by AdamsChelsea | Dec 15, 2007 | African American History, People
Robert Johnson was the eleventh child of Julia Major Dodds. Born out of wedlock, Johnson did not take the Dodds name. He grew up with his mother in Hazlehurst, Mississippi but soon moved up to live with his father, Charles Dodds, in Memphis. Charles Dodds changed his...
by JacksonJoelle | Dec 15, 2007 | African American History, People
Pianist Cecil Young’s quartet exploded onto the Seattle jazz scene in 1950, introducing the rhythmic fire of bebop to an eager new audience. His quartet’s debut record was immediately successful, and Young, known for his devilish sense of humor as well as...
by TesfayeWoubakal | Dec 15, 2007 | African American History, People
Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tyron, North Carolina in 1933, Nina Simone began playing the family piano at the age of three. Her mother Mary Kate Waymon, a minister and choir director at a Methodist church in Tyron, interpreted her daughter’s gift as a God-given...
by JacksonJoelle | Dec 15, 2007 | African American History, Groups & Organizations
Formed in 1926, the Evelyn Bundy Band was one of the earliest and most influential local jazz ensembles to contribute to the Seattle, Washington jazz scene. Evelyn Bundy, who played piano, drums, saxophone, banjo, and occasionally sang, was born in Seattle into a...
by AndersTisa | Dec 13, 2007 | African American History, Places
The hallmarks of the “Roaring ‘20s” are legendary in American history: dashing and daring men and women, illegal alcohol, flamboyant entertainers, and the music inspired by the post-war, prohibition era frenzy: jazz. While the hot spots in New York and Los Angeles,...
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