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The African American Musicians table shows biographical information about African American Musicians, including date and place of birth, musical genres, albums and and instruments played.
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| x name | x image | x Date of birth | x Musical Genres | x Place of birth | x Albums | x article | x Instruments Played |
| x Big Mello |
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Aug 7, 1968 | Southern rap | Bone Hard Zaggin |
Big Mello, (August 7, 1968 – June 15, 2002) was a rapper who was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He debuted as Big Mello in 1992 with the album "Bone Hard Zaggin'" on the Rap-A-Lot Records label. "Wegonefunkwichamind" appeared three years later...
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| Gangsta rap | Wegonefunkwichamind | ||||||
| Hip Hop | Southside Story | ||||||
| The Gift | |||||||
| Done Deal | |||||||
| x Francis Johnson | 1792 |
Francis "Frank" Johnson (1792–1844) was an African American musician and prolific composer during the Antebellum period. African American composers were rare in the U.S. during this period, but Johnson was among the few who were successful....
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| x Freddie Keppard | Feb 27, 1890 | Jazz | The Complete Set: 1923-1926 |
Freddie Keppard (sometimes rendered as Freddy Keppard) (February 27, 1890 - July 15, 1933) was an early jazz cornetist.
Keppard was born in the Creole of Color community of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. His older brother Louis Keppard was also a...
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Cornet | ||
| Dixieland | Trumpet | ||||||
| x Kermit Ruffins |
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Dec 19, 1964 | Funk | World on a String |
Kermit Ruffins (born December 19, 1964) is a jazz trumpeter, singer and composer from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He has been heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong, Louis Jordan and Eddy Jefferson. Ruffins accompanies a large portion of...
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Trumpet | |
| Jazz | The Big Butter & Egg Man | ||||||
| Rhythm and blues | Hold On Tight | ||||||
| Dixieland | |||||||
| x Buddie Petit |
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1890 | Jazz |
Buddie Petit or Buddy Petit (ca. 1890?-4 July 1931) was a highly regarded early jazz cornetist.
His early life is somewhat mysterious, with dates of his birth given in various sources ranging from 1887 to 1897; if the later date is correct he was...
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Cornet | ||
| x Luke Jordan |
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1892 |
Luke Jordan (1892-1952) was a blues guitarist and vocalist of some renown in his local area of Lynchburg, Virginia. His professional career started at age 35, when he was noticed by Victor Records, and went to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1927 to...
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| x Lester Holt |
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Mar 8, 1959 | Marin County |
Lester Holt (born March 8, 1959) is an American news journalist who anchors the weekend editions of NBC's Today and Nightly News.
From 1981–1982, he was a reporter on WCBS in New York City. In 1982, he became a reporter and weekend anchor on KNXT in...
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| x Sister Souljah | 1964 | The Bronx | 360 Degrees of Power |
Sister Souljah (born as Lisa Williamson in 1964, Bronx, New York) is an American hip hop-generation author, activist, recording artist, and film producer. She is best known for Bill Clinton's criticism of her remarks about race in the United States...
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| x Richard Street |
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Oct 5, 1942 | Disco | Detroit |
Richard Street (born Richard Allen Street, October 5, 1942 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American soul and R&B; singer, most notable as a member of The Temptations from 1971 to 1993. Street was the first member of the Temptations to actually be a...
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| Pop music | |||||||
| Rhythm and blues | |||||||
| Soul music | |||||||
| x Mwata Bowden |
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1947 |
Mwata Bowden (b. Memphis, Tennessee, United States, October 11, 1947, is an American jazz reeds player associated with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and an instructor in improvisational Jazz at the University of Chicago....
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Saxophone | |||
| Didgeridoo | |||||||
| x Doc Cheatham |
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Jun 13, 1905 | Swing | The 87 Years of Doc Cheatham |
Adolphus Anthony Cheatham, better known as Doc Cheatham (13 June, 1905–2 June, 1997) was a jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader.
After having played in some of the leading jazz groups from the 1920s on, Cheatham's career enjoyed renewed acclaim in...
