filipino song of all time and inspired versions in more than 20 languages.

Across the next two decades, Aguilar became a pillar of Asian rock, often projecting national pride through songs rooted in Filipino identity. One of his most culturally significant recordings was his cover of the folk song “Bayan Ko,” which became an unofficial anthem of the 1986 People Power Revolution that ended Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship. Aguilar died at 72 from multiple organ failure.

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Al Foster (January 18, 1943 – May 28, 2025)

Among the many elite jazz musicians Miles Davis worked with, drummer Al Foster stood out as someone who stayed in the orbit during difficult periods, when Davis’ health and creative direction clashed with industry demands. Foster’s own background in hard bop and swing made him unusually versatile — a player who could adapt without losing character.

That flexibility made him essential not just to Davis but to many other luminaries, including McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson and Sonny Rollins. Foster also released several albums as a bandleader from the late 1970s onward, continuing to work tirelessly into his later years. His final album, Reflections, was released in 2022. He died at 82 from an undisclosed illness.

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Sly Stone (March 15, 1943 – June 9, 2025)

Sly Stone’s work with Sly and the Family Stone wasn’t just influential — it was revolutionary, a bright explosion that burned hot and then burned out, leaving permanent changes in popular music’s wiring. In a compact stretch from 1967 to 1969, the band released four albums that mapped an astonishing transformation: from flower-power soul into a ragged, countercultural force, peaking with the joyous funk eruption of 1969’s Stand!.

Two years later, the utopian glow of Stand! was violently inverted by There’s A Riot Goin’ On. If the earlier album felt like a sunny daydream, the later one sounded like a bleak awakening — an artistic turn that mirrored the era’s harsh realities. That disillusionment also played out in Sly Stone’s life through deepening drug addiction, which damaged his health, reduced demand for the band, and contributed to financial instability later on, including periods of homelessness. Though he made legacy appearances in the 2000s, worsening health prevented any major creative resurgence. Still, his influence remained volcanic, inspiring generations across genres — from Miles Davis to Prince, from Beck to D’Angelo, from Iggy Pop to the Beastie Boys — and becoming foundational to hip-hop and neo-soul. Stone died at 82 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

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Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys (June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025)

Brian Wilson’s songs often sounded like carefree California mythology — surfing, first love, convertibles and sunlit joy — but the deeper truth was that he was obsessed with music from childhood onward. As a teenager, he formed The Beach Boys in 1961 with his brothers Dennis and Carl, along with friends Al Jardine and Mike Love. Their early run of hits — including “I Get Around” and “Surfin’ USA” — turned California into a radio fantasy and made the group an American institution even as the British Invasion reshaped pop culture.

In 1966, the band released Pet Sounds, a deliberate statement of ambition that signalled Wilson wasn’t simply writing hits — he was building worlds in the studio, far more drawn to arrangement and sound design than to performing live. His work was immediately felt by peers; the Beatles openly responded to his leap in ambition, and Wilson’s planned follow-up, SMiLE, was designed as the culmination of his experiments, anchored by the epic single “Good Vibrations.” But his long-running battles with mental health prevented SMiLE from being completed at the time. He eventually revisited the project decades later, releasing Brian Wilson Presents Smile in 2004.

Wilson stepped back from touring with the band in the late 1960s and withdrew from the spotlight for extended periods. Yet his work never disappeared: he continued to receive tributes through reappraisals, reunions, and endless references across the music spectrum, from underground indie acts to stadium giants. From Pet Sounds onward, Wilson’s writing revealed a more melancholic, inward-facing sensibility — drawn to liminal spaces rather than crowds — as if the sunny summer story was always an idealised myth, a beautiful American dream painted in full colour but edged with loneliness. He died at 82 from respiratory arrest.

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Mick Ralphs, Mott The Hoople & Bad Company (March 31, 1944 – June 23, 2025)

Mick Ralphs helped shape the essence of beer-soaked British hard rock, both as a founder of Mott The Hoople and later as a key architect of Bad Company. A blues-rock guitarist with a love for power chords, he steered Mott The Hoople through the glam explosion of the 1970s, including their breakthrough with “All The Young Dudes,” created in collaboration with David Bowie.

