Ramata Diakite, regarded as one of the most talented singers from the Wassulu region of Mali, died October 30 in Burkina Faso. She was 35. "During the past year, she had been battling a chronic illness, and although she appeared to be getting better, she passed in Burkina Faso on Friday, October 30th,' said her manager Erich Ludwig. "She had recently traveled to Burkina [Faso]. Her body is being brought back to Mali under the direction of the Malian Prime Minister."

Ramata Diakite Ramata Diakite was born in 1976 in Madina Diansa, in the Wassulu region of southern Mali. She became a star in Mali at a young age. In 1999, kora master Toumani Diabate invited her to participate in Taj Mahal's Kulanjan project. That opportunity opened the doors to other collaborations with American musicians. She recorded Maba in 2006 with Malian and American musicians in New York.

Accordionist Miguel Ahumada died yesterday in Valledupar (Colombia) of a heart attack. He was one of the top vallenato accordionists in Colombia and was regular performer at numerous festivals throughout the country. "We have lost one of our best instructors, but above all, we have lost a great friend, and an excellent colleague," said Andrés “El Turco” Gil , director of the Academia de Música Vallenata.

Miguel Ahumada was born in Valledupar. He recorded with numerous artists, including 'Beto' Martínez, 'Papi' Daza, Miguel Mora and Antonio Mayorga. He also won the 'Primaveras del Ayer' contests in 2004 and 2006. This contest focuses on veteran accordionists and is held  at the Festival Cuna de Acordeones at Villanueva in La Guajira.

One of the most popular Argentine folk singers, Mercedes Sosa, died today in Buenos Aires of liver disease. She was 74.

Mercedes Sosa was born in San Miguel de Tucumán – the capital of one of Argentina’s smallest provinces – on 9 July 1935 and given the name Haydée Mercedes Sosa. For many years, she lived in central Buenos Aires. Family members called her Marta, a nickname bestowed by her mother; but music lovers around the world preferred to call her simply, with affection and intimacy, ”La Negra” – a term Argentines often use for people of indigenous heritage.

Mary Travers, part of the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, died at a Danbury, Connecticut hospital on Wednesday, succumbing after a long battle with leukemia. She was 72.
 
Mary Allin Travers was born in Louisville, Kentucky on November 9, 1936. It was the Travers family move from Kentucky to New York City's famed Greenwich Village where Ms. Travers was swept up in the spell of the American folk music revival. With folk groups like the Weavers gaining popularity in the late 1950s, Ms. Travers soon found herself singing as a backup singer for Weavers founder Pete Seeger with the group the Song Swappers and performing the Mort Sahl Broadway show The Next President.
 

Argentine percussionist Ramiro Musotto died September 11 of 2009 in Salvador da Bahia (Brazil) of pancreas cancer. He was 45.

Ramiro Musotto was born in La Plata, grew up in Bahía Blanca and at age 18 moved to Brazil, where he spent most of his professional career, although he made frequent trips back to Argentina.  In Brazil, he lived in Sao Paulo, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro.

Since 1982, Ramiro Musotto explored the rhythms of Brazil and became a master of the berimbau. In his recordings, he used the instrument as percussion, melody, and with background loops. Ramiro started with pumped-up versions of Afro-Brazilian grooves, but later added multiethnic global music, with elements from Africa, South America, Asia and Europe.

Guitarist and inventor, known throughout the musical world for changing the very sound of music with the electric guitar and innovative recording techniques, Les Paul died on Thursday, August 13, 2009 at a White Plains, New York hospital from complications from pneumonia.  He was 94.

Born Lester William Polfuss on June 9, 1915, Les Paul, as he later became known, changed music forever with his 1941 invention of “The Log,” a modified, solid-bodied guitar that would eventually produce the sounds of rock and roll music.  His multitrack recording technique, as well as delaying effects, overdubbing and phasing effects, opened up a myriad of possibilities for recorded music.

Revered Hindustani singer Gangubai Hangal has died at a hospital in her home city of Hubli in Karnataka state (India). Hospitalized for a respiratory and cardiac condition on Monday, Ms. Hangal passed away on Tuesday, July 21st, according to doctors and family members. She was 96.
 
 A state funeral was under way on Wednesday in Hubli where family members, political leaders and hundreds of admirers paid their respects to the flower-draped glass casket before the remains were cremated. The Karnataka state government declared that two days of mourning would be observed, where many schools would be closed as a sign of devotion to the departed singer.

Sarawakian musician Uchau Bilung, a master of the sape (a lute from the island of Borneo) died July 5, 2009. Two years ago, Mr. Bilung endured a hip operation, followed by a mild stroke which impeded his movements.
 
 Uchau Bilung was born in a Kayan longhouse in a very remote region in the northeast of the Indonesian province of Kalimantan in Borneo. As a young man, he decided to leave Indonesia and traveled by foot for weeks across the forested mountains of Borneo to reach Sarawak. Twenty-six years after  leaving Indonesia, while standing at a bank lineup in Kuching (Sarawak), Uchau was surprised to meet Tusau Padan, the master sape musician. He  was related to Tusau by marriage.