Sidney Joseph Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz, and first recorded several months before trumpeter Louis Armstrong. His erratic temperament hampered his career, and not until the late 1940s did he earn wide acclaim. Bechet spent much of his later life in France.
Henry Sterling Creamer was a popular song lyricist and theater producer. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, and died in New York. He co-wrote many popular songs in the years from 1900 to 1929, often collaborating with Turner Layton, with whom he also appeared in vaudeville. He was African American.
Black Swan Records was an American jazz and blues record label founded in 1921 in Harlem, New York. It was the first widely distributed label to be owned, operated, and marketed to African Americans. Founded by Harry Pace with W.C. Handy, Black Swan Records was established to give African Americans more creative liberties. Eighteen months earlier, in 1919, the Broome Special Phonograph Records was the earliest label owned and operated by African American George W. Broome in Medford, Massachusetts, featuring Black classical musicians including Harry T. Burleigh and Edward Boatner. Black Swan was revived in the 1990s for CD reissues of its historic jazz and blues recordings.
John Henry Hammond Jr. was an American record producer, civil rights activist, and music critic active from the 1930s to the early 1980s. In his service as a talent scout, Hammond became one of the most influential figures in 20th-century popular music. He is the father of blues musician John P. Hammond.
Adelaide Louise Hall was an American-born UK-based jazz singer and entertainer. Her career spanned more than 70 years from 1921 until her death. Early in her career, she was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance; she became based in the UK after 1938. Hall entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2003 as the world's most enduring recording artist, having released material over eight consecutive decades. She performed with major artists such as Art Tatum, Ethel Waters, Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Cab Calloway, Fela Sowande, Rudy Vallee, and Jools Holland, and recorded as a jazz singer with Duke Ellington and with Fats Waller.
William Johnson Coleman was an American jazz trumpeter.
Clarence "Tex" Walker was an American rhythm and blues musician, who was the lead singer with Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters and The Coasters. After touring Europe with Big Joe Turner, Walker appeared at the Bishopstock Blues Festival, before forming his own group in London, The Walker Street Blues Band, and recording Blues in Black, which was released to critical acclaim in Britain. Walker made the UK his home and performed numerous gigs and concerts there. In his later years he lived in Oxford, England. Walker died of a heart attack on August 8, 2007. He had the attack in the King's Arms Hotel at Woodstock, Oxfordshire, and died four days later.
Unforgettable is an album by American jazz guitarist Joe Pass, released posthumously in 1998.
Turner Layton, born John Turner Layton, Jr., was an African American songwriter, singer and pianist. He frequently worked with Henry Creamer.
Count Basie Meets Oscar Peterson – The Timekeepers is a 1978 album by Oscar Peterson and Count Basie. It was recorded on February 21-22, 1978.
Yessir, That's My Baby is a 1978 album by Oscar Peterson and Count Basie.
"Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" is a popular song with music by John Turner Layton Jr. and lyrics by Henry Creamer. First published in 1922, it was advertised by Creamer and Layton as "A Southern Song, without A Mammy, A Mule, Or A Moon", a dig at some of the Tin Pan Alley clichés of the era.
Henry Crowder (1890–1955) was an American jazz musician. He was an important figure in the European jazz culture of his time.
Dinah Sings Bessie Smith is the ninth studio album by blues, R&B and jazz singer Dinah Washington released on the Emarcy label, and reissued by Verve Records in 1999 as The Bessie Smith Songbook. The album arrangements are headed by Robare Edmondson and Ernie Wilkins, and the songs are associated with American blues singer Bessie Smith. AllMusic details the album in its review as saying: "It was only natural that the "Queen of the Blues" should record songs associated with the "Empress of the Blues." The performances by the septet/octet do not sound like the 1920s and the purposely ricky-tick drumming is insulting, but Dinah Washington sounds quite at home on this music".
"Goodbye Alexander, Goodbye Honey Boy" is a World War I song describing an African American soldier going off to war and his girlfriend's reaction in his military service. The song is credited to Henry Creamer and Turner Layton, the writers of Sweet Emalina, My Gal and After You've Gone.
Myrtle Watkins was an American-born Mexican dancer, jazz and Latin American music singer, and actress, who came to be known in the United States and Mexico as Paquita Zarate.
Zaidee Jackson was an American-born jazz, spiritual and traditional pop singer, dancer and actress who performed in the United States and Europe. From 1938 to 1956 she lived and worked in Romania. Accused of being a Communist, her American passport was revoked and she could only return to the United States following a successful appeal filed by the American Civil Liberties Union with the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Judith Durham and The Hottest Band in Town is the fourth studio album from Australian recording artist Judith Durham. The album was Durham's first released via Pye Records in June 1974.
Isaac Flower Hatch, known as Ike "Yowsah" Hatch, was an American singer, pianist, and club owner, based for most of his life in Britain.
Elliot James Carpenter was an American pianist, composer, arranger and writer.
