Milestones

DIED. Jo Jones, 73, innovative jazz drummer known as "the man who plays like the wind" for his new lighter, looser rhythms, dynamic shadings, adroit accents and inventive ad libs, who buoyed the Count Basie band from 1935 to '48, toured with such greats as Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson and led his own small combos, which often included other Basie alumni; of pneumonia; in New York City. He was often confused with "Philly" Joe Jones, 62, drummer for the Miles Davis Quintet in the 1950s and an innovator in the transition from the swing era to the "cool" jazz of the postwar years, who died of a heart attack four days before his namesake.

DIED. Johnny Marks, 75, Tin Pan Alley tunesmith whose Christmas songs include I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (1956), Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (1960) and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (first recorded by Gene Autry in 1949), which went on to become one of the most popular tunes of all time, with 150 million records and 8 million sheet music copies sold worldwide; in New York City.