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Trumpet | |
| Dixieland | |||||||
| Big band | |||||||
| x Walter Davis | Mar 1, 1912 | Delta blues |
Walter Davis (March 1, 1912 – October 22, 1963) was an African American blues singer and pianist.
Davis was born on a farm in Grenada, Mississippi, and ran away from home at about 13 years of age, landing in St. Louis, Missouri. During the period...
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| x Camille Nickerson | 1888 |
Camille Nickerson (1888–1982) was a pianist, composer, arranger, collector, and Howard University professor from 1926–1962. She was influenced by Creole folksongs of Louisiana which she arranged and sung.
Educated at Oberlin College with a B.A. and...
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| x James Cleveland | Dec 5, 1931 | Urban contemporary gospel | Peace Be Still |
The Reverend Dr. James Cleveland (December 5, 1931 - February 9, 1991) was a gospel singer, arranger, composer and, most significantly, the driving force behind the creation of the modern gospel sound, bringing the stylistic daring of hard gospel...
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Piano | ||
| x Mercer Ellington |
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Mar 11, 1919 | Big band |
Mercer Kennedy Ellington (11 March 1919–8 February 1996) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and arranger.
Ellington was born in Washington, DC, the son of famous composer, pianist, and bandleader Duke Ellington. By the age of eighteen he had...
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Trumpet | ||
| Swing | |||||||
| x Turk |
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1981 | Hip Hop | Still a Hot Boy |
Virgil Tab, Jr., better known by his stage name Turk, is an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana.. He is best known as 1/4 of the New Orleans hip hop group Hot Boys. His debut "Young & Thuggin'" album became a top ten hit on the Billboard 200...
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| Young & Thuggin' | |||||||
| Raw & Uncut | |||||||
| Convicted Felons | |||||||
| Penitentiary Chances | |||||||
| x Yank Rachell | Mar 16, 1910 | Country blues | Brownsville |
James "Yank" Rachell (March 16, 1910 – April 9, 1997) was an American blues musician.
Born James Rachell, his career as a performer spanned nearly eighty years, and was often teamed with the guitarist and singer Sleepy John Estes. Though a capable...
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Mandolin | ||
| Blues | Guitar | ||||||
| x Ravi Coltrane |
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Aug 6, 1965 | Jazz | Long Island | Moving Pictures |
Ravi Coltrane (b. August 6, 1965 in Long Island, New York) is an American post-bop jazz saxophonist. Co-owner of the record label RKM Music, he has produced artists such as pianist Luis Perdomo, guitarist David Gilmore and trumpeter Ralph Alessi....
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Saxophone |
| Post-bop | Mad 6 | Soprano saxophone | |||||
| In Flux | Tenor saxophone | ||||||
| Clarinet | |||||||
| x Bobby Rogers | Feb 19, 1940 |
Bobby Rogers (born Robert E. Rogers, February 19, 1940 in Detroit, Michigan) is an African American soul singer, notable as a member of Motown Records' first signed act and first million selling group The Miracles from 1956 to present.
Rogers is the...
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| x Chuckii Booker |
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1966 |
Chuckii Booker (born December 19, in Los Angeles, California) is an African American award-winning producer,singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader.
Booker emerged in the late 1980s as a prominent urban contemporary R&B; artist and...
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| x Shirley Graham Du Bois |
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Nov 11, 1896 |
Shirley Graham Du Bois (November 11, 1896 – March 27, 1977) was an American-born author, playwright, composer, and activist for African-American and other causes, as well as spouse of noted African-American thinker, writer, and activist W. E. B. Du...
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| x Louis Chauvin | Mar 13, 1881 |
Louis Chauvin (March 13, 1881 — March 26, 1908, aged 27) was an African American ragtime musician.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri of a Mexican Spanish-Indian father and an African American mother, he was widely considered the finest pianist in the St....
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| x Jo Marie Payton | Aug 3, 1950 | Albany |
Jo Marie Payton (born August 3, 1950) is an American television actress, and singer,who starred most notably as Harriette Winslow on the ABC sitcom, Family Matters, and its parent series, Perfect Strangers. From 2001 - 2005 Jo Marie Payton provided...
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| x Berry Gordy |
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Nov 28, 1929 | Pop music |
Berry Gordy, Jr. (born November 28, 1929) is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label, as well as its many subsidiaries.
