The Black American Glossary

Aaliyah

Aaliyah was an American singer, actress, and model. Billboard lists her as the tenth most successful female R&B artist of the past 25 years, and the 27th most successful in history.

Louis Armstrong, nicknamed Satchmo, Satch, and Pops, was an American trumpeter, composer, vocalist and occasional actor who was one of the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different eras in the history of jazz.

Roy Ayers

Roy Ayers is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer, vibraphone player, and music producer. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped pioneer jazz-funk.

Babyface

Kenneth Brian Edmonds, known professionally as Babyface, is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He has written and produced over 26 number-one R&B hits throughout his career, and has won 11 Grammy Awards.

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker was an American-born French entertainer, activist, and French Resistance agent. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France.

Afrika Bambaataa

Afrika Bambaataa is an American disc jockey, rapper, songwriter and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip hop culture.

Count Basie

“Count” Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording.

Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte is an American singer, songwriter, activist, and actor. One of the most successful Jamaican-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the “King of Calypso” for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s.

Lead Belly

Huddie William Ledbetter, better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk and blues singer, musician, and songwriter notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the folk standards he introduced.

Chuck Berry

Charles Berry was an American singer and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as “Maybellene” and “Johnny B. Goode”, Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive.

Mary J. Blige

Mary Jane Blige is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and philanthropist. Her career began in 1991 when she was signed to Uptown Records. She went on to release 13 studio albums, eight of which have achieved multi-platinum worldwide sales. Blige has sold 100 million records worldwide.

Brand Nubian

Brand Nubian is an American hip hop group from New Rochelle, New York, composed of three emcees, and formerly three DJs. Their debut studio album, COne for All, is one of the most popular and acclaimed alternative hip hop albums of the 1990s, known for socially conscious and political lyrics inspired by the teachings of The Nation of Gods and Earths.

Bobby Brown

Robert Barisford Brown is an American singer, songwriter and dancer. Brown, alongside frequent collaborator Teddy Riley, is noted as one of the pioneers of new jack swing: a fusion of hip hop and R&B.

James Brown

James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. A progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music and dance, he is often referred to as the “Godfather of Soul”.

Diahann Carroll

Diahann Carroll is an American actress, singer and model. She rose to stardom in performances in some of the earliest major studio films to feature black casts, including Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess.

Grandmaster Caz

Curtis Brown, better known by his stage name Casanova Fly a.k.a Grandmaster Caz, is an American rapper, songwriter and DJ. He currently works as a celebrity tour guide for Hush Hip Hop Tours, a hip-hop cultural sightseeing tour company in New York City.

Ray Charles

Ray Charles was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called “Brother Ray”. He was often referred to as “The Genius”. Charles started losing his vision at the age of 5, and by 7 he was blind.

George Clinton

George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer. His Parliament-Funkadelic collective developed an influential and eclectic form of funk music during the 1970s that drew on science fiction, fashion, psychedelic culture, and surreal humor.

Nat King Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles, known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American jazz pianist and vocalist. He recorded over one hundred songs that became hits on the pop charts. His trio was the model for small jazz ensembles that followed.

John Coltrane

John Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes and was at the forefront of free jazz.

Sam Cooke

Samuel Cook, known professionally as Sam Cooke, was an American singer, songwriter, civil-rights activist, and entrepreneur. Influential as both a singer and composer, he is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocals and importance within popular music.

Film & TV

Scatman Crothers

Benjamin Sherman Crothers, known professionally as Scatman Crothers, was an American actor and musician. He played Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man and Dick Hallorann in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

Dorothy Jean Dandridge

Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American film and theatre actress, singer, and dancer. She is perhaps one of the most famous black actresses to have a successful Hollywood career and the first to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in the film Carmen Jones.

Miles Davis

Miles Davis was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music.

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Samuel Davis Jr. was an American singer, musician, dancer, actor, vaudevillian, comedian and activist known for his impressions of actors, musicians and other celebrities. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame for being one of the Greatest Entertainers in the World.

