07/08/1908 - 02/04/1975
Louis Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The Ki...
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06/03/1906 - 04/12/1975
Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Nicknamed the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and even the "Créole Goddess" in anglophone nation...
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08/20/1942 - 08/10/2008
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American songwriter, musician, singer, and occasionally an actor. Hayes was one of the creative geniuses behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he...
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06/24/1900 - 01/24/1972
Gene Austin (June 24, 1900 – January 24, 1972) was an American singer and songwriter, one of the first "crooners". His 1920s compositions "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" and "The Loneso...
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04/04/1913 - 04/04/1983
McKinley Morganfield, known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the Father of modern Chicago blues. A major inspiration for the British blues explosion in the 1960s, Muddy was ranked #17...
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Louie Bluie (Howard Donald Armstrong)
03/04/1909 - 07/30/2003
Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong was an African American string band and cantry blues musician who played fiddle, mandolin and guitar and also sang. He was also a notable visual artist and raconteur.
07/06/1925 - 02/09/1981
Bill Haley (July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981) was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit...
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04/22/1922 - 01/05/1979
Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.
02/27/1923 - 04/25/1990
Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor (Round Midnight, Warner Bros, 1986). He is regarded as one of the first and most importan...
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10/02/1938 - 04/17/1960
Eddie Cochran (October 2, 1938 – April 17, 1960), was an American rock and roll pioneer who in his brief career had a small but lasting influence on rock music through his guitar playing. Cochran's rockabilly songs, such as "C...
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04/25/1960 - 02/02/2002
Paul Baloff (April 25, 1960–February 2, 2002) was an American singer, most notable for his time in thrash metal band Exodus.
Paul was one of the founding members of Exodus in 1981, singing on their 1982 Demo and their first official albu...
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04/02/1939 - 04/01/1984
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr., better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a four-octavevocal range. Starting as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows...
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02/13/1919 - 10/17/1991
Ernest Jennings Ford (February 13, 1919 – October 17, 1991), better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western,pop, and gospel...
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06/25/1925 - 12/12/1987
Clifton Chenier (June 25, 1925 - December 12, 1987), a Creole French-speaking native of Opelousas, Louisiana, was an eminent performer and recording artist of Zydeco, which arose from Cajun and Creole music, with R&B, jazz, and blues influence...
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07/03/1952 - 08/26/2004
Laura Ann Frances Branigan (July 3, 1952 – August 26, 2004) was an American singer-songwriter and actress of Italian and Irish ancestry. She is best known in the United States for her 1982 Platinum-cer...
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