We loved the sexy, hard-as-nails Denise LaSalle for creating a series of titanic grooves, and also because we were never certain that she couldn’t have kicked our ass.

It didn’t help that a different singer was featured on each single from the Alan Parsons Project’s smash album, which arrived in June 1982.

“Perdido” was supposed to be a live showcase for Charlie Parker. Then Ella Fitzgerald – who would have been 100 today – stepped up to the mic.

Alphonse Mouzon was a seminal force in the birth of fusion, and also had a notable impact on rock.

Greg Lake was recording Emerson Lake and Palmer’s “Lucky Man” alone. Then Keith Emerson returned from the pub – and Lake had an idea.

This gravelly marvel of a singer, Leon Russell leaves us as the consummate musician – and a never-ebbing rebel.

I returned to a 2009 live album, Leonard Cohen’s first newly recorded release since 2004’s ‘Dear Heather,’ during the first dark evening without him.

Ex-Wings guitarist Henry McCullough suffered a devastating heart attack in 2012 and then endured a lengthy period of partial recovery.

Prince always found a way to transcend his own legendary eccentricities. And this music, more than all of that, is what will remain.

Maurice White, who died today, was the mastermind behind Earth Wind and Fire’s focused, soul-lifting horns, sunburst harmonies and a thrilling propensity for shaken-up textures and rhythms.