People, Locations, Episodes

Lottie Gee, Vaudville Performer born

*Lottie Gee was born on this date in 1886. She was a Black dancer and singer who performed in shows and musicals during the Harlem Renaissance. Charlotte O. ‘Lottie’ Gee was born in Millboro, Virginia. Initially a dancer in Aida Overton Walker’s shows, she appeared in The Red Moon in 1904 and later toured the […]

Henry Lee Grant, Music Educator born

*Henry Lee Grant was born on this date in 1886.  He was a Black music educator and administrator. He was born in Washington, DC. He studied music with his father, Henry F. Grant, who was head of the music department in segregated schools. Grant taught music briefly at Livingstone College in Salisbury, NC, before returning to Washington, […]

Kid Ory, Trombonist born

On this date Kid Ory was born in 1886. He was an African American trombonist and composer.

Luckey Roberts, Pianist born

On this date Luckey Roberts was born in 1887. He was an African American composer and pianist.

Born Charles Luckyeth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and after working in vaudeville as a child, Roberts moved to New York where he established a minor reputation as a composer and a major one as a performer of “Rags” and later “Stride” piano. In the years between World War One and World War Two, Roberts’ composing talents were recognized more and several of his musical shows were produced.

Nadia Boulanger, Music Teacher born

*Nadia Boulanger was born on September 16, 1887. She was a white French music teacher, conductor, and composer. From a musical family, from the age of seven, Juliette Nadia Boulanger studied in preparation for her Conservatoire entrance exams, sitting in on their classes and having private lessons with its teachers. She achieved early honors as […]

Lovie Austin, Musician, and Bandleader born

*The birth of Lovie Austin was in 1887 is marked on this date. She was an African American piano player and band leader.

From Chattanooga, TN, after studying music in college, she toured on the vaudeville circuit, settling in Chicago in 1923. From 1924-1926, she recorded repeatedly with her Blues Serenaders, a group that at various times had Kid Ory and Johnny Dodds playing. Austin (as house pianist for Paramount) also backed many blues singers (including Ida Cox, Ma Rainey, and Alberta Hunter). But after 1926, her recording activity largely came to a halt.

Hall Johnson, Vocalist, and Composer born

*Hall Johnson was born on this date in1888. He was an African American concert vocalist and composer.

From Athens, GA his father was a minister in the African Methodist Church and a college president. His earliest interest in music came from his grandmother. She was a former slave who exposed him to spirituals. Johnson graduated from Allen University and also studied at the University of Pennsylvania, the Julliard School and the University of Southern California.

Camille Nickerson, Composer born

The birth of Camille Nickerson in 1888 is celebrated on this date. She was an African American musician, composer, and administrator.

Nickerson was born into a talented musical family in the French Quarter of New Orleans. At the age of nine she was the pianist for the Nickerson Ladies’ Orchestra directed by her father. She attended Oberlin Conservatory earning a bachelor of music in 1916 and a masters in music degree in 1932. She also was a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and the national honor society in music. While at Oberlin, she began to compose and publish Creole music.

Gladys Mae Sellers, Singer, and Cantor born.

*Gladys Mae Sellers’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1889. She was a Black singer and one of the first Black Cantors in America.  Born in Illinois as Gladys Mae Sellers, she grew up in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. By the 1910s, she led musical programs at the St. Mark AME Church and […]

Noble Sissle, Lyricist born

Noble Sissle, an African American musician and lyricist, was born on this date in 1889.

The Harlem Opera House Opens

*On this date, in 1889, the Harlem Opera House opened. It was an American opera house in the Harlem community of Manhattan in New York City. It was built in 1875 and designed by architect John B. McElfatrick by Oscar Hammerstein; it was his first theater in New York City. An early work at the […]

Black History and American Blues (Music), a story

On this date we focus on Blues music in America. Technically, as a musical style the Blues are characterized by expressive pitch inflections (blue notes), a three-line textual stanza, and a 12-measure form.

Johnny St. Cyr, Musician born

*Johnny St. Cyr was born on this date in 1890. He was a Black jazz banjoist and guitarist. Johnny St. Cyr was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He played for several leading New Orleans bands before moving to Chicago in 1923. Sr. Cyr played with Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven bands. He also played with Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot […]

L. Viola Kinney, Pianist, and Educator born

*The birth of L. Viola Kinney is celebrated on this date, c.1890. She was a Black composer, pianist, and teacher active during the first half of the twentieth century.   Born Lady Viola Kinney in Sedalia, Missouri, she was one of the five children of Patrick and Lillian Kinney. Her father was a cook, and […]

Ada Brown, Singer and Actress born

*Ada Brown was born on this date in 1890. She was an American blues and jazz singer and actress. Ada Scott Brown was born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas. She was born into a musically inclined family and grew up singing in church as a child. In 1910, she successfully launched her career at […]