Africa History

Where would modern music be without its African American influences? Rock and roll would not exist, R&B would be just two letters, and rap would have never have seen the light of day. Whether you are a fan of The Temptations, Puff Daddy, Eric Clapton or Elvis, it all boils down to their early African American influences. Here are a few familiar and probably a few unknown African Americans who are responsible for today's music.

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)

One of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, Louis Armstrong was responsible for innovations that filtered down through popular music to rock and roll. Armstrong himself put it like this: "If it hadn't been for jazz, there wouldn't be no rock and roll." If it hadn't been for Armstrong, popular music of all kinds - from jazz and blues to rock and roll - would be considerably poorer.

Charlie Christian (1919-1942)

Charlie Christian elevated the guitar as a lead instrument on par with the saxophone and trumpet in jazz and popular music. His single-string technique established a solo style that was carried on by such contemporaries asT-Bone Walkerand emulated by later disciples like B.B. King andChuck Berry.

Though his life was short, his hornlike, single-note style, which capitalized on innovations in amplification technology, revolutionized and redefined the role of the electric guitar in popular music. The reverberations from Christian's pioneering efforts have echoed down the decades, through Western swing, rockabilly and rock and roll to the present day.

Willie Dixon (1915-1992)

Willie Dixon has been called "the poet laureate of the blues" and "the father of modern Chicago blues." He was indisputably the pre-eminent blues songwriter of his era, credited with writing more than 500 songs by the end of his life. Moreover, Dixon is a towering figure in the history and creation of Chicago blues on other fronts. While on staff at Chess Records, Dixon produced, arranged, and played bass on sessions forChuck Berry,Muddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson, and others. In no small way, he served as a crucial link between the blues and rock and roll.

Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972)

Mahalia Jackson reigned as a pioneer interpreter of gospel music whose fervent contralto was one of the great voices of this century. Both gospel and rhythm & blues had their roots in the Sanctified church, but whereas blues and R&B departed on secular paths that led to rock and roll, gospel stayed the spiritual course. Nonetheless, the influence of gospel on R&B and rock and roll, especially through such force-of-nature voices as Jackson's, is inescapable. In Jackson's own words, "Rock and roll was stolen out of the sanctified church!"

Robert Johnson (1911-1938)

Robert Johnson stands at the crossroads of American music, much as a popular folk legend has it he once stood at Mississippi crossroads and sold his soul to the devil in exchange for guitar-playing prowess. He became the first modern bluesman, linking the country blues of the Mississippi Delta with the city blues of the post-World War II era. Johnson was a songwriter of searing depth and a guitar player with a commanding ability that inspired no less an admirer than Keith Richard ofthe Rolling Stonesto exclaim, "When I first heard [him], I was hearing two guitars, and it took me a long time to realize he was actually doing it all by himself."

Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter

(1885-1949)

Huddie Ledbetter, better known to the world as "Lead Belly," survived a life that included brutalizing poverty and long stretches in prison to become an emblematic folk singer and musician. He is renowned for his songs - the best known of which include "Rock Island Line," "Goodnight, Irene," "The Midnight Special" and "Cotton Fields" - as well as his prowess on the 12-string guitar. In his sixty-plus years, he essentially lived two distinctly different lives: first, as a field worker, blues singer, rambling man and prisoner in the rural South; second, as a city-dwelling folksinger, performer and recording artist in the urban North. It was, however, not until shortly after Lead Belly's death that a broader public came to know his songs and the mythic outline of his life.

The Orioles:

Sonny Til, Tommy Gaither, George Nelson, Johnny Reed, and Alexander Sharp.

The Orioles have been called "the first R&B vocal group." Formed in 1947 as the Vibranaires in their hometown of Baltimore, they changed their name tothe Orioles(the Maryland state bird) a year later. These five street-corner harmony pioneers imparted a skilled, soulful edge to the standard pop-crooning style of the day, and their appearance marked a shift in popular taste from big bands to small vocal groups. The Orioles established the basic pattern for the doo-wop sound.

Aaron "T-Bone" Walker (1910-1975)

Aaron Walker pioneered the electric guitar sound that helped create the blues and thus influenced all popular music that followed.

He played one of the first electric guitars in the mid-'30s, recording with it in 1939. His "T-Bone Blues," recorded as a member of Les Hite's Cotton Club Orchestra, and "Stormy Monday" both became blues classics, demonstrating his jazz-based blues style.

His single-string solos influenced blues players like B.B. King and such rockers asEric Claptonand Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Howlin' Wolf (1910-1975)

Howlin' Wolf ranks among the most electrifying performers in blues history, as well as one of its greatest characters. He was a ferocious, full-bodied singer whose gruff, rasping vocals embodied the blues at its most unbridled. A large man who stood more than six feet tall and weighed nearly 300 pounds, Howlin' Wolf cut an imposing figure, which he utilized to maximum effect when performing. In the words of blues historian Bob Santelli, "Wolf acted out his most potent blues, becoming the living embodiment of its most powerful forces." Howlin' Wolf cut his greatest work in the Fifties for the Chicago-based Chess Records.

Howlin' Wolf served to influence such blues-based rock musicians asthe Rolling StonesandEric Clapton.

Jimmy Yancey (1898-1951)

Jimmy Yancey is the progenitor of boogie-woogie piano, a style that eventually became a recognizable element of uptempo blues and early rock and roll. The boogie-woogie craze came and went in the latter half of the Thirties, but Yancey had actually been playing in that style as far back as the 1910s and 1920s. A self-taught pianist, singer and dancer, he performed in a style characterized by rolling, rhythmic lines from his left hand played off against percussive accents from the right hand.

Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (1886-1939)

IfBessie Smithis the acknowledged "Queen of the Blues," then Gertrude "Ma" Rainey is the undisputed "Mother of the Blues." As music historian Chris Albertson has written, "If there was another woman who sang the blues before Rainey, nobody remembered hearing her." Rainey fostered the blues idiom, and she did so by linking the earthy spirit of country blues with the classic style and delivery ofBessie Smith. She often played with such outstanding jazz accompanists asLouis Armstrongand Fletcher Henderson, but she was more at home fronting a jugband or washboard band.