People, Locations, Episodes

Clora Bryant, Musician born

Clora Bryant, an African American jazz trumpeter, was born on this date in 1927.

She was born in Denison, Texas, and started in music as a singer in her Baptist church, but at age 14, she took up the trumpet after her brother, Fred, left his behind when he went into the military in 1941. Bryant was a very good student academically who played in her high school band.

Eugene Haynes, Pianist and Composer born.

*Eugene Haynes’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1927. He was a Black classical pianist, composer, and music pedagogue. Eugene Haynes was born in East St Louis, Illinois. He started playing piano at the age of 4. As a teenager, he worked in a warehouse and used his lunch breaks to play a piano […]

Natalie Hinderas, Pianist, and Composer born

On this date we recognize the birth of Natalie Hinderas in 1927. She was an African American pianist and composer.

She was born Natalie Leota Henderson Hinderas, in Oberlin, Ohio to a musical family; her father (Abram) was a jazz pianist and her mother Leota Palmer was a classical pianist who taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Natalie began playing at the age of three, with formal lessons (piano and violin) beginning at six years of age. A child prodigy, Natalie gave her first full-length recital at eight years old.

Elvin Jones, Jazz Drummer born

Elvin Jones was born on this date in 1927. He was an African American jazz drummer.

Born in Pontiac, MI, Elvin Ray Jones His start with local bands and Army military bands led to work as the house drummer at the Bluebird Club in Detroit, where he got his first real exposure to professional talents. In 1956, Jones moved to New York, where he began his playing and recording career with Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, J.J. Johnson, Bud Powell, and others. He recorded with both of his brothers during his career, jazz musicians Hank Jones and Thad Jones.

Bettye Miller sang with style

*Bettye Miller’s birth in 1928 is celebrated on this date. She was an African American Pianist and Singer.

Miller was born in Clinton, Missouri. She earned bachelors and master’s degrees in vocal music from Lincoln University and taught elementary school in West Plains, Missouri, for two years before moving to Philadelphia for more voice training. In Philadelphia, she turned to the piano as her primary instrument and played in nightclubs there before moving to Kansas City in the early 1950s.

Joyce Bryant, Singer, and Actress born

*Joyce Bryant was born on this date in 1927. She is a Black singer and actress who became famous as a theater and nightclub performer in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Joyce Bryant, the oldest of eight children, was born in Oakland, California, and raised in San Francisco. Her father, Whitfield W. Bryant, worked as a chef […]

Cleo Laine, British Singer, born

*Cleo Laine was born on this date in 1927. She was a Black British jazz and pop singer as well as an actress. Laine was born Clementine Dinah Hitching in Southall, London, to Alexander Sylvan Campbell, a Black Jamaican building laborer, and Minnie Bullock, a white English farmer’s daughter from Swindon, Wiltshire. She attended the boarding school located on […]

Mose Allison, Musician, and Composer born

*Mose Allison was born on this date in 1927.  He was a white-American jazz and blues pianist, singer, and songwriter.   Mose John Allison Jr. was born outside Tippo, Mississippi, on his grandfather’s farm, known as the Island “because Tippo Bayou encircles it.”  He took piano lessons at 5, picked cotton, played piano in grammar […]

Ruth Brown, Singer born

Ruth Brown was born on this date in 1928. She was an African American singer.

Born in Portsmouth, VA, Brown sang in the church choir and then joined Lucky Millinder’s big band after winning a talent contest at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. While working at a Washington, D.C., nightclub, Brown was noticed by a local deejay who contacted the top executives at Atlantic records. They were impressed and offered her a contract. While driving to New York to sign, Brown got in a serious car accident, landing in a Philadelphia hospital for a year.

Dorothy Coates, Gospel Vocalist born

*Dorothy Coates was born on this date in 1928. She was a Black gospel vocalist.  Born Dorothy McGriff in Birmingham, Alabama, she was one of seven children of a minister. As a teenager, she sang in local churches and started a family group, the Royal Gospel Singers. Coates joined the Gospel Harmonettes, a well-known Birmingham […]

Chicago’s Regal Theater Opens

*On this date, in 1928, the Regal Theater opened. This was a 20th-century nightclub and music venue popular among Blacks.   The Regal was a major complex that featured films, dance, music, and comedy. It was a prominent entertainment venue for over four decades in Chicago, Illinois. This theater was designed by Levy and Klein, influenced […]

Fats Domino, Pianist, and Singer born

*Fats Domino was born on this date in 1928. He was a Black pianist and singer-songwriter.   Antoine “Fats” Domino Jr. was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of eight children born to Antoine Caliste Domino and Marie-Donatille Gros. The Domino family was of French Creole background, and Louisiana Creole was his first language. He was born at home with the assistance […]

Dolly Rathebe, South African Entertainer, and Columnist born

*Dolly Rathebe was born on this date in 1928. She was a Black South African musician, columnist, and actress. Dolly Rathebe was born in Randfontein, South Africa, but grew up in Sophiatown, which she describes as “a wonderful place.” She was discovered around 1948 after singing at a picnic in Johannesburg. A talent scout from […]

Johnny Griffin, Saxophonist born

*Johnny Griffin was born on this date in 1928. He was a Black jazz tenor saxophonist and bandleader.   John Arnold Griffin III was born in Chicago, Illinois, living on the South Side of the Second City with his mother, a singer, and father, who played cornet. As an adolescent, he liked hearing Gene Ammons play and studied music at DuSable […]

Eric Dolphy, Jazz Musician born

On this date in 1928, Eric Dolphy was born. He was an African American jazz musician, one of great artistic influences in the twentieth century.