De La Soul

De La Soul is an American hip hop trio formed in 1988 in the Amityville area of Long Island, New York. They are best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop subgenres.

Death

Death is an American rock band formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1971 by brothers Bobby (bass, vocals), David (guitar), and Dannis (drums) Hackney. The trio started out as a funk band but switched to rock after seeing a concert by The Who. Seeing Alice Cooper play was also an inspiration.

Digital Underground

Digital Underground was an American alternative hip hop group from Oakland, California. Their personnel changed and rotated with each album and tour.

DMX

Earl Simmons, known professionally as DMX, was an American rapper and actor. He began rapping in the early 1990s and released his debut album It's Dark and Hell Is Hot in 1998, to both critical acclaim and commercial success, selling 251,000 copies within its first week of release. DMX released his best-selling album, …And Then There Was X, in 1999, which included the hit single “Party Up (Up in Here)”.

Fats Domino

Antoine “Fats” Domino Jr. was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 hits.

Lamont Dozier

Lamont Herbert Dozier was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Detroit, Michigan. He co-wrote and produced 14 US Billboard number-one hits and four number ones in the UK.

Earth, Wind & Fire

Earth, Wind & Fire (abbreviated as EW&F or simply EWF) is an American band that has spanned the musical genres of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, disco, pop, rock, dance, Latin, and Afro pop. They have been described as one of the most innovative and commercially successful acts of all time.

“Duke” Ellington

“Duke” Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death over a career spanning more than six decades. Ellington was noted for his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and for his eloquence and charisma.

EPMD

EPMD is an American hip hop duo from Brentwood, New York. The duo's name is a concatenation of the members' names “E” and “PMD” or an acronym for “Erick and Parrish Making Dollars”, referencing its members: emcees Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith.

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald was an American jazz singer sometimes referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz, and Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, intonation, and a “horn-like” improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

DJ Grandmaster Flash

Joseph Saddler, better known by his stage name Grandmaster Flash is an American hip hop recording artist and DJ. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, scratching and mixing.

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. By the end of the 1960s, Aretha Franklin had come to be known as “The Queen of Soul”.

Doug E. Fresh

Douglas Davis, better known by his stage name Doug E. Fresh, is a Barbadian-born American rapper, record producer and beatboxer, also known as the “Human Beat Box”.

Gap Band

The Gap Band was an American R&B and funk band that rose to fame during the 1970s and 1980s. The band consisted of three brothers Charlie, Ronnie, and Robert Wilson.

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of hits, earning him the nicknames “Prince of Motown” and “Prince of Soul”.

Berry Gordy

Berry Gordy III is an American record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries, which was the highest-earning African-American business for decades.

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey Hancock is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer and actor. He helped redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the post-bop sound (with the Miles Davis Quintet).

Jay Hawkins

Jalacy “Screamin’ Jay” Hawkins was an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, film producer, and boxer. Famed chiefly for his powerful, operatic vocal delivery and wildly theatrical performances of songs such as “I Put a Spell on You.”

Issac Hayes

Isaac Hayes was an American singer, songwriter, actor, and producer. Hayes was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a session musician and record producer.

Heavy D and The Boyz

Heavy D & the Boyz was a group which included Heavy D, the former leader, along with dancers/background vocalists G-Whiz, “Trouble” T. Roy, and Eddie F.

“Jimi“ Hendrix

“Jimi“ Hendrix was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His mainstream career lasted only four years, but he is widely regarded as one of the most influential guitarists in history and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century.

Nona Hendryx

Nona Hendryx, is an American vocalist, record producer, songwriter, musician, author, and actress. Hendryx is known for her work as a solo artist as well as for being one-third of the trio Labelle, who had a hit with “Lady Marmalade.”

Billie Holiday

Eleanora Fagan, better known as Billie Holiday, was an African American jazz singer with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed “Lady Day” by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing.