Gordy reinvested his songwriting success into producing. In 1957, he discovered The Miracles ...
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| Rhythm and blues | |||||||
| Soul music | |||||||
| Rock music | |||||||
| x Dante Roberson |
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1972 |
Dante "Taz" Roberson (born in 1972 in Stanford, California) is an American musician, drummer, musical director, and record producer from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dante' is known foremost as a versatile drummer with chops ranging from Jazz, Rock,...
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| x Othar Turner | Jun 2, 1907 |
Othar "Otha" Turner (b. June 2, 1907, Madison County, Mississippi - d. February 26, 2003), was one of the last well-known fife players in the vanishing American fife and drum musical tradition. He lived his entire life in northern Mississippi as a...
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| x Kel Mitchell |
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Aug 25, 1978 | Chicago |
Kel Johari Rice Mitchell (born August 25, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, parodist and musician. He is best known for his work as a regular cast member on the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series All That, and for his role as Kel Kimble on the...
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| x Vicki Randle | Dec 11, 1954 |
Vicki Randle (born December 11, 1954 in San Francisco, California) is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist (primarily acoustic guitar and percussion) and composer, known as the first (and only) female member of the Tonight Show Band, starting...
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Guitar | ||||
| x John Gilmore | 1931 | Jazz |
John Gilmore (September 28 or October 29, 1931 in Summit, Mississippi-August 19 or August 20, 1995 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States) was an American jazz tenor saxophone player best-known for his long tenure as a member of Sun Ra's...
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Tenor saxophone | |||
| Avant-garde jazz | Saxophone | ||||||
| x Shawn Stockman |
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Sep 26, 1972 | Soul music |
Shawn Patrick Stockman (born September 26, 1972) is an African-American R&B; singer, best known as a member of the vocal group Boyz II Men.
Stockman recorded a solo album as a side project during the late 1990s, but the LP was never released. He has...
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| New jack swing | |||||||
| Contemporary R&B | |||||||
| x DeFord Bailey | Dec 14, 1899 | The Legendary DeFord Bailey: Country Music's First Black Star |
DeFord Bailey (December 14, 1899 – July 2, 1982) was an early country music star and the first African American performer on the Grand Ole Opry. Bailey played several instruments but is best known for his harmonica tunes. He was one of the few...
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| x Don Redman |
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Jul 29, 1900 |
Donald Matthew Redman (July 29, 1900 – November 30, 1964) was an American jazz musician, arranger, and composer.
Redman was announced as a member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame on May 6, 2009.
Redman was born in Piedmont, West Virginia....
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Saxophone | |||
| Oboe | |||||||
| x Anthony Lacen | Sep 15, 1950 |
Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen (September 15, 1950 - January 11, 2004) was a jazz tubist and band leader. Tuba Fats was New Orleans' most famous tuba player and played traditional New Orleans jazz and blues for over 40 years.
He was born, spent most of...
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| x Twisted Black | Oct 18, 1976 | Street Fame |
Twisted Black (born Tommy Burns, October 18, 1976) is a rapper who resides in Fort Worth, Texas, but was born in Detroit, Michigan. He is on the 3R Entertainment/Scarred 4 Life Records label, and has also gone under the pseudonym "145". His debut...
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| x Walter Davis, Jr. |
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Sep 2, 1932 |
Walter Davis, Jr. (September 2, 1932 in Richmond, Virginia; – June 2, 1990 in New York City) was an American hard bop pianist.
Born in Richmond, Virginia, Davis performed as a teenager with Babs Gonzales and his group Three Bips and a Bop. In the...
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Jazz piano | |||
| x Wilbur Ware | Sep 8, 1923 | The Chicago Sound |
Wilbur Ware (September 8, 1923 – September 9, 1979) was an American jazz double-bassist known for his hard bop percussive style.
Born in Chicago, Ware taught himself to play banjo and bass. In the 1940s, he worked with Stuff Smith, Sonny Stitt and...
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Double bass | |||
| x Lil' Scrappy |
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Jan 19, 1984 | Southern rap | Bred 2 Die Born 2 Live |
Darryl Kevin Richards Jr. (born July 19, 1981), better known by his stage name Lil Scrappy, is an American rapper.