A year later, Ralphs formed Bad Company, a so-called rock supergroup that offered an even more direct showcase for his blues devotion. He remained involved with the band through multiple dissolutions up until 2016, when he suffered a stroke that his family said he never fully recovered from. He died at 81.

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Rebekah Del Rio (July 10, 1967 – June 23, 2025)

Rebekah Del Rio became unforgettable to many through a single scene: her a cappella Spanish-language performance of Roy Orbison’s “Crying,” delivered with a haunting intensity that lingered long after the moment ended. That appearance turned her into an emblem of a particular cinematic world, but her story began earlier as a professional singer with a strong pull toward country and Latin pop.

In the early 1990s, Del Rio met director David Lynch through a shared agent, a connection that eventually led to her defining onscreen performance. After that, her voice became closely associated with Lynch’s universe, including a later appearance performing “No Stars” in the 2017 series Twin Peaks: The Return. The song was drawn from her final album, 2011’s Love Hurts Love Heals. Del Rio died at 57 from the fatal effects of morphine and codeine.

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Lalo Schifrin (June 21, 1932 – June 26, 2025)

Lalo Schifrin’s rise as a composer of unforgettable film and television themes was swift and formidable. The Argentinian jazz pianist left law school at 20 to study modern classical music in Paris, while immersing himself in the city’s jazz clubs. A decade later, he became the mind behind themes for future staples of screen history, composing music for projects including the original Mission: Impossible, Bullitt, Enter the Dragon and Dirty Harry, injecting big-band cool into action cinema for a generation.

He also proved capable of unnerving audiences. Hired to compose an atonal score for The Exorcist, Schifrin’s music appeared in the teaser trailer — and disturbed viewers so deeply that it ultimately cost him the job. Across his career, he won four Grammy awards, a Latin Grammy, and earned multiple Oscar nominations. He died at 93 from complications of pneumonia.

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Connie Francis (December 12, 1937 – July 16, 2025)

Connie Francis sold over 100 million records with her easy-listening pop style, scoring multiple number-one hits such as “Don’t Break The Heart That Loves You,” “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” and “My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own.” Her career slowed dramatically after she survived a violent assault in 1974, and she later dealt with vocal problems following nasal surgery. Still, she re-emerged periodically over the following decades with occasional albums.

In a surprising late twist, 2025 brought her an unlikely resurgence: her 1962 recording “Pretty Little Baby” caught fire on short-form video platforms and surged again in streaming, reaching more than 100 million plays on one major service. Long retired, Francis responded with amused disbelief, asking what it meant for something to be “viral.” Months later, she died at 87 from pneumonia-related complications.

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Ozzy Osbourne (December 3, 1948 – July 22, 2025)

Even as Black Sabbath evolved from ominous outsiders into mainstream rock giants, Ozzy Osbourne remained the band’s essential oddity — inseparable from their murky magic. That’s why it confused many when he left to pursue a solo career. But Osbourne’s voice and persona were always built for reinvention, and his 1980 debut Blizzard of Ozz cemented a solo identity steeped in sacrilegious fantasy and macabre spectacle.

Over time, he achieved the rare feat of becoming even more outrageous with age. In his thirties, his music was frequently targeted by conservative backlash, while his offbeat behaviour in the 2000s reality series The Osbournes unexpectedly made him a household figure for a new audience. Despite persistent health problems, he returned repeatedly — through band reunions and world tours — to audiences who treated him like a living monument.

Weeks before his death at 76 from an acute myocardial infarction, Osbourne returned to Birmingham for a final show with Sabbath, closing the story where it began. For fans worldwide, it felt both triumphant and painfully final.

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Chuck Mangione (November 29, 1940 – July 22, 2025)

As jazz continued transforming into radio-friendly pop in the 1970s, Chuck Mangione captured the moment with “Feels So Good,” a warm instrumental jazz-pop track that dominated airwaves in 1978. It turned him into a soft-focus superstar of easy listening, even though he’d already built serious credibility earlier, including time playing with Art Blakey a decade before.

Mangione’s success kept him present in pop culture for decades: writing music tied to Olympic broadcasts, recording a live concert album at the Hollywood Bowl, and even taking on a recurring animated role as a fictionalised version of himself. He died in his sleep at 84.