Lena Horne

Lena Horne was an American singer, dancer, actress, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned over 70 years appearing in film, television, and theater. Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of 16 and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood.

Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston was an American singer and actress. She was cited as the most awarded female artist of all time by Guinness World Records and remains one of the best-selling music artists of all time with 200 million records sold worldwide.

Ice-T

Tracy Lauren Marrow, better known by his stage name Ice-T, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and producer. He began his career as an underground rapper in the 1980s and was signed to Sire Records in 1987, when he released his debut album Rhyme Pays ‐ reportedly the first hip-hop album to carry an explicit content sticker.

The Isley Brothers

The Isley Brothers are an American musical group that started as a vocal trio consisting of brothers O’Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley, and Ronald Isley. The group has been cited as having enjoyed one of the “longest, most influential, and most diverse careers in the pantheon of popular music”.

“Freddie” Jackson

“Freddie” Jackson is an American Grammy-nominated singer. Originally from New York, Jackson began his professional music career in the late 1970s with the California funk band Mystic Merlin.

Janet Jackson

Janet Jackson is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. A prominent figure in popular culture, she is known for sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, and elaborate stage shows.

The Jackson 5

The Jackson 5 are an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was founded in 1964 in Gary, Indiana, by Joe Jackson, as well as by brothers Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine, with younger brothers Marlon and Michael joining soon after.

Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson was an American gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. With a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was integral to the development and spread of gospel blues in black churches throughout the U.S.

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Dubbed the “King of Pop”, he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest entertainers.

Grace Jones

Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American model, singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. In 2016, Billboard magazine ranked her as the 40th greatest dance club artist of all time.

Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans over 60 years in the entertainment industry with a record 80 Grammy Award nominations, 28 Grammys, and a Grammy Legend Award.

Big Daddy Kane

Antonio Hardy, better known by his stage name Big Daddy Kane, is a Grammy Award-winning American rapper and actor who started his career in 1986 as a member of the rap collective the Juice Crew. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential and skilled MCs in hip hop.

Chaka Khan

Yvette Marie Stevens, better known by her stage name Chaka Khan, is an American singer, songwriter and musician. Her career has spanned nearly five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus.

Kid ’n Play

Kid ’n Play is a hip-hop duo from New York City that was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Besides their successful musical careers, they are also notable for branching out into acting.

Gladys Knight & The Pips

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an R&B/soul family musical act from Atlanta, Georgia that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for three decades.

Kool Moe Dee

Mohandas Dewese, better known by his stage name Kool Moe Dee, is an American rapper, writer and actor. Considered one of the forerunners of the new jack swing sound in hip hop, he gained fame in the 1980s as a member of one of the pioneering groups in hip hop music, the Treacherous Three, and for his later solo career.

Fela Kuti

Fela Kuti, or simply Fela, was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, musician, composer, pioneer of the Afrobeat music genre and human rights activist. At the height of his popularity, he was referred to as one of Africa's most “challenging and charismatic music performers.”

Patti LaBelle

Patti LaBelle is an American singer, actress, and businesswoman. LaBelle began her career in the early 1960s as lead singer of the vocal group, LaBelle. They later released the iconic disco song “Lady Marmalade” which later was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Queen Latifah

Dana Elaine Owens, known professionally as Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actress, and producer. She has long been considered one of hip-hop's pioneer feminists.

Living Colour

Living Colour is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. The band currently consists of guitarist Vernon Reid, lead vocalist Corey Glover, drummer Will Calhoun and bassist Doug Wimbish. Stylistically, their music is a creative fusion influenced by heavy metal, funk, jazz, hip hop, punk, and alternative rock.

LL Cool J

James Todd Smith, known professionally as LL Cool J, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. His breakthrough success came with his single “I Need a Beat” and his debut album, Radio, in 1985.

