Back when the show was less entrenched in popular culture, Sesame Street had its critics. The Harlem Renaissance was the rebirth of African American social and intellectual life during the 1920s and 1930s. Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass (March 26, 1950 January 13, 2010) was an American singer. Bessie Smith earned more, and spent more, than anybody else. Ironically, the records that the Blues Mafia dedicated themselves to rescuing from obscurity have become far more famous than the smash hits of the 1920s. Some classic blues singers sought refuge in acting Ethel Waters, pictured in 1943's Cabin in the Sky, was at one time the highest paid actress on Broadway (Credit: Getty Images). On June 5, 2009, Pendergrass underwent successful surgery for colon cancer and returned home to recover. Eleanor Feagan, most commonly known as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz musician and singer-songwriter who had a career lasting nearly 30 years. While black people who migrated from the Jim Crow South were looking for a better future, the folklorists sentimentally fetishised the agony and mystery of the past they had left behind. One of the singer's last hits was the new jack swing song, "Believe in Love", released in 1994. Handy's anonymous musician now resembles the archetypal bluesman: a solitary, enigmatic vagrant, singing songs of "suffering and hard luck" to nobody but himself. Sesame Street arose from the Lyndon B. Johnson administrations Great Society agenda, a series of federal programs that carried the ambitious goal of eliminating poverty and racial injustice. Smith's versatile blues encompassed gallows humour (Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair), social commentary (Poor Man's Blues), salty innuendo (Kitchen Man) and lusty good times (Gimme a Pigfoot). Most of the African-American cast and crew came up through the interconnected black entertainment world of New York in the late 1960s. They were the parents of at least 1 son. Her debut EP Elements was a powerful introduction showcasing her hypnotic voice, filled with memorable lyrics about love and relationships over trap-soul and R&B. 100% (1/1) As a songwriter during that time, he frequently collaborated with Billy Preston, co-writing the latter's Grammy-winning 1972 hit "Outa-Space" and other songs. Evans attended night school at a Memphis freedmens school until it was burned down in the Memphis Riot in 1866. And if you liked this story,sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. When Pendergrass was very young, his father left the family. When Dwight Eisenhower gave the Atoms for Peace speech what constructive use of nuclear energy was he introducing? Sonia Manzano, a Puerto Rican Bronx native who joined the show in 1971 as the character Maria, recalled that when she first saw the program on television as a college student, she said, Hey! Prominent Concert Artists: Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield The Black Swan. Locos Albany, Ga Menu, By selling an estimated one million copies in its first year, Crazy Blues was like the first geyser of oil in untapped ground, instantly revealing a huge appetite for records made by and for black people. by Sarah Richardson 5/3/2019. These scholars and folklorists saw the "real" blues, by contrast, as a vanishing oral tradition from the rural South that needed to be captured and preserved before it disappeared completely. Bessie Smith had affairs with several chorus girls while Ma Rainey sang, in 1928's Prove It on Me, "I went out last night with a crowd of my friends/ It must've been women, 'cause I don't like no men/ Wear my clothes just like a fan/ Talk to the gals just like any old man." With his enchanting voice and well defined sound over a combination of Afrobeats, Afrofusion and soul, the fast rising artist has positioned himself as one to watch. We use cookies. In late 2019 the Morgan assumed the cost of digitizing the four boxes of the Bernard and Mary Berenson Papers at I Tatti that contain the letters Greene wrote to Berenson. One of the main storylines of the show is the star-crossed love story between Gigantes 22-year-old daughter Stella (Lucy Fry) and local black musician Teddy Greene (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). The Greene family relocated to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the late 1950s. ", The scholar Angela Davis calls Bessie Smith "the first real 'superstar' in African-American popular culture" (Credit: Getty Images), Like rappers decades later, the classic blues singers were flashy avatars of liberation and aspiration. Kwanzaa isn't exactly a religion. In 1988, Pendergrass scored his first R&B number-one hit in nearly a decade when the song "Joy", from his album of the same name, was released. He killed two or three guys with his hands. The 27-year-old has also collaborated with other West African artists, including Davido and Mr Eazi. Ethel Waters became, at one point, the highest-paid actress on Broadway. Report this profile About I Greene is known as the Jazz Diva. Black Swan, the