People, Locations, Episodes

Smokey Robinson, Singer, Songwriter, and Producer born

*Smokey Robinson was born on this date in 1940. He is a Black singer, songwriter, record producer, and former executive director. William Robinson Jr. was born to an African American father and a mother of African American and French descent. His family lived in the North End area of Detroit, Michigan. Robinson’s ancestry includes Nigerian, […]

Al Jarreau, Singer born

*Al Jarreau was born on this date in 1940. He was an African American singer and musician.

Herbie Hancock, Keyboardist, and Composer born

Herbie Hancock was born on this date in 1940. He is an African American musician, composer, and arranger.

Dorothy Rudd Moore, Composer and Music Educator born

*Dorothy Rudd Moore was born on this date in 1940. She was a Black composer and music educator. Dorothy Rudd was born in New Castle, Delaware. She was born to a musical family; her mother encouraged her to pursue music studies and explore all her interests, including piano lessons. Moore knew she wanted to become […]

Fontella Bass, Singer born

Fontella Bass was born on this date in 1940. She is an African American singer and entertainer.

Roscoe Mitchell, Composer and Musician Born.

*Roscoe Mitchell was born on this date in 1940. He is a Black composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator. Mitchell was born in Chicago, Illinois, and began playing saxophone and clarinet at around twelve. His brother, Norman, introduced Mitchell to jazz. While attending Englewood High School in Chicago, he furthered his clarinet study. In the 1950s, he joined […]

Roy Ayers, Vibraphonist and Composer born.

*Roy Ayers was born on this date in 1940. He was a Black vibraphonist, record producer, and composer. Roy Ayers was born in Los Angeles. He grew up in a musical family, where his father played trombone, and his mother played piano. Lionel Hampton gave him his first pair of vibraphone mallets when he was […]

Hamiet Bluiett, Baritone Saxophonist born

*Hamiet Bluiett was born on this date in 1940. He was a Black jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. Bluiett was born just north of East St. Louis in Brooklyn, Illinois (also known as Lovejoy), a Black community founded as a free Black sanctuary community in the 1830s and later became one of America’s first majority-Black towns. As a child, he studied piano, […]

Pharaoh Sanders, Jazz Saxophonist born

*Pharoah Sanders was born on this date in 1940.  He was a Black jazz saxophonist.   Born Farrell Sanders was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. His mother worked as a cook in a school cafeteria, and his father worked for the City of Little Rock. As an only child, Sanders began his musical career by accompanying church hymns on clarinet. His […]

Wendell Logan, Composer born

*Wendell Logan was born on this date in 1940. He was a Black jazz and classical composer. Wendell Morris Logan was born in Thomson, Georgia. His first musical studies were with his father, an amateur alto saxophonist. In 1962, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music from Florida A&M University, which he had attended […]

Dionne Warwick, Singer born

*Dionne Warwick was born on this date in 1940. She is a six-time Grammy Award-winning Black singer, UN ambassador, actress, and television host. Marie Dionne Warrick was born in Orange, New Jersey, to Mancel Warrick and Lee Drinkard. Her mother was the manager of the Drinkard Singers, and her father was a Pullman porter, chef, record promoter, and CPA. Dionne […]

Alvin Singleton, Composer born

*Alvin Singleton was born on this date in 1940. He is a Black composer. Born and raised in New York City, he received his music education from New York University (B.A.) and Yale School of Music (M.M.). Singleton was a Fulbright Scholar in Rome, Italy, from 1971-1985. After that, Singleton returned to the United States […]

David Ruffin, Singer born

*David Ruffin was born on this date in 1941. He was an African American singer.

From Whynot, MS. his family moved to Detroit where he and his brother sang at Otis Williams’s house. Ruffin began his professional career with producers Harvey Fuqua and Berry Gordy at Anna Records. His first solo release was “I’m In Love/One Of These Days.” He followed this up with two singles on another Detroit-based label, Checkmate, that were written by Billy Davis.

Richie Havens, Folk Artist born

*Richie Havens was born on this date in 1941. He was an African American singer and song writer.

Barrett Strong, Songwriter and Singer born

*Barrett Strong Jr. was born on this date in 1941. He was a Black singer and songwriter. He was born in West Point, Mississippi, the only boy in a family of six children born to Barrett Strong Sr., a minister. When he was four years old, his family moved to Detroit, Michigan, and his father […]