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Brent Hinds, Mastodon (January 16, 1974 – August 20, 2025)

From their earliest releases, Mastodon’s swampy sludge metal — streaked with progressive weirdness — was unmistakably shaped by Brent Hinds. His vocals carried a bluesy, bourbon-soaked wail that could flip into frenzy without warning, and his guitar playing pulled from unexpected places, including bluegrass and classic rock. Hinds famously disliked being boxed into metal, which only made his presence more distinctive within it.

In March, Hinds departed the band under disputed circumstances: the group described it as mutual, while Hinds stated he was “kicked out.” The tragedy that followed ended any possibility of smoothing tensions later, as he died at 51 from injuries sustained in a traffic collision.

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Rick Davies, Supertramp (July 22, 1944 – September 6, 2025)

Supertramp’s leap into broader public consciousness with 1974’s Crime Of The Century was shaped in part by Rick Davies’ smooth, unshowy vocal style, which gave their progressive rock tendencies a radio-friendly anchor. As founder, keyboardist and co-songwriter, he guided the band through art-rock structures while still landing stadium-sized hooks.

Those strengths culminated in 1979’s Breakfast In America, where Davies’ songwriting wit met new rhythmic flourishes and a more polished, accessible sheen. In 2015, Davies revealed he’d been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, forcing the cancellation of a world tour. He died at 81 due to complications from the disease.

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John Lodge, The Moody Blues (July 20, 1943 – October 10, 2025)

John Lodge joined The Moody Blues in 1966 at the moment they were shedding their beat-group beginnings and stepping toward orchestral ambition. His arrival aligned with the band’s decision to record with the London Festival Orchestra for the concept album Days Of Future Passed, a project that helped usher rock into more symphonic territory.

That album produced the band’s defining single “Nights In White Satin,” and Lodge contributed as songwriter on two tracks, immediately establishing himself as more than a supporting player. He remained with the band until they ended in 2018, penning major hits including “Ride My See-Saw,” “Isn’t Life Strange” and “Gemini Dream.” Lodge died at 82, described by his family as passing suddenly and unexpectedly.

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D’Angelo (February 11, 1974 – October 14, 2025)

With only three albums released across three separate decades, D’Angelo still managed to define the emotional and sonic temperature of each era he touched. His 1995 debut Brown Sugar signalled the rise of a new kind of soul. His 2000 masterpiece Voodoo fused generations of Black music at the dawn of a new millennium. And his 2014 return Black Messiah confronted modern injustice with fierce clarity.

A supreme vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, D’Angelo was thrust into the spotlight early — and over time, that attention became a burden. Yet his work always contained multitudes: joy, lust, rage, tenderness, despair, and exuberance. His collaborations produced rich, living patchworks that still feel immediate and transformative. In tribute, Lauryn Hill described him as embodying a unity of strength and sensitivity in Black manhood — a model for a generation that had often been told it could only be one or the other. D’Angelo died at 51 from pancreatic cancer.

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Ace Frehley, KISS (April 27, 1951 – October 16, 2025)

KISS was built on outsized personas and competing egos, and Ace Frehley’s role within that theatrical machine was both essential and often underappreciated. As co-founder, he helped shape the band’s 1970s dominance — a decade where their hard rock spectacle became synonymous with excess and arena-scale ambition.

Even as Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley monopolised the spotlight, Frehley contributed at least one song per album (with one notable exception) and sang lead on “Shock Me.” Over time, he clashed with the band’s direction and left in 1982. He returned for a reunion era beginning in 1996, lasting six years. In October, Frehley suffered a fall that caused severe head injuries. After more than two weeks in a coma with no improvement, his family chose to withdraw life support. He was 74.

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Sam Rivers, Limp Bizkit (September 2, 1977 – October 18, 2025)

At the height of Limp Bizkit’s notoriety, the band took the stage at Woodstock 1999 — a set that later became synonymous with chaos. In footage before their performance, bassist Sam Rivers appeared young, spaced out, and deliberately provocative, an image that matched the band’s ability to inflame and polarise audiences.

