For Black History Month

[jayem]

A few classic songs by Duke Ellington. Arguably, the greatest American jazz composer and band leader of all time. Who is also having his 120th birthday this April.

Vocals here by Ella. Who deserves Black History recognition on her own.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

Also, in honor of Black History Month, I would like to include the King of Pop.

 

[dzheremi]

Happy early birthday to the great Sir Duke, and happy Black History Month to everyone! This is a great thread.

Duke Ellington also went to Ethiopia in the 1970s in the last days of the Ethiopian monarchy to give a concert there (and eventually receive an award from the Emperor Haile Selassie), and while in the country he played with local jazz players like Mulatu Astatke (who you can read at the link was his guide for the trip), greatly influencing the development of jazz and popular music in that country (just as other African American greats like James Brown also did).

For other styles of uniquely African American music, we should also recognize the blues and and its baby rock'n'roll, and their great fathers and mothers. For me, Sister Rosetta Tharpe is the inventor of rock'n'roll, period. The standard Chuck Berry guitar intro may have been copped from an old jazz turnaround (I can't remember exactly where, but I've heard it on an old jazz 78 from the 1940s or so; I think it was Lionel Hampton, but I can't say for sure), and Ike Turner may have accidentally given the world guitar distortion on his infamous "Rocket 88" (which is a killer tune), but Sister Rosetta Tharpe deserves her own dang wing in the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame. She was doing this at a time when the Beatles were still playing standards in Hamburg and the Rolling Stones were still learning how to steal these kinds of riffs:

And for a master of the blues, since I was blessed to see him twice before he passed (RIP), I can't not include BB King's absolutely stunning performance at Singsing prison in 1973, which he apparently called his best (I'm tempted to agree, though the "Live at the Regal" concert is fantastic, too):