Richards was discovered by producer and performer Lil Jon while performing at a bar, when a fight broke out during his set in his...
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| Hip Hop | The King of Crunk & BME Recordings Present: Trillville & Lil Scrappy | ||||||
| Crunk | Bred 2 Die Born 2 Live | ||||||
| Prince of the South | |||||||
| Grustle | |||||||
| x Teddy Weatherford | Oct 11, 1903 |
Teddy Weatherford (11 October 1903 - 25 April 1945) was a jazz pianist, an accomplished stride pianist.
Weatherford was born in Pocahontas, Virginia and was raised in neighboring Bluefield, West Virginia. From 1915 through 1920 he lived in New...
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Piano | ||||
| Jazz piano | |||||||
| x J. Rosamond Johnson |
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1873 |
John Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954), most often referred to as J. Rosamond Johnson, was an American composer and singer during the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson is most notable as the composer of Lift Every Voice and Sing which has come to be known in...
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| x Johnny Jackson | Mar 3, 1951 |
Johnny Porter Jackson (March 3, 1951 – March 1, 2006) was a musician, noted for being the drummer for The Jackson 5 from their early Gary, Indiana days until the end of their famed career at Motown.
The label presented Jackson and keyboardist Ronnie...
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| x Slam Stewart |
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Sep 21, 1914 | Jazz | Englewood | Bowin' Singin' Slam |
Leroy Eliot 'Slam' Stewart (born 21 September 1914 - died 10 December 1987) was an African American jazz bass player whose trademark style was his ability to bow the bass (arco) and simultaneously hum or sing an octave higher. He was originally a...
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Double bass |
| Violin | |||||||
| x James Newton | May 1, 1953 | James Newton in Venice |
James W. Newton (b. Los Angeles, California, May 1, 1953) is an American jazz flautist, composer, and conductor.
From his earliest years, James Newton grew up immersed in the sounds of African American music, including urban blues, rhythm and blues,...
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| x Kyle Massey |
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Aug 28, 1991 | Atlanta |
{{Infobox Musical artist | Name = Kyle Massey | Img = Kyle Massey.jpg | Img_capt = | Imagesize = 150px | Background = solo_singer | Birth_name = | Born = August 28, 1991 (1991-08-28) (age 18) | Died= December Expression error: Unexpected closing...
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| x Rasaq |
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Jan 7, 1981 | Southern rap | Royal Green Street Series Vol. 1 |
Rasaq Dayo Seriki, (born on January 7, 1981) better known by his stage name Rasaq, is an American rapper. He is the younger brother of rapper Chamillionaire and is part of his own label Royal Green.
Rasaq has appeared on some of his brother's...
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| Hip Hop | |||||||
| x Tawl Ross | Oct 5, 1948 |
Lucius "Tawl" Ross (born October 5, 1948, Wagram, North Carolina) was rhythm guitarist for Funkadelic from 1968 to 1971 and played on that band's first three albums. He left the band in 1971 soon after a debilitating experience with LSD. He moved to...
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| x Keke Palmer |
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Aug 26, 1993 | Pop music | Robbins | Keep It Movin' |
Lauren Keyana "Keke" Palmer (born August 26, 1993) is an American teen actress and singer who rose to fame for her performance in the 2006 film Akeelah and the Bee. She currently stars as True Jackson on the Nickelodeon sitcom True Jackson, VP.
Keke...
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| Dance-pop | So Uncool | ||||||
| Teen pop | So Uncool | ||||||
| Contemporary R&B | Keke Palmer | ||||||
| Rhythm and blues | |||||||
| more ▼ | |||||||
| x Lonnie Plaxico |
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Sep 4, 1960 | Emergence |
Lonnie Plaxico (born 4 September, 1960) is an African American jazz bassist.
Plaxico was born in Chicago, Illinois into a musical family, and started playing the bass at the age of twelve, turning professional at fourteen (playing both double bass...
