Linder Konneh is a Liberian singer, nonprofit administrator, and minister. In this segment, she explains what traditional singing is and shares two fond memories of her as a singer.
learn more*Zilphia Horton was born on this date in 1910. She was a white-American musician, community organizer, educator, activist, and folklorist. Zilphia was born Zilphia Mae Johnson in the coal mining town of Spadra, Arkansas. She was the second child of Robert Guy Johnson and Ora Ermon Howard Johnson. Her father was superintendent of the local […]
learn more*Hiram H. Thweatt was born on this date in 1864. He was a Black activist, educator, and music administrator. Hiram H. Thweatt was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. He worked at the Tuskegee Institute as their choir director. And as a “School Teacher” in the 1900 Census, as was their wife, Janice. He was the President […]
learn moreJD Steele is a composer, singer, arranger, choral director, publisher, and educator. In this segment, he shares his global and historic view of the blues and the blue note.
learn more*Alan Freed was born on December 15, 1921. He was a white-American disc jockey. Albert James “Alan” Freed was born to a Welsh-American mother, Maude Palmer, and a Russian-Jewish immigrant father, Charles S. Freed, in Windber, Pennsylvania. In 1933, Freed’s family moved to Salem, Ohio, where Freed attended Salem High School, graduating in 1940. While […]
learn more*David Murray was born on February 19, 1955. He is a Black jazz saxophonist and composer. Since the mid-1970s, he has recorded prolifically for many record labels. David Keith Murray was born in Oakland, California, United States. He attended Pomona College for two years as a member of the class of 1977 and received an […]
learn more*Nicole Mitchell was born on February 17, 1967. She is a Black jazz flutist, composer, and professor. Mitchell was born in Syracuse, New York, and moved to Anaheim, California, at eight. Her first instruments were piano and viola, which she started playing in fourth grade. She was classically trained in flute and played in youth […]
learn more*Anne Kennedy was born on this date in 1920. She was a Black classical pianist and piano professor. Anne Lucille Gamble was born in Charleston, West Virginia, to Dr. Henry Floyd Gamble and the former Nina Hortense Clinton. She was the younger of two children born into that union. Gamble had two older step-siblings as […]
learn more*Hamid Drake was born on this date in 1955. He is a Black jazz drummer and percussionist. Hamid Drake (Henry Lawrence Drake) was born in Monroe, Louisiana, and when he was a child, his family moved to Evanston, Illinois. There, he started playing with local rock and R&B bands, eventually bringing him to the attention […]
learn more*The Five Spot Café opened on this date in 1956. The Five Spot Café was a jazz club in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City, between the East and West Village. Its friendly, non-commercial, low-key atmosphere, affordable drinks and food, cutting-edge bebop, and progressive jazz attracted many avant-garde artists and writers. In 1937, Salvatore […]
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