Musician, songwriter, disc jockey, music journalist, film director, and drummer Ahmir Thompson, known as “Questlove,” was born January 20, 1971, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With his friend Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, he co-founded the hip-hop group the Roots. Since 2014, the Roots have been the in-house … Read MoreAhmir “Questlove” Thompson (1971- )
Olly W. Wilson, Jr. was an African American composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, double bassist, musicologist, and educator. Born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 7, 1937, Wilson was the only son of three children of Olly W. Wilson, Sr., an insurance salesman … Read MoreOlly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. (1937-2018)
Billy Taylor was an African American jazz pianist, composer, recording artist, educator, and broadcaster. Born in Greenville, North Carolina on July 24, 1921, Taylor was one of two children of William, Sr., a dentist and Antoinette, a schoolteacher. When Taylor was young his family moved … Read MoreBilly Taylor (William Edward Taylor, Jr.) (1921-2010)
Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr., jazz pianist and music educator, was considered the patriarch of the first family of New Orleans jazz. Marsalis passed away on April 1, 2020 of complications from the coronavirus (COVID-19), at the age of 85. He was one of the first … Read MoreEllis Marsalis (1934-2020)
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Concert pianist, composer, and music conservatory director José Manuel Jiménez Berroa was born on December 7, 1855, into a musical family in Trinidad, Cuba, a city on the central coast known for its mainly African-descended population, sugar mills, and tobacco production. … Read MoreJosé Manuel Jiménez Berroa (1855–1917)
For over six decades Dr. Yusef A. Lateef was a major developer in the international improvisational musical field. A saxophone and flute virtuoso, his early success in the blues and jazz fields led him to push himself beyond educational barriers, becoming a contemporary renaissance artist … Read MoreYusef Abdel Lateef (1920-2013)
From precocious five-year-old piano player in the 1890s to internationally known choral director, composer, concert pianist, and poet, R. Nathaniel Dett became champion for preservation of the black spiritual which he called authentic American folk music: He dedicated his life to finding a musical form … Read MoreR. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943)
Lois Jean Barron White, the first African American president of the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA), was born in Nashville, Tennessee on March 21, 1938. She was raised by her grandmother, Rosa Barron, as her own mother lived away in Massachusetts. White’s grandmother taught her … Read MoreLois Jean White (1938 – )
John Wesley Work III, internationally acclaimed composer, educator, choral director, and ethnomusicologist, was born in 1901 in Tullahoma, Tennessee to musicians John Work, Jr., and Agnes Haynes. Both of Work’s parents were employed at Fisk University, his father as a professor of music and his mother … Read MoreJohn Wesley Work III (1901-1967)
