10 Musicians Who Died In 2019
7. James Ingram
From the earliest days of singer James Ingram's career, he was taking some big, big steps forward. Even before he signed his first publishing deal, the man provided backing vocals for the legendary Ray Charles, and with his band - Revelation Funk - he recorded a song that appeared in the 1975 blaxploitation comedy movie, Dolemite.
That wasn't the end of his involvement in the film space, either. Throughout the '90s, Ingram worked on the soundtracks for films like Sarafina! (starring Whoopi Goldberg) City Slickers (starring Billy Crystal) and Beethoven's 2nd, the first sequel in the classic family movie series. For the latter, he was even nominated for an Academy Award, and performed a duet with Dolly Parton on the night of the ceremony.
Later in his life, Ingram appeared on TV shows like Suburgatory and Celebrity Duets, and during a 2012 performance, he sang R. Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly - a cover that also appeared on his 1999 album, Forever More.
Ingram died of brain cancer on 29 January, at 66 years of age. Tragically, he was only a fortnight away from his 67th birthday.