Bob Dylan is generally regarded as the greatest songwriter in the history of pop/rock music. As an influence on the development of pop music of the last 50 years, Dylan is without peers. Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman in Hibbing, Minnesota, in the thick of northern mining country. During his…

Nehemiah Curtis James was born near Yazoo City, Mississippi, in 1902. James was raised just south of the Mississippi Delta near Bentonia, on the Whitehead plantation, where his mother was the plantation cook. James’s friends named him “Skippy” due to his peculiar style of dancing. …

Mary Lou Williams is probably the most important female African-American jazz pianist. Williams was also a fine songwriter and arranger, and she worked with major jazz figures, including Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. Williams was born Mary Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1910. Williams played with Duke Ellington’s band, The…

Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell comprised one of the most influential musical partnerships in the history of the blues. Singer and pianist Carr teamed up with the brilliant guitarist Blackwell to form this legendary duo. Carr was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1905. Blackwell was born in Syracuse, South Carolina…

Among the ranks of female singer/songwriters, no woman has equaled the artistry or output of Joni Mitchell. Mitchell’s catalogue includes a slew of classic albums that run the musical gamut from folk to rock to jazz. Mitchell was born in Fort MacLeod, Alberta, Canada, in 1943. She began her career…

Ella Fitzgerald is among the finest female singers in the history of jazz music. She was the first female singer to make use of scat singing, a wordless form of vocalization that Louis Armstrong had introduced with his Hot Five recordings in the Twenties. Fitzgerald was born in Newport News…

Ali “Farka” Toure is among only a handful of African folk musicians who have found an audience for their music beyond the borders of the African continent. Toure’s involvement with American guitarist and musicologist Ry Cooder in the Nineties brought him to the attention of North American roots music listeners…

James Price Johnson was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1894. He was a ragtime-turned stride pianist whose composition, “The Charleston,” became one of the anthems of the “jazz age” of the Twenties. …

Booker T and the M.G.’s was the house band for Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, and as such, they appeared on virtually every single that Stax released during its heyday in the Sixties and early Seventies. …