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10 Important Musicians of Early Jazz
Best known as a bandleader, King Oliver was also Louis Armstrong’s teacher and was responsible for launching Armstrong’s career by featuring him in his band. Oliver played with many of the great musicians of early jazz including Jelly Roll Morton. He famously turned down a regular gig at New
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Source: ThoughtCo
Frenchtown, Houston, Texas (1922- )
Frenchtown, a community built in 1922 in Houston, Texas, was constructed by hundreds of Creole descendants of free French, Spanish, and African people living in southwestern Louisiana in the eighteenth century. Coming to Houston for economic opportunities, they settled and created this community
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Association of Latino Professionals For America (ALPFA) Boston Professional Chapter
Etta James Profile - Songs, Biography, and History
One of the R&B and blues worlds greatest divas, Etta James gave the genre a boost into the mainstream and helped develop the rock craze in the process with her 1965 hit The Wallflower (aka Roll With Me, Henry). Her signature song, 1961s At Last, is one of the most popular wedding soundtracks of
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Source: ThoughtCo
Jan
20
2012
Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte is an eminent African-American figure in the American entertainment industry. He is a notable singer, lyricist, actor and social activist. Belafonte came to international stardom as “King of Calypso” for his popular Caribbean musical style. He is famous for his
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Source: Black History Resources
Mar
1
1927
Hampton, Lionel
Hampton, Lionel, 1908?–2002, African-American vibraphonist and bandleader, b. Louisville, Ky. When his family moved to Chicago c.1916, the young Hampton began playing drums in a newsboys band. He moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and became a drummer in saxophonist Les Hites band. Encouraged by
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
African-American dance
African-American dance has developed within Black American communities in everyday spaces, rather than in studios, schools or companies.[1] These dances are usually centered on folk and social dance practice, though performance dance often supplies complementary aspects to this. Placing great value
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Source: ThoughtCo
Sponsored by Intellitech
Late Great Blues Legend B.B. King Was Born Today in 1925
Photo credits: Scott Harrison | Getty Images On Sept. 16, 1925, legendary blues musicianRiley “B.B.” Kingwas born on a cotton plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi. His distinctive vocal and guitar style helped popularize the Blues among mainstream audiences, and he is responsible for blues
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Source: Black Then
MUSIC MONDAY: “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t” – A Jump Blues Collection (LISTEN)
by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest) For many of you riding along with these weekly playlists, some of these 'points' may sound…
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Source: GOOD BLACK NEWS
Fitzgerald, Ella
Fitzgerald, Ella, 1917–96, American jazz singer, b. Newport News, Va. Probably the most celebrated jazz vocalist of her generation, Fitzgerald was reared in Yonkers, N.Y., moving after her mothers death (1932) to Harlem, where two years later she won an amateur contest at the Apollo
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death in a career spanning over fifty
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Source: AA Studies Research Guide
Bo Diddley - Birthday
Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates, December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known as Bo Diddley, was an American R&B singer, guitarist, songwriter and music producer who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll, and influenced artists including Elvis Presley,[1] Buddy
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Source: BlackHistory.com
Dec
30
1928
James, Sylvester (1947-1988)
Sylvester James, American singer and songwriter, was born in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California to Sylvester James and Letha Weaver on September 6, 1947.  He grew up with his mother and stepfather Robert Hurd, as well as five siblings: John James, Larry James, Bernadette
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Source: Black Past
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Little Richard
Name at birth: Richard Wayne Penniman
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Salif Keita
Salif Keita , (born Aug. 25, 1949, Djoliba, Mali), Malian singer-songwriter known for blending elements of a wide range of local African—especially Mande—music traditions with jazz, rhythm and blues, and other international popular-music styles to pioneer the Afropop dance-music
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Source: Brittanica
On The String: Adia Victoria's Challenge - African American News Today - EIN News
… the blues, a creation of African-Americans, is the foundation upon which … seat at the table for black Americana artists, because it seems kind …
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Source: WMOT | Middle Tennessee Public Radio
Stevie Wonder
Songs like Isnt She Lovely, Superstition and You Are the Sunshine of My Life won Stevie Wonder more than 20 Grammy Awards and made him one of the most popular rhythm and blues musicians of the 1960s and 1970s. Wonder grew up in Detroit, singing in church choirs and listening to early Motown
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
May
13
1950
Bob Marley
Bob Marley , in full Robert Nesta Marley (born February 6, 1945, Nine Miles, St. Ann, Jamaica—died May 11, 1981, Miami, Florida, U.S.), Jamaican singer-songwriter whose thoughtful ongoing distillation of early ska, rock steady, and reggae musical forms blossomed in the 1970s into an electrifying
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Source: Brittanica
Apr
10
1947
Muddy Waters - Champagne & Reefer
Mr. Morganfield
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Source: AA Studies Research Guide
Muddy Waters is born
Muddy Waters, Born April 4, 1915 in Rolling Fork, Mississippi by the name of McKinley Morganfield was one of the greatest, most influential and enduringly important musicians of the century, one who had reshaped the course of the blues.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Apr
4
1915
James Brown, born
Flamboyant blues singer, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown is born in Pulaski, Tennessee.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jun
17
1928
Nina Simone
jazz
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Source: AA Studies Research Guide
Juneteenth: A look at how freedmen shaped Dallas/Fort Worth
A standout feature of the Elm Street region is the Knights of Pythias Temple at 2551 Elm St. The building, begun in 1915 in French-inspired Beaux Arts architecture, was described as a glorious showplace designed by William Sidney Pittman, an early African American architect who later became the
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Source: The Dallas Examiner
George Duke
George Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as
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Source: BlackHistory.com
Sponsored by NSBE Boston
African-American history of agriculture in the United States
The role of African Americans in the agricultural history of the United States was extremely important, and given that the majority of blacks were employed in agriculture in the United States particularly during the 19th and early 20th century, represents a major part of their history and the
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Source: BlackHistory.com
Hughes, Langston (1902-1967)
Poet, novelist, playwright, librettist, essayist, and translator, James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on Februray 1, 1902 to parents Caroline (Carrie) Mercer Langston, a school teacher, and James Nathaniel Hughes, an attorney. His parents separated before Langston was born and
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Source: Black Past
May
22
1967
Blayton, Jesse B., Sr. (1879-1977)
Jesse B. Blayton, Sr., was a pioneer African American radio station entrepreneur.  Blayton founded WERD-AM in Atlanta, Georgia on October 3, 1949 making him the first African American to own and operate a radio station in the United
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Source: Black Past
Oct
3
1949
Billie Holiday Born
Billie Holiday, blues singer, born in Baltimore, Md.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Apr
7
1915
Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix was a rock music legend and one of the most talented guitarists of all time. He was born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942 in Seattle, Washington to James Allen Ross Hendrix and Lucille Jeter. His parents had a tempestuous relationship and Hendrix and his siblings were raised
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Source: Black History Resources
Sponsored by Eastern Bank
Sep
18
1970
Robert L. Johnson, blues singer, dies mysteriously
Robert L. Johnson, blues singer, dies mysteriously
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Aug
16
1938
The Color Purple
For the color, see
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Source: BlackHistory.com
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