MC Lyte

Lana Michelle Moorer, known professionally as MC Lyte, is an American rapper who first gained fame in the late 1980s, becoming the first solo female rapper to release a full LP with 1988's critically acclaimed Lyte as a Rock. She has long been considered one of hip-hop's pioneer feminists.

Miriam Makeba

Zenzile Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, United Nations goodwill ambassador, and civil rights activist. Associated with various musical genres, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.

Bob Marley

Robert Nesta Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by blending elements of reggae, ska, and rocksteady, as well as forging a smooth and distinctive vocal and songwriting style.

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis is an American virtuoso trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences.

Curtis Mayfield

Curtis Mayfield was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music.

The Miracles

The Miracles were an American rhythm and blues vocal group that was the first successful recording act for Berry Gordy's Motown Records, and one of the most important and influential groups in pop, rock and roll, and R&B music history.

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer. Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed more than a thousand pieces, whereas Monk wrote about 70.

Rudy Ray Moore

Rudolph Frank Moore, known as Rudy Ray Moore, was an American comedian, singer, actor, and film producer. He created the character Dolemite, the pimp from the 1975 film Dolemite and its sequels, The Human Tornado and The Return of Dolemite.

N.W.A

N.W.A (Niggaz Wit Attitudes) was an American hip-hop group. They were among the earliest and most significant popularizers and controversial figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, and are widely considered one of the greatest and most influential groups in the history of hip-hop music.

Naughty By Nature

Naughty by Nature is an American hip hop trio from East Orange, New Jersey consisting of Treach (Anthony Criss), Vin Rock (Vincent Brown), and DJ Kay Gee (Keir Lamont Gist).

Nichelle Nichols

Nichelle Nichols is an American actress, singer, and voice artist. She sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before turning to acting. Nichols played Nyota Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek television series, as well as the succeeding motion pictures.

The Notorious B.I.G.

Christopher Wallace, known professionally as The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or Biggie, was an American rapper. Widely considered to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. He was noted for his “loose, easy flow”; dark, semi-autobiographical lyrics; and storytelling abilities.

Outkast

Outkast were an American hip hop duo formed in 1992 in East Point, Georgia, consisting of Atlanta-based rappers André “3000” Benjamin and Antwan “Big Boi” Patton. Outkast is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential hip hop acts of all time.

Charley Frank Pride

Charley Frank Pride was an American singer, guitarist, and professional baseball player. His greatest musical success came in the early to mid-1970s, when he was the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley.

Prince

Prince was an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, actor, and filmmaker. With a career spanning four decades, Prince was known for his eclectic work and flamboyant stage appearances. He was also a multi-instrumentalist and regarded as a guitar virtuoso.

Public Enemy

Public Enemy is an American hip hop group known for their politically charged music and criticism of the American media, with an active interest in the frustrations and concerns of the African American community.

Rakim

William Michael Griffin Jr., better known by his stage name Rakim, is an American rapper. One half of golden age hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential and most skilled MCs of all time.

Ma Rainey

Gertrude “Ma” Rainey was an influential American blues singer and early blues recording artist. Dubbed the “Mother of the Blues”, she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of southern blues, influencing a generation of blues singers.

Lou Rawls

Louis Allen Rawls was an American singer, songwriter, actor, voice actor, and record producer. Rawls released more than 60 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably his song “You'll Never Find Another Love like Mine”.

Ishmael Reed

Ishmael Scott Reed is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, playwright, editor and publisher known for his satirical works challenging American political culture. Perhaps his best-known work is Mumbo Jumbo, a sprawling and unorthodox novel set in 1920s New York.

Della Reese

Delloreese Patricia Early, known professionally as Della Reese, was an American jazz and gospel singer, actress, and ordained minister whose career spanned seven decades. She began her long career as a singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single “Don't You Know?”.

Diana Ross

Diana Ross is an American singer, actress, and record producer. Ross rose to fame as the lead singer of the Supremes, becoming Motown's most successful act, and are the best charting girl group in U.S. history, as well as one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time.

