Quick Search


Advanced Search
BROWSE

For information on and instructions for the browse, click here.

Advanced users: try our Advanced Browse, containing the full index of over 23,000 terms.
  Categories
Skip Navigation Links.
  Sub-Categories
  Results  

1. Origins of Rock and Roll: “The Blues Had a Baby”
From: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Rock History

2. Chicago: Classic Jazz
From: JAZZ

3. New York: The Classic Jazz and Swing Eras
From: JAZZ

4. ACE, JOHNNY (1929–1954)
From: Caribbean Popular Music

5. Bailey, Pearl
From: Women and Music in America Since 1900 [Two Volumes]

6. Biographies of Jazz Leaders and Legends
From: JAZZ

7. Blues
From: Women and Music in America Since 1900 [Two Volumes]

8. Broonzy, William “Big Bill” (c. 1893–1958)
From: Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration

9. The Influential Singers
From: The Ella Fitzgerald Companion

10. Dorsey, Thomas A. (1889–1993)
From: Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration

11. Hopkins, “Lightnin’ ” Sam (1912–1982)
From: Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration

12. Johnson, Robert (1911–1938)
From: Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration

13. Rainey, Gertrude “Ma” (1886–1939)
From: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore

14. Rainey, Ma (1886–1939)
From: Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration

15. Smith, Bessie (1894–1937)
From: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore

16. Smith, Bessie (c. 1894–1937)
From: Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration

17. Smith, Mamie (1883–1946)
From: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore

18. Thornton, Big Mama (1926–1984)
From: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore

19. Waters, Muddy (Morganfield, McKinley, 1915–1983)
From: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore

20. Williamson, Sonny Boy, I (Williamson, John Lee, 1914–1948)
From: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore

21. Williamson, Sonny Boy, II (Miller, Aleck Ford “Rice,” 1899–1965)
From: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore

Son House, one of the creators of the Delta blues sound and a great influence on many musicians who followed, including blues greats Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Known as the Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith was the greatest and most influential singer to emerge from the classic blues era. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Muddy Waters performing at the Conway Hall in London, 1958. © Terry Cryer/Corbis.

B. B. King, c. 1951. Courtesy of Photofest.

Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton, self-proclaimed “originator of jazz,” is shown in Washington, D.C., recording the priceless Library of Congress documentaries for the Library’s archivist Alan Lomax, 1938. © AP/Wide World Photos.

Portrait of Bunk Johnson, Lead Belly, George Lewis, and Alcide Pavageau playing at the Stuyvesant Casino in New York, c. 1946. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Bo Diddley, 1955. © Frank Driggs Collection/Getty Images.

Lightnin’ Hopkins is considered one of the most influential bluesmen of his generation. Courtesy Arhoolie Records.

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton carried on the tradition of early blues shouters such as Bessie Smith. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Portrait of blues great Muddy Waters. Photofest.

Mississippi Fred McDowell playing the slide guitar. Courtesy Arhoolie Records.

Bessie Smith was one of the most famous and influential classic blues artists. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection, LC-USZ62-100863.

B. B. King. Used by permission of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.

W.C.Handy, 1932, photograph by Carl Van Vechten. (Courtesy of Joseph Solomon for the Estate of Carl Van Vechten.)

Gladys Bentley, 1932, photograph by Carl Van Vechten. (Courtesy of Joseph Solomon for the Estate of Carl Van Vechten, and The Collection of American Literature, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.)

Clara Smith, 1925. (Courtesy of The Collection of American Literature, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Uni-versity.)

Bessie Smith, 1936, photograph by Carl Van Vechten. (Courtesy of Joseph Solomon for the Estate of Carl Van Vechten.)