Pittsburgh Courier, Washington Bureau collection, 1946-1968.

Dunham, Katherine, 1909-2006

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67q9rd4 (person)

Legendary dancer, choreographer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham was born June 22, 1909, to an African American father and French-Canadian mother who died when she was young. At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student at the University of Chicago.During her studies, Dunham attended a lecture on anthropology, where she was introduced to the concept of dance as a cultural symbol. Intrigued by this ...

Hampton, Lionel

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fv9bkn (person)

Lionel Hampton was born in Louisville, Kentucky on April 20, 1908. He died on August 31, 2002 in New York City. He showed a talent for music at an early age and by high school, was playing drums with a jazz band organized by his employer, a newspaper called the Chicago Defender. Later, he attended classes in music theory at the University of Southern California and gained a reputation as a great drummer on the West Coast. In 1930, Louis Armstrong, when working for Les Hite’s band, a...

Holiday, Billie, 1915-1959

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v22wb8 (person)

Billie Holiday (1915-1959), an African American blues and jazz singer, was born Eleanora Holiday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 7, 1915. The daughter of Clarence Holiday and Sadie Fagan, Holiday began singing in the early 1930s and was discovered by John Hammond in 1933 at a Harlem jazz club. Her career included performances with Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw. Holiday recorded on the Commodore, Columbia, and Decca record labels; her most famous recordings include "Strange Fr...

Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m43ks8 (person)

Duke Ellington (b. Edward Kennedy Ellington, April 29, 1899, Washington, DC–d. May 24, 1974, New York, NY) was a composer, pianist, and jazz orchestra leader. He began piano lessons at 7 and wrote his first composition, "Soda Fountain Rag", in 1914. Ellington became a more serious piano student as a teenager after hearing poolroom pianists in Washington, DC. Ellington moved to Harlem, ultimately becoming part of the Harlem Renaissance in the early 1920s. He began a regular booking at the Cott...

Armstrong, Louis, 1901-1971

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cd1qpd (person)

Louis Armstrong, a jazz musician and entertainer, was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He claimed to have been born on July 4, 1900, which is the date given on his World War I draft card. However, recent research gives good documentation to the August 4, 1901 date, including his baptismal certificate. Some sources also cite 1898 as his birth date. He died on July 6, 1971. Armstrong was born and raised in New Orleans. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet a...

Pittsburgh Courier Publishing Co. Washington Bureau

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Fitzgerald, Ella, 1917-1996

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h23r0d (person)

Ella Fitzgerald (b. April 25, 1917, Newport News, VA–d. June 15, 1996, Beverly Hills, CA) was an American jazz singer often 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 and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. After tumultuous teenage years, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country, but...

Jolley, Levi

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67x45kh (person)

Washington, Dinah, 1924-1963

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mw4054 (person)

Warren, Hugo

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60w6667 (person)

Muddy Waters 1915-1983

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v990p2 (person)

McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 – April 30, 1983),known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II 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". Muddy Waters grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi, and by age 17 was playing the guitar and the harmonica, emulating local blues artists Son H...

Lowery, E. Josephine

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60d2pzj (person)