People, Locations, Episodes

Valaida Snow, Entertainer born

Valaida Snow was born on this date in 1905. She was an African American musician and entertainer.

Born in Cleveland City, TN, she was raised in an intensely musical family. mother Etta Washington Snow taught Valaida to play cello, bass, violin, banjo, mandolin, harp, accordion, clarinet, saxophone, and trumpet. She also sang and danced. By the time she was 15 years old, she was entertaining professionally and had decided to concentrate on trumpet and vocals. She had two sisters and three brothers. Her sisters Lavaida and Hattie, and brother, Aviator, were also professional singers.

Doc Cheatham, Trumpeter born

On this date in 1905, Doc Cheatham, an African American musician, was born.

Anthony Adolphus Cheatham was born in Nashville, TN. He started drumming at age 15, switched to saxophone and cornet, and while still a teenager was playing in the pit band at Nashville’s Bijou Theater, backing all the blues-singing Smiths–Bessie, Clara, and Mamie–as well as Ethel Waters. He moved to Chicago in the mid-1920s, washing dishes at a Loop restaurant while he waited for his union card. His first gig was at Dreamland, Al Capone’s club on State Street, playing with Louis Armstrong and King Oliver.

Meade Lux Lewis, Pianist born

*On this date in 1905, Meade Lux Lewis was born. He was an African American jazz pianist.

Roosevelt Sykes, Blues Pianist born

*On this date in 1906, Roosevelt Sykes was born. He was an African American blues singer and musician.

From Elmar, Arkansas, Sykes began playing while growing up in Helena, Arkansas. At age 15, he hit the road, developing his rowdy barrelhouse style around the blues-fertile St. Louis area. Sykes began recording in 1929 for OKeh and the next year was signed to four different labels under four different names (among them-Dobby Bragg, Willie Kelly, and Easy Papa Johnson)!

Lil Brother, Blues Singer born

Little Brother” Montgomery was born on this date in 1906. He was an African American blues singer and pianist.

Bob Howard, Comedian, and Singer born

Bob Howard was born on this date in 1906. He was an African American pianist, comedian, and actor of the Broadway stage, radio, and television.

Eddie Durham, Jazz Musician born

*Eddie Durham was born on this date in 1906. He was an African American musician, composer and inventor.

From San Marcos, Texas, he was the son of Joe Durham who played the fiddle at square dances. Young Durham’s oldest brother, Joe played cello briefly with Nat King Cole, took correspondence lessons and in turn taught Eddie and his other brothers to read and notate music. Together with cousins Allen and Clyde Durham, Durhams and his brother Roosevelt formed the Durham Brothers Band around 1920. They were later joined in Dallas by another cousin, Herschel Evans a tenor saxophonist.

Victoria Spivey, Blues Singer born

On this date in 1906, Victoria Spivey was born. She was an African American blues singer.

Bukka White, Musician born

*Bukka White was born on this date in 1906.  He was a Black Delta blues guitarist and singer. Born Booker T. Washington White, he was from south of Houston, Mississippi.  He was a first cousin of B.B. King, whose mother and King’s grandmother were sisters.  He played National resonator guitars in an open tuning, typically with a slide. He was one of the few, along with Skip James, to use […]

Roberta Martin, Gospel Singer born

*Roberta Martin was born on this date in 1907. She was African American gospel singer, pianist, composer and publisher.

From Helena, AR she was one of six children born to William and Anna Winston. At the age of six, young Martin took piano lessons from her brother’s wife. When she was eight, the family moved to Cairo, Illinois and then to Chicago. This talented pianist started a quartet with Theodore Frye in the ’30s. In 1933, after hearing the Bertha Wise Singers of Georgia, she adopted the Wise gospel piano style.

Wilhelmina M. Goodson, Pianist, and Singer born

*Wilhelmina Madison Goodson was born on this date in 1907. She was a Black jazz pianist and singer. Known professionally as Billie Pierce, Wilhelmina (Billie) Goodson was born in Marianna, Florida, and grew up in Pensacola, Florida. She was one of six piano-playing sisters (including Ida Goodson and Sadie Goodson) whose father, Madison H. Goodson, and mother, […]

Johnny Hodges, Saxophonist born

Johnny Hodges was born on this date in 1907. He was an African American saxophonist.

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and regarded by his peers as possessing a natural gift, he was mostly self-taught. He received some instruction from Sidney Bechet, whom he replaced in Willie “The Lion” Smith’s band in the early 1920s. He joined Chick Webb’s band in 1926, and two years later began his legendary association with Ellington that would last essentially until the end of his life.

Ernestine Davis, Jazz Musician born

*Ernestine “Tiny” Davis was born this date in 1909. She was an African American jazz trumpeter and vocalist.

From Memphis, TN, she was the youngest of seven children born to George and Leanna (nee White) Carroll. She had 4 older sisters and 2 older brothers. She married Clarence Davis in her youth and they had 3 children, 1 son and 2 daughters.

Benny Carter, Jazz Musician born

*On this date in 1907, Benny Carter was born. He was an African American Saxophonist, Trumpeter, Composer, and Bandleader.

Albert Ammons, Jazz Pianist born

*Albert Ammons was born on this date in 1907.  He was a Black pianist and player of boogie-woogie, a bluesy jazz style popular from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s.   Albert Clifton Ammons was born in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were pianists, and he had learned to play by the age of ten. His interest in boogie-woogie is attributed to his close friendship […]