Today is the twelfth day of Black History Month. I tend to use this time as a way to remind readers – and everyone else of a couple of important facts:
- You can’t love Black artists and their work, and not see them as people
- Black lives — and Black art matters
- Black culture is American culture
So as we go through the month, I’m going to talk about a collection of Black artists. It’ll be fairly comprehensive and eclectic list — although it won’t be a complete list.
So far I’ve mentioned the following artists:
- Patti LaBelle
- Rick James
- John Lee Hooker
- Janet Jackson
- Aretha Franklin
- Chaka Khan
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe
- Curtis Mayfield
- Bob Marley
- J. Dilla
- De La Soul
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Dionne Warwick
- Grace Jones
- Whitney Houston
You can’t talk about the impact of Blacks on American culture without talking about Louis Armstrong. Armstrong is not only one of the most influential figures in jazz. Armstrong’s work and life spanned several different eras and styles in jazz history — with each era responding to his work in some way or another. Along with his influence on jazz, Armstrong’s influence on pop and all other forms of modern music is equally towering.