People Who Died

Tucson musical personages weigh in on the year music gave up the ghost

[
      
        {
          "name": "Air - MedRect Combo - Inline Content 1",
          "component": "29441156",
          "insertPoint": "1/3",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "9",
          "parentWrapperClass": "fdn-ads-inline-content-block"
        },{
          "name": "Top Stories Video Pair",
          "component": "27651162",
          "insertPoint": "10",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1",
          "parentWrapperClass": "fdn-ads-inline-content-block"
        },{
          "name": "Air - MedRect Combo - Inline Content 2",
          "component": "29441158",
          "insertPoint": "2/3",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "10",
          "parentWrapperClass": "fdn-ads-inline-content-block"
        },{
          "name": "Air - MedRect Combo - Inline Content 3",
          "component": "29441159",
          "insertPoint": "1000",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "15",
          "parentWrapperClass": "fdn-ads-inline-content-block"
        }
      
      ]

We asked Tucsonans who contribute to music on local and international levels to write tributes to those who died in 2016. A couple we queried didn’t turn anything in; a few others politely declined, saying that when people who make great music die it’s too personal to write about, too personal to share with anyone, that for them the music and the world it creates happens between the ears and nothing they could write could ever do that justice. Others said the opposite. Said writing about fallen musical heroes actually brought them closer to the music, and the one who created it, as well as their own mortality. And if ever a year in music could make anyone question personal mortality, it was 2016. For so many reasons. —Brian Smith