Musicians Who Died This Week: Four Names Reported September 8–14, 2026

A weekly list is only as good as the source under each name. This one names four musicians whose deaths were reported between September 8 and 14, 2026, says who announced or reported each death, and sets out the five fields a record should hold.

What to take away

The week's names and their sources

Each entry names the outlet whose report it rests on. Dates and details those outlets do not give are left out here, and the record leaves them blank until they are confirmed.

Pat Senatore. The jazz bassist has died. The Dutch outlet Hitzound reported on September 10 that bandleader Herb Alpert announced the death on the Tuesday, September 8, and described him as an extraordinary musician and warm personality. Hitzound also says Senatore played in Alpert's Tijuana Brass lineup from 1965 and toured the world with the group. It gave no cause.

Paddy Keenan. The uilleann piper and founding member of The Bothy Band has died. The Irish Times reported the death on September 10, giving his age as 76, and Hot Press reported the same day that he had died the previous day, September 9, with tributes coming in. Neither gave a cause.

Giorgos Mazonakis. The Greek singer died on September 9. The Greek Herald, citing Greek media reports, said he suffered a cardiac arrest at a private clinic in Kolonaki, Athens, and was taken by ambulance to Elpis Hospital, where he could not be revived. To Vima reported on September 9 that authorities were examining the circumstances, and that an autopsy was expected to establish the precise cause. No official cause has been published, and nothing they say links a procedure to the death.

Cheetah Chrome. The Dead Boys guitarist has died. Louder reported on September 14 that the band announced his death in a social media post, calling him "our beloved friend and bandmate." Louder gave no cause.

Check the source before the name runs

A death reaches a weekly list through one of four doors: a family statement, a label or management announcement, a coroner or medical examiner's log, or a funeral home's paid notice. Each carries different weight.

A paid notice is a family's own words and confirms the death, not the cause. A coroner's log confirms the death and the jurisdiction, and its cause entry may read "pending" for weeks. A label announcement tells you the label is speaking; it does not make the label the family.

In this week's list, Senatore's death was announced by a bandleader, Herb Alpert, and Chrome's by his band. Keenan's reached us through the Irish Times and Hot Press, and Mazonakis's through the Greek Herald and To Vima, none of which names a family or label announcer. None of these sources is a coroner. That is why none of the four entries carries an official cause. For the route to an official cause, see how to request and read a coroner report.

What to record, and what to leave blank

For each name, hold five fields: who issued the statement, as an organization or role; the capacity claimed (family, estate, management or label); the date issued and the date checked; whether a second independent party corroborated it; and what the statement asserts, apart from what it implies.

The fifth field causes the most damage. A tribute saying someone "had been unwell" reflects the writer's impression unless the family is credited. That line gets quoted for years as if it were a finding. Mazonakis shows the other risk: the Greek Herald and To Vima both left the cause to the autopsy, and early press accounts of a cause can run ahead of any official finding.

Rights outlast the person

Copyright is built to survive an author. For works created since 1978 by an individual, US copyright generally lasts for the author's life plus 70 years. Recordings and compositions pass under a will or the applicable succession rules, and whoever holds them decides what gets released.

That holder cannot decide what is true. A rights holder issuing a statement about circumstances is speaking outside its authority, and an archive that files the statement as a family statement has laundered it.

A reissue, a tribute edition or a benefit show is a fact about who controls a catalog and what they chose to do with it. "Unreleased" usually means somebody once decided it was not good enough.

When the family never designates anyone

Then no statement carries family authority, and the record should say so. That is an accurate entry and a complete one.

The same discipline applies across performing careers, where identity is hard to verify and fake appeals exploit it. The parent page on actors who died covers those identity problems.

Where this sits

The organizing principles for a music record are in musicians who died. For how a seven-day page handles items that change state mid-week, see deaths this week; and for why no statement here is treated as establishing a cause, see cause of death guides.

Common questions

Who is the estate, exactly?

It depends on the jurisdiction and on whether there was a will. In the first week there is often nobody formally appointed, so anyone using the word is describing an intention rather than a legal position. The county probate court's docket is where the appointment shows up.

A band's account posted a statement. Does that speak for the person?

It speaks for whoever controls the account. That is worth knowing and worth recording, and it is not the same as a family statement. Note the account, the date and the capacity claimed. The Dead Boys' social media announcement of Chrome's death is an example of a band speaking for itself.

Can a label stop a tribute release?

That is a question about contracts and rights, and the answer varies with both. What matters for a record is who claimed the right, and when. Ask the label's press office for its position in writing.

Should an archive record statements it thinks are unreliable?

Yes, as statements, attributed and dated. What it should not do is record their content as fact. The trail of who said what is often the most useful thing an archive holds.