Sonny Charles Hemphill, arranger, tenor, and director, was born in Blytheville, Arkansas, on September 4, 1940, to sharecroppers. However, at the age of 10, he, his six sisters, and parents moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana. At 14 Hemphill, a tenor and harmonica player, sang in … Read MoreSonny Charles and the Checkmates (1969-2008)
In 1939 during the Jim Crow era, baritone Clarence Fountain, bass Johnny Fields, baritone and guitarist George Scott, baritone Ollice Thomas, and tenor Velma Trayler, all elementary school students attending the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind and singing in its glee club, formed an … Read MoreThe Blind Boys of Alabama (1939 – )
“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)
Also known as the Negro Musicians’ Union, Local No. 493 was formed in 1913 in Seattle. During this time period, locals across the country, under the banner of the American Musicians Federation (AMF), decided to encourage black musicians to form their own unions rather than … Read MoreNegro Musicians’ Union, Local 493, Seattle
