Milestones

DIED. RUBéN GONZÁLEZ, 84, pianist and patriarch of Cuba's music scene who found late-life stardom after his appearance on the Grammy Award-winning 1997 album Buena Vista Social Club and in the subsequent documentary; in Havana. González, who was rediscovered by guitarist Ry Cooder, was initially nervous about playing on the album: he suffered from arthritis and didn't have a piano (his was ruined by termites). But he welcomed the attention and happily began performing again. "If I can't take a piano with me to heaven," he said in 2000, "then I don't want to go."

DIED. PAUL SIMON,...