January 2021: 27: Efraín Ruales, 36, Ecuadorian actor, musician and TV presenter, shot; Trung Kiên, 81, Vietnamese classical singer.
26: Cara O’Sullivan, 59, Irish coloratura soprano singer.
25: Iron, 29, South Korean rapper (Show Me the Money 3), blunt force trauma.
24: Tom Stevens, 64, American musician (The Long Ryders).
23: Jonas Gwangwa, 83, South African jazz trombonist; Gabriel Ruiz Díaz, 45, Argentine bassist (Catupecu Machu).
22: Narendra Chanchal, 80, Indian singer; Louis Dandrel, 82, French sound designer and musician; Guem, 73, Algerian musician, composer and dancer; James Purify, 76, American soul singer (James & Bobby Purify), complications of COVID-19.
21: Bob Avian, 83, American choreographer and theatre producer (Dreamgirls, A Chorus Line, West Side Story), cardiac arrest; Jordi Fàbregas Canadell [es], 69, Spanish musician; Keith Nichols, 75, English jazz musician and arranger, COVID-19; Randy Parton, 67, American country singer-songwriter, cancer.
Randel Huston Parton (December 15, 1953 – January 21, 2021), known professionally as Randy Parton, was an American singer-songwriter, actor and businessman. He was a younger brother to singer/songwriter/musician Dolly Parton and played bass in her band.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Parton
20: Andrzej Bieniasz, 66, Polish guitarist (Püdelsi), mantle cell lymphoma; Ronnie Nasralla, 90, Jamaican record producer (Byron Lee and the Dragonaires); John Russell, 66, English guitarist.
19: Morice Benin, 73, French singer-songwriter.
18: Perry Botkin Jr., 87, American composer and musician (Happy Days, Mork and Mindy, “Nadia’s Theme”), Grammy winner (1978); Alberto Cantù, 70, Italian musicologist and musical critic; Maria Koterbska, 96, Polish singer; Claudia Montero, 58, Argentine classical composer, Latin Grammy winner (2014, 2016, 2018), cancer (death announced on this date); Josep Mestres Quadreny, 91, Spanish composer; Jimmie Rodgers, 87, American pop singer (“Honeycomb”, “Kisses Sweeter than Wine”, “Secretly”); Yvonne Sterling, 65, Jamaican reggae vocalist, stroke.
Perry Botkin Jr. (April 16, 1933 – January 18, 2021) was an American composer, producer, arranger, and musician. The tune “Nadia’s Theme”, composed by Botkin and Barry De Vorzon, peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976.
In 1990, Botkin retired from the commercial music industry, and began self-producing CDs of electronic music. James Harbert, in the liner notes for the first of these recordings, says, “With these new musical works, Perry Botkin has achieved his musical goal. He has succeeded in being himself.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Botkin_Jr.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia’s_Theme