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Double bass | ||
| x Alton Adams |
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Nov 4, 1889 |
Alton Augustus Adams, Sr. (b. November 4, 1889, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Danish West Indies - d. November 23, 1987, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands) is remembered primarily as the first black bandmaster in the United States...
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| x Michael Bland | Mar 14, 1969 | New Wave |
Michael Bland (born March 14, 1969 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is best known as a drummer for Prince starting in 1989. He was with Prince during the New Power Generation era and played with him live and on albums for 7 years. He is currently the...
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Drum kit | |||
| Pop music | Drum | ||||||
| Rock music | Percussion | ||||||
| Rhythm and blues | |||||||
| Psychedelic music | |||||||
| more ▼ | |||||||
| x Kansas Joe McCoy | May 11, 1905 | One in a Hundred |
Kansas Joe McCoy (May 11, 1905 – January 28, 1950) was an African American blues musician and songwriter.
McCoy played music under a variety of stage names but is best known as "Kansas Joe McCoy". Born in Raymond, Mississippi, he was the older...
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| x Claudette Rogers Robinson | Sep 1942 |
Claudette Rogers Robinson (born September 1942) is an African-American soul singer, a member of The Miracles from 1957 to 1972. Her brother Emerson "Sonny" Rogers was an original member of the group, which was originally called "The Matadors" before...
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| x Mamie Smith |
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May 26, 1883 | Jazz | Cincinnati |
Mamie Smith (May 26, 1883 – September 16, 1946) was an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist and actress, who appeared in several motion pictures late in her career. As a vaudeville singer she performed a number of styles including jazz and...
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| x Harry Burleigh |
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Dec 2, 1866 | Erie |
Henry "Harry" Thacker Burleigh (December 2, 1866 – December 12, 1949), a baritone, was an African American classical composer, arranger, and professional singer. He was the first black composer to be instrumental in the development of a...
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| x David Hurd | 1950 |
David Hurd (born 1950) is a composer, concert organist, choral director and educator.
He is a Professor of Sacred Music and Director of Chapel Music at the General Theological Seminary, Chelsea, New York City. He is also the Music Director at the...
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| x William Levi Dawson | Sep 26, 1899 |
William Levi Dawson (September 26, 1899, Anniston, Alabama – May 2, 1990, Montgomery, Alabama) was an African-American composer, choir director and professor.
A graduate of the Horner Institute of Fine Arts with a Bachelor of Music, William Dawson...
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| x Eva Taylor |
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Jan 22, 1895 | Jazz |
Eva Taylor (January 22, 1895 in St. Louis, Missouri – October 31, 1977 in Mineola, New York) was an American blues singer and stage actress.
Born Irene Joy Gibbons in St. Louis, Missouri, on stage from the age of three, Taylor toured New Zealand,...
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| Blues | |||||||
| x Mance Lipscomb |
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Apr 9, 1895 | Blues | Navasota | Texas Songsters, Volume 5: Texas Country Blues |
Mance Lipscomb (April 9, 1895 – January 30, 1976) was an influential blues singer, guitarist and songster. Born Beau De Glen Lipscomb near Navasota, Texas, he as a youth took the name of 'Mance' from a friend of his oldest brother Charlie (Mance...
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| Folk music | |||||||
| x Dean Dixon | Jan 10, 1915 | European Classical music |
Charles Dean Dixon (January 10, 1915 – November 3, 1976) was an American conductor.
Dixon was born in New York City where he later studied conducting with Albert Stoessel at the Juilliard School and Columbia University. When early pursuits of...
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| x Darryl McDaniels |
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May 31, 1964 | East Coast hip hop | Harlem | Checks Thugs and Rock N Roll |
Darryl "D.M.C." Matthews McDaniels (born May 31, 1964) is an American musician. He is one of the pioneers of hip hop culture and founding members of the legendary hip hop group Run-D.M.C..
McDaniels grew up in Hollis, Queens, New York. He attended...
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| Hip Hop | |||||||
| Old school hip hop | |||||||
| x Lady Luck | 1982 | Hip Hop |
Lady Luck (born 1982) is the stage name of rapper Shanel Jones.
Luck signed a five-album record deal with Def Jam, worth between half a million and a million dollars, at the age of 17 on the strength of several freestyles that she did for New York...
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