List of composers of African descent

This is a list of composers of African ancestry.

A

H. Leslie Adams

B

C

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor c. 1893

D

E

Duke Ellington at the Hurricane Club, Broadway, NYC

F

G

H

I

J

Scott Joplin

K

L

M

Thelonious Monk at Minton's Playhouse, 1947

N

Saint-Georges in 1768, aged 22
Price looking into the camera
Price, date unknown

P

R

S

William Grant Still

T

W

George Walker at right
Fats Waller

Z

Dates of birth and death are unknown for several composers whose music, published during the 19th century, is described in "Historical Notes on African-American and Jamaican Melodies". These composers include Harry Bloodgood, Samuel Butler, Dudley C. Clark, Harry Davis, Pete Devonear, Fred C. Lyons, Henry Newman, James S. Putnam, and Francis V. Seymour.

See also

References

  • Tim Brooks, Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890–1919, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004.
  • Samuel A. Floyd, Jr., editor, International Dictionary of Black Composers, Chicago: Center for Black Music Research, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, two volumes, 1999.
  • Eileen Southern, Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1982.
  • Lester Sullivan, "Composers of Color of Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: The History Behind the Music", Black Music Research Journal, vol. 8, no. 1 (1988), 51–82.