Jimmy Giuffre, 86, a jazz musician who composed a popular big-band anthem of the 1940s and became an innovator of a minimalist form of classically inspired jazz, died April 24 in Pittsfield, Mass. He had Parkinson's disease and would have turned 87 Saturday.

DeVan Shumway, 77, the spokesman for the Committee to Re-Elect the President who staunchly defended the Nixon administration throughout the Watergate scandal, died April 23 of lung disease in Baltimore. Shumway was proficient at what became known as "non-denial denials," in which administration officials sounded as if they were denying charges without actually doing so.

Humphrey Lyttelton, 86, a jazz trumpeter and broadcaster who was the host of the surreal British Broadcasting Corp. radio game show "I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue," died Friday in London.

George T. Butler Jr., 76, an influential figure in the business of jazz as an A&R man and record company executive, died April 9 in Castro Valley, Calif. As an A&R man for Columbia, Butler was credited with signing Wynton and Branford Marsalis and singer Harry Connick Jr.

NEWS SERVICES