Beyond the spectacle, Rivers helped drive their sound with basslines drawing from hip-hop and funk, thickening the band’s groove and giving it a distinct bounce beneath the aggression. He also brought drummer and childhood friend John Otto into the fold, shaping the rhythm section that became central to their impact. Rivers left the band in 2015 to address liver disease linked to heavy drinking, then rejoined in 2018 as renewed interest in the group grew among younger listeners. He died at 48 from unknown causes.

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David Ball, Soft Cell (May 3, 1959 – October 22, 2025)

Soft Cell’s story is inseparable from David Ball’s studio instincts. With a final album already recorded before his death, the duo’s closing chapter is set to arrive as a posthumous farewell — the last statement from a musician whose fingerprints were always in the circuitry.

Soft Cell broke through at the start of the 1980s, and Ball’s drum machine programming became the pulse of their 1981 debut Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. Despite the album’s sleek sheen, its creation was shaped by limitation — recorded on a small budget, with key tools like a Synclavier obtained through a loan arrangement. Ball’s studio craft built the album’s spry, sleazy atmosphere, and his production skills only expanded as success brought more resources. Decades later, the duo’s 2022 comeback Happiness Not Included proved he could apply modern production methods with the same bite and clarity. Ball died in his sleep at 66.

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Jack DeJohnette (August 9, 1942 – October 26, 2025)

Jack DeJohnette began performing professionally young, earning his reputation in Chicago before moving to New York and stepping into a much wider world of collaboration. In the city, he navigated the increasingly blurred boundary between rock and jazz, and his drumming became part of a historic shift.

That convergence found a defining document in his performance on Miles Davis’ 1970 double album Bitches Brew, a record that helped catalyse a new era for jazz. DeJohnette remained an essential part of Davis’ universe while also building his own solo work and appearing across a massive number of recordings for prestigious labels. Whether leading or supporting, he brought dexterity, taste and personality — qualities that made him one of jazz’s most in-demand drummers for decades. He died at 83 from congestive heart failure.

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Lô Borges (January 10, 1952 – November 2, 2025)

Clube da Esquina, the 1972 album created by Lô Borges and Milton Nascimento, remains one of Brazil’s most profound musical statements — a work of quiet resistance against dictatorship-era violence and inequality. Its palette blended folk, psychedelic rock and baroque pop in ways that defied the dominant mainstream at the time.

Borges was only 20 when he made that record, yet his voice and songwriting already sounded fully formed — a roaming troubadour spirit expressed through melody. After releasing his self-titled debut the same year, he walked away from his career base in Rio de Janeiro and spent months on the road living as a hippie. When he returned, he continued creating, staying prolific through decades, including releasing his 17th solo studio album Céu de Giz this year. Borges died at 73 from multiple organ failure.

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Mani, The Stone Roses (November 16, 1962 – November 20, 2025)

The Stone Roses’ brief reign was held together in no small part by bassist Mani (Gary Mounfield). His basslines didn’t just support the songs — they were often the gravitational centre, capable of shaking speakers with a slight tweak of EQ, and giving the band’s psychedelic pop a powerful connection to the rave underground that surrounded it.

That centrality also appeared in the band’s volatile, drug-streaked lifespan: his temperament seemed to provide a stabilising force. After news of his death, tributes emphasised not just his talent but his character, with fellow musicians describing him as instantly lovable. Mani helped shape the band’s debut album by pushing for a throwback sensibility, including influencing production choices, and many saw him as proof that a bassist can be the beating heart of a band. He died at 63.

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Jimmy Cliff (July 30, 1944 – November 24, 2025)

Reggae’s global footprint would look very different without Jimmy Cliff. In 1972, he recorded the soundtrack to the crime film The Harder They Come, starring as Vincent “Ivanhoe” Martin. His intensity — onscreen and on record — turned him into an international star, but that breakthrough became only the beginning.

Cliff spent his career bringing reggae and Jamaican culture to overseas charts, scoring hits including “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” “Sitting in Limbo,” and his cover of “I Can See Clearly Now,” recorded for the film Cool Runnings. His 1969 song “Many Rivers To Cross” became another cornerstone, later covered by artists such as Cher and UB40. Cliff died at 81 from pneumonia.