People, Locations, Episodes

Taj Mahal, Global Musician born

Taj Mahal was born on this date in 1942. He is an African American musician, singer, artist, and producer.

Curtis Mayfield, Singer, and Composer born

Curtis Mayfield was born on this date in 1942. He was an African American musician and songwriter.

From in Chicago, Illinois, Mayfield enjoyed a childhood filled with music. He was singing by age seven, strongly influenced by a local gospel group. This group, The Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers, included three of his cousins, Sam, Tommy, and Charles Hawkins, and future member of The Impressions, singer Jerry Butler. A self-taught guitarist, Mayfield joined a local group, The Alphatones. Inspired by his mother, he began developing his songwriting skills.

Gilberto Gil, Vocalist and Political Activist born

*Gilberto Gil was born on this date in 1942. He is an Afro Brazilian singer-songwriter, politician, and activist. Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira was born in Salvador and spent much of his childhood in Ituaçu, a small town in the countryside of Bahia. His father, José Gil Moreira, was a doctor; his mother, Claudina Passos Gil Moreira, was an elementary […]

Andraé Crouch, Gospel Musician born

*Andraé Crouch was born on this date in 1942. He was an African American gospel singer, songwriter, arranger, recording artist, record producer, and pastor.

Born in San Francisco, California, Andraé Edward Crouch along with his twin sister, Sandra were children to Benjamin and Catherine (neé Hodnett) Crouch. When he was young, Crouch’s parents owned and operated Crouch Cleaners, a dry-cleaning business, a restaurant, a street ministry, and hospital and prison ministry in Los Angeles, California.

Jack DeJohnette, Jazz Musician born

*Jack DeJohnette was born on this date in 1942. He is a Black jazz drummer, pianist, and composer from Chicago, Illinois.   He began his musical career as a pianist, studying from age four and first playing professionally at age fourteen. He later switched focus to the drums. DeJohnette credits his uncle, Roy I. Wood Sr., a Chicago disc jockey and […]

Isaac Hayes, Singer, and Composer born

Issac Hayes was born on this date in 1942. He was an African American singer, composer, and entertainer.

Hayes was born in Covington, TN. His parents died during his infancy, and he was raised by his grandparents. After making his public debut singing in church at the age of five, he taught himself piano, organ, and saxophone. At a young age, he moved to Memphis to work as a musician in the city’s club circuit. He played with a number of short-lived groups such as Sir Isaac and the Doo-Dads, the Teen Tones, and Sir Calvin and His Swinging Cats.

Letta Mbulu, Singer born

*Letta Mbulu was born on this date in 1942. She is a Black South African jazz singer.  Born and raised in Soweto, South Africa, she has been active as a singer since the 1960s. While still a teenager, she toured with the musical King Kong but left for the United States in 1965 due to […]

Freda Payne, Singer, and Actress born

*Freda Payne was born on this date in 1942. She is an African American singer and actress.

Bernice Johnson Reagon, Singer and Activist born

*Bernice Johnson Reagon was on this date in 1942. She is a Black folk song leader, composer, scholar, and social activist. Bernice Johnson was the daughter of Beatrice and J.J. Johnson, a Baptist minister. She was born and raised in southwest Georgia, where church and school were an integrated part of her life, with music heavily intertwined […]

Milton Nascimento, Singer, and Songwriter born

*Milton Nascimento was born on this date in 1942. He is an Afro Brazilian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Milton Nascimento was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His mother, Maria Nascimento, was a maid. As a baby, Nascimento was adopted by a couple of his mother’s former employers: Josino Brito Campos, a bank employee, mathematics teacher, and electronic […]

Jimi Hendrix, Musician born

Jimi Hendrix was born on this date in 1942. He was an African American blues and rock guitarist known for his innovative playing of the electric guitar and as a symbol of the 1960s youth counterculture.

Carla Thomas, Singer born

*Carla Thomas was born on this date in 1942. She is a Black singer. Carla Venita Thomas was born and raised in the Foote Homes Projects in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Along with her siblings, Marvell and Vaneese, she was one of Rufus and Lorene Thomas’s three musical children. Her family lived near the Palace […]

Barbara Lewis, Singer born

*Barbara Lewis was born on this date in 1943. She is an African American singer and songwriter.

Black History and Rhythm and Blues Music, a story

*Black History and Rhythm and Blues music is celebrated on this date in 1943. Often shortened to R&B or R’n’B, it is a popular music genre originating in African America. We chose this date because The Miracles’ ‘Shop Around’ became Motown Record’s first million-selling single on this date in 1961.   Billboard magazine coined “rhythm and blues” […]

Cordell Reagon, Singer and Activist born

*Cordell Reagon, born Cordell Hull Reagon in Nashville, Tennessee, was born on this date in 1943. He was a Black singer and activist. In 1959, Reagon was 16 years old when his powerful tenor voice spread the message of the American Civil Rights movement throughout the United States and Canada. James Forman, executive secretary of […]