1829 – Maria Anna ""Nannerl" Mozart (Austrian keyboardist & composer, older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus)
1882 – Gustav Nottebohm (German pianist, teacher, music editor, composer & Beethoven scholar)
1922 – George August Lumbye (Danish composer & conductor)
1931 – Luciano Gallet (Brazilian composer, conductor & pianist)
1934 – Gustavo Emilio Campa (Mexican composer)
1953 – William Kapell (American pianist)
1962 – Naphtali Siegfried Salomon (Danish composer, cellist & violist)
1971 – Duane Allman (American rock guitarist & songwriter)
1981 – Georges Brassens (French singer-songwriter, guitarist & poet)
1987 – Woody Herman (American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer & bandleader)
Late October has been a popular time for talented young musicians perishing in aircraft accidents, sometimes along with their musician relatives. Sometimes they were also from the Southern Rock genre.
You'll recall on the post for October 20th that Lynyrd Skynyrd's lead singer Ronnie van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines (Steve's older sister), all in their late 20s, died in just such a manner in 1977. Then you'll recall a couple days ago the passing of 30-year-old violin virtuoso Ginette Neveu, and her brother and piano accompanist Jean-Paul, when their plane went down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in 1949.
On October 29th, 1953, a plane carrying the brilliant pianist William Kapell, 31, crashed into King Mountain outside of San Francisco, during a deep fog, just as Kapell had nearly made it back home from a tour of Australia. 1953, in fact, saw the passings of some of the world's greatest musicians. Aside from Kapell, there were Sergei Prokofiev, Hank Williams, Arnold Bax, Kathleen Ferrier, and Django Reinhardt.
And then there was Duane Allman, just 24 years old. Now, I know what you're going to say. "Ha! Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident, not an airplane accident!" Well, that's true. But he was definitely airborne just before the end.