Ursula Rucker

Ursula Rucker is an American spoken word recording artist. Rucker is known for a diverse repertoire, and for using techniques that catch her listeners’ attention.

Run-D.M.C.

Run-D.M.C. was an American hip hop group, founded in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential acts in the history of hip hop culture and one of the most famous hip hop acts of the 1980s.

Sade

Helen Folasade Adu, CBE, known professionally as Sade Adu or simply Sade, is a British Nigerian singer, songwriter, and actress, known as the lead singer of her eponymous band.

Salt ’n Pepa

Salt-N-Pepa is an American hip-hop girl group formed in 1985. Group members included Salt, Pepa, and DJ Spinderella.

Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders is an American jazz saxophonist. A member of John Coltrane's groups of the mid-1960s, Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of “sheets of sound”.

Mongo Santamaria

Ramón “Mongo” Santamaría Rodríguez was a Cuban percussionist and bandleader who spent most of his career in the United States. Primarily a conga drummer, Santamaría was a leading figure in the pachanga and boogaloo dance crazes of the 1960s.

Music

Scarface

Brad Terrence Jordan, better known by his stage name Scarface, is an American rapper, record producer, and politician, best known as a member of the Geto Boys, a hip hop group from Houston, Texas. In 2012, The Source ranked him #16 on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time.

Tupac Shakur

Tupac Amaru Shakur, known professionally as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Much of Shakur's work has been noted for addressing contemporary social issues that plagued inner cities, and he is considered a symbol of resistance and activism against inequality.

Roxanne Shanté

Lolita Shanté Gooden, better known by her stage name Roxanne Shanté, is an American rapper. Born and raised in the Queensbridge Projects of Queens, New York City, Shanté first gained attention through the ‘Roxanne Wars’ and was part of the Juice Crew. The 2017 film, Roxanne Roxanne, is a dramatization of Shanté's life.

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was an American blues singer. Nicknamed the Empress of the Blues, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists.

Donna Summer

LaDonna Adrian Gaines, widely known by her stage name, Donna Summer, was an singer, songwriter and actress. She gained prominence during the disco era of the late 1970s and became known as the “Queen of Disco”, while her music gained a global following.

The Temptations

The Temptations are an American vocal group who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s.

Rosetta Tharpe

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She attained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and rhythmic accompaniment that was a precursor of rock and roll.

Peter Tosh

Peter Tosh, OM was a Jamaican reggae musician. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, he was one of the core members of the band the Wailers, after which he established himself as a successful solo artist and a promoter of Rastafari.

Tina Turner

Tina Turner is a retired singer, songwriter, and actress who is internationally recognized. One of the best-selling recording artists of all time, she has been referred to as The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll and has sold more than 200 million records worldwide.

UGK

UGK (short for Underground Kingz) were a hip-hop duo from Port Arthur, Texas, USA. Formed in 1987 by long-time friends Chad “Pimp C” Butler and Bernard “Bun B” Freeman, they were highly respected by many of their peers, due in part to their longevity and their entrenchment in hip-hop's underground.

Fats Waller

Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, violinist, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano.

Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the “father of modern Chicago blues.” His style of playing has been described as “raining down Delta beatitude.”

Junior Wells

Junior Wells was an American Chicago blues vocalist, harmonica player, and recording artist. He was one of the pioneers of the amplified blues harp-style associated with Chicago. Wells is best known for his signature song “Messin' with the Kid” and his 1965 album Hoodoo Man Blues.

Mary Wells

Mary Esther Wells was an American singer, who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s.

Barry White

Barry Carter, known as Barry White, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and composer. A three-time Grammy Award–winner known for his distinctive bass-baritone voice and romantic image, his greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer.

Bobby Womack

Robert Womack was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Starting as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, his career spanned more than 60 years and multiple styles, including R&B and soul.

Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris, better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. A prominent figure in popular music, he is one of the most successful musicians of the 20th century.