People, Locations, Episodes

Professor Longhair, New Orleans Musician born

Professor Longhair was born this date 1918. He was an African American blues and jazz musician.

Born Henry Roeland Byrd in Bogalusa, Louisiana, he lived in New Orleans from the age of two onward. As a child, he learned how to play on an old piano that had been left in an alley. He seriously began to master the instrument while working at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in 1937. After a stint in the service during World War II, he returned to New Orleans and began playing at clubs like the Caledonia Bar just outside the French Quarter.

George Treadwell, Musician, and Band Manager born

*George Treadwell was born on this date in 1918. He was a Black jazz trumpeter, songwriter, and band manager. George McKinley Treadwell was from New Rochelle, New York. He played in the house band in Harlem in 1941–1942, then worked with Benny Carter in 1942 in Florida. Following stints with Ace Harris’ Sunset Royals and Tiny Bradshaw, […]

David Bartholomew, Musician born

*David Bartholomew was born on this date in 1918.  He was a Black musician, bandleader, composer, arranger, and record producer. David Louis Bartholomew was born in Edgard, Louisiana, to Mary and Louis Bartholomew. He learned to play his father’s preferred instrument, the tuba and then took up the trumpet, taught to him by Peter Davis, who had also tutored Louis Armstrong. Around 1933, Bartholomew moved with […]

Herbie Nichols, Pianist, and Composer born

*Herbie Nichols was born on this date in 1919.  He was a Black jazz pianist and composer.   Herbert Horatio Nichols was born in San Juan Hill, Manhattan, New York City, to parents from St. Kitts and Trinidad and grew up in Harlem.  During much of his life, he took work as a Dixieland musician while working on the more adventurous kind of jazz he preferred.  He is best […]

Mercer Ellington, Composer, and Arranger born

*Mercer Ellington was born on this date in 1919.  He was a Black musician, composer, and arranger.  Mercer Kennedy Ellington was born in Washington, D.C.   He was the only child of the composer, pianist, and bandleader Duke Ellington and Edna Thompson.  He grew up primarily in Harlem from the age of eight.  Ellington attended New College for the Education of Teachers at Columbia University, New York University, and […]

Luther Henderson, Musical Director born

*The birth of Luther Henderson in 1919 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black musical director, dance arranger, and orchestra composer from Kansas City, Missouri.

Nat King Cole, Musician, and Singer born

*This date remembers Nat King Cole, born in 1919. He was an African American musician and singer.

Nathaniel Adams Cole was born in Montgomery, Alabama, but grew up in Chicago. In 1937, after touring with a Black musical revue, he began playing in jazz clubs in Los Angeles. There he formed the King Cole Trio, with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince, in 1939. With his compact, syncopated backup chords and clean, spare, melodic phrases, Cole emphasized the piano as a solo, rather than a rhythm, instrument in his jazz arrangements.

The National Association of Negro Musicians is Formed

*The National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM) was formed on this date in 1919.  They are one of the oldest organizations in the United States dedicated to the preservation, encouragement, and advocacy of all genres of the music of African Americans.   NANM started in Washington, D.C., at a temporary initial conference of “Negro” musicians […]

Irv Williams, Saxophonist born

*Irv Williams was born on this date in 1919.   He is a Black jazz musician and educator.  From Cincinnati, Ohio, he is one of two children of LeRoy and Georgia Williams (both educators) and has a sister Sibyl.  He was named after his grandfather, educator, and activist Irving Garland Penn, who he always admired. He […]

Art Blakey, Musician, and Bandleader born

*Art Blakey was born on this date in 1919. This African American man was one of the finest musicians and band leaders in the history of jazz.

Lillian Green, Blues Singer born

*Lillian Green was born on this date in 1919. She was a Black blues singer and songwriter. She was born in Mississippi, but after the early deaths of her parents, she went to Chicago, where she began performing in her teens and where she would make all her recordings. Lil Green was noted for superb timing and […]

The Roseland Ballroom Opens in New York City

*The opening of the Roseland Ballroom in New York occurred on this date in 1919.  This was a multipurpose hall where Black singers and musicians performed.  Roseland was founded in Philadelphia in 1917 by Louis Brecker with financing from Frank Yuengling of the D. G. Yuengling & Son beer family.   In 1919, to escape Philadelphia’s […]

Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith, Musician born

*Willie “Big Eyes” Smith was born on this date in 1920.  He was a Black musician (Harp and Drums).  From Helena, Arkansas, his grandparents, who were sharecroppers outside of town on the Epps Plantation, raised him.   His connection to the Blues had many coincidences that linked him to his present life.  Robert Nighthawk had a […]

Carmen McRae, Jazz Singer born

*Carmen McRae was born on this date in 1920. She was a Black jazz vocalist and pianist.

John Lewis, Pianist, and Composer born

John Lewis was born on this date in 1920. He was an African American jazz and classic composer and keyboardist.