Also lost in 2009 were jazz composer George Russell, saxophonists Hank Crawford, David "Fathead" Newman and Johnny Almond, blues singer Koko Taylor, drummer Eddie Locke, vocalists Al Martino,Kenny Rankin, and Blossom Dearie, and 101-year-old guitarist Lawrence Lucie, who recorded with everyone from Jelly Roll Morton and Coleman Hawkins to Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong.

VOA: standard.2009.12.25

Children's authors David Almond and Alan Gibbons are due to speak at a public meeting against Newcastle library cuts.

BBC: Public meeting over Newcastle library closure plans

In 2001, they wrote the score and lyrics for the musical Closer to Heaven, while last year they provided music for David Almond's play My Dad's a Birdman at London's Young Vic.

BBC: Pet Shop Boys launch first ballet

Almond's band Soft Cell, which he co-founded with musician David Ball, was one of the biggest-selling acts of the early 1980s.

BBC: NEWS | Entertainment | Almond family thanks well-wishers