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Category: African American History

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Happy Birthday John Coltrane!

Posted by: Pat Padua

One of the great tenor (and soprano) saxophone voices, composer John Coltrane was born on September 23, 1926.  The Music Division has a number of  lead sheets that Coltrane submitted to copyright for compositions such as “Blue Train” and “Moment’s Notice.” The Library is also home to a set of tapes recorded at a performance by …

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Happy Birthday Prez and Bird

Posted by: Pat Padua

Today, as will happen every other Friday for the next several months, additional batches of photographs from the William P. Gottlieb Collection have been uploaded to Flickr . This week’s set is particularly varied, with classic portraits of Duke Ellington, Billy Eckstine, Tommy Dorsey,  Doris Day, Nat “King” Cole, and Perry Como.  In addition to these portraits are …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Happy Birthday Count Basie

Posted by: Pat Padua

Pianist, bandleader, composer, William “Count” Basie was born on this day in 1904. Some of the greatest names in jazz passed through his band, from tenor legend Lester Young to singers like Bille Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, and Joe Williams, just to name three. Basie’s career spanned fifty years and did not shy from whatever music happened …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Posted by: Pat Padua

This post is excerpted from an article written by James Wolf, Digital Conversion Specialist, Music Division. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (named after the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge) was born in Croydon, England on August 15, 1875.  Coleridge-Taylor studied with Charles Villiers Stanford, and at the suggestion of Edward Elgar, was commissioned to write a piece for a …

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Gottlieb Jazz Photos on Flickr

Posted by: Larry Appelbaum

William P. Gottlieb (1917-2006) is one of the most celebrated jazz photographers. His iconic images documenting the great stylists and innovators in American jazz and popular music have been studied and reproduced for generations, and his collection of photographs is one of the Library’s great treasures. The Music Division is now pleased to announce the …

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Robert Cole

Posted by: Pat Padua

This post is abridged from a biography written by James Wolf, Digital Conversion Specialist, Music Division, for African-American Band Music & Recordings, 1883-1923 in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Read the entire article here. Robert Allen Cole was born on July 1, 1868, in Athens, Georgia, the son of former slaves. Like Will Marion Cook and James …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Happy Birthday Sir Duke

Posted by: Pat Padua

Otto. Cutey. Stinkpot. Wucker. Dumplin’. Maestro. Big Red. Head Knocker. Puddin’. These are some of the many nicknames given the man born Edward Kennedy, whom we all know as “Duke” Ellington. Born April 29, 1899 in Washington, D.C., Ellington was one of the great jazz bandleaders, pianists, and composers. The Music Division is home to …