*Florence Cole Talbert was born on this date in 1890. She was a Black operatic soprano, music educator, and musician. Florence Cole was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a family deeply rooted in music and the performing arts. Her mother, Sadie Chandler Cole, was a mezzo-soprano and member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Her father […]
learn more*Lillian Evans Evanti was born on this date in 1890. A lyric soprano, she was the first African American to sing opera with an organized company in Europe.
learn moreJelly Roll Morton was born on this date in 1890. He was an African American jazz composer and pianist who pioneered the use of prearranged, semi-orchestrated effects in jazz-band performances.
learn more*Fatte Marble was born on this date in 1890. He was a Black Jazz pianist and composer. Born in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1890, Fate Marable learned piano from his mother, Elizabeth Lillian (Wharton) Marable, a piano teacher. Fatte had five siblings: two brothers, Harold and James, and three sisters, Mabel, Juanita, and Neona. At age […]
learn more*This date in 1891 is celebrated as the birth date of Charley Patton, a Black Delta blues musician. Patton was born in Hinds County, Mississippi, near the town of Edwards, and lived most of his life in Sunflower County, in the Mississippi Delta. Though his parents were Bill and Annie Patton, locally, he was regarded as having been fathered by former Black slave Henderson Chatmon, […]
learn more*Lester Melrose was born on this date in 1891. He was a white-American talent scout and producer of Chicago blues music. Lester Franklin Melrose was born in Sumner, Illinois, and was the second of six children of Frank and Mollie Melrose, who owned a small farm. He relocated to Chicago around 1914 and tried unsuccessfully as […]
learn more*Mississippi John Hurt was born on this date in 1892. He was an African American blues singer.
learn more*Johnny Dodds was born on this date in 1892. He was an American jazz clarinetist and alto saxophonist based in New Orleans. Johnny Dodds was born in Waveland, Mississippi. His childhood environment was musical. His father and uncle were violinists, his sister played the melodeon, and in adolescence, Johnny sang high tenor in the family […]
learn more*Elizabeth Cotten was born on January 5, 1893. She was a Black folk and blues musician. Cotten was born into a musical family near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in an area later incorporated as Carrboro. Her parents were George Nevill and Louisa Price Nevill. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. She named herself on […]
learn more*Perry Bradford was born on this date in 1893. He was a Black composer, songwriter, and vaudeville performer. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Bradford grew up in Atlanta, where his family moved when he was six. In 1906, he started working in minstrel shows. He played in Chicago as a solo pianist as early as 1909 and visited New York City the following year. […]
learn moreOn this date, we celebrate the birth of Big Bill Broonzy in 1893. He was an African American blues singer and guitarist.
learn more*Lawrence Brown was born on this date in 1893. He was a Black Gay vocalist (tenor), composer, and pianist. Lawrence Benjamin Brown was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and raised by his father, Clark Benjamin Brown, and his stepmother, Cenia Brown. Lawrence’s birth mother died when he was three years old. Clark and his father were […]
learn moreThis date celebrates the birth of Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1897. He was an African American country blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter, one of the earliest Black folk-blues singers to achieve popular success.
learn more*Lillian Morris LeMon was born on this date in 1894. She was a Black pianist, music teacher, and administrator. Born Lillian Morris in Louisville, KY, her parents were William and Ada. Like many Blacks, the Morris went north in the early 20th century with the great migration, arriving in Indianapolis by 1902. She graduated from […]
learn more*This date marks the birth of James Price Johnson in 1894. He was a highly influential African American jazz pianist, who also wrote popular songs and composed classical works.
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