first black-owned record label, rejected Bessie Smith for being too vulgar, while a leading black newspaper, the Chicago Defender, complained that these "filth furnishers" and "purveyors of putrid puns" were "a hindrance to our standard of respectability and success". You couldnt help but laugh at him.. $940 USD $559 USD Save 41%. One musician even claimed Rainey and Smith were romantically involved at one point. Evans attended night school at a Memphis freedmen's school until it was burned down in the Memphis Riot in 1866. In 1920, however, a loner with a knife wasn't going to help the commercially savvy Handy break the music industry's colour barrier. A board of experts from the diverse fields of education, child development, psychology, medicine, the social sciences, the arts, and advertising advised Cooney and her team on its work, which placed a premium on the inclusion of black perspectives. In the spring of 2006, Pendergrass met Joan Williams. Billie Holiday was born in Philadelphia to a teenage couple Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan and Clarence Holiday. His mother goes to Bumpy Johnson in the hopes he will separate the couple, due to the danger their relationship poses to Teddy's life. After seven months, he died of respiratory failure on January 13, 2010, with his wife Joan by his side, at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. This problematic assumption has since resurfaced in writing about soul music and hip hop: the sound of suffering is considered more powerful and real than the sound of defiant enjoyment; pain is more authentic than pleasure. An Entity of Type: Concept, from Named Graph: http://dbpedia.org, within Data Space: dbpedia.org Theodore "Teddy" Wilson (1955-1992) was an African American radio and television personality in the Washington, D.C. area widely known for originating the "Quiet Storm" late-night music programming format. [7] The album included the pop ballad "Hold Me", featuring a then-unknown Whitney Houston. Her pronunciation is very correct, and her intonation excellent. [24], In 2019, BBC Film made a documentary on Pendergrass's life titled If You Don't Know Me. Teddy Pendergrass Net Worth in 2021. Greene wanted to know who in the department had communicated with Lewis Hatcher, the former sheriff whom Greene had narrowly defeated in the election, and Melvin Campbell, a recently-fired sergeant, both of whom are African American. In a statement Green said she was "deeply saddened to report that my marriage to Andy Sievright is coming to an end." We know that's your issue with it. boston college early decision acceptance rate 2025. Broadly speaking, the playing was slick, the rhythms hot, the songwriting polished, the lyrics tough and ironic, the stagewear glamorous and the stars overwhelmingly female. The history of the blues is dominated by men. This all changed when they landed a recording deal with Philadelphia International Records in 1971, thus beginning Pendergrass's successful collaboration with label founders Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. With the release of her EP For Broken Ears, Tems is building a fan base that stretches beyond Nigeria and the continent. Every form of historical revisionism has its winners and losers. Second Courthouse opened in Baltimore at Church (now Lexington) St. and Washington Square. "There's 14 million Negroes in our great country and they will buy records if recorded by one of their own," he told Fred Hagar at Okeh Records. [25], Pendergrass received five Grammy Award nominations. Hounded by white supremacists, he joined the thousands of Tennesseans who migrated north, and died in Chicago in 1914. As of 2015 there are plans to make a feature film biopic of Pendergrass's life, and Tyrese Gibson is set to star as the late singer. What science tells us about the afterlife. Berryman, John Leroy. Greene became the first African-American cadet to graduate from the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program and rose to become an air force . Coming from a family and community where 5/3/2019. The song, one of Gamble and Huff's most creative productions, became a major rhythm and blues hit and put the Blue Notes on the map. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to ourFacebookpage or message us onTwitter. He proposed to her after four months, and they married in a private ceremony officiated by his pastor, Alyn Waller of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, on Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008. Bryan Greene Creator Chris Brancato spills the beans While 'Godfather of Harlem' had a major chunk of the spotlight on its lead character, Bumpy Johnson (Forest Whitaker), the show had brilliant subplots around the supporting characters. The scholar Angela Davis calls her "the first real 'superstar' in African-American popular culture. Whereas the likes of Ma Rainey travelled to the city to record their music, song collectors moved in the opposite direction, taking their recording devices to the South in order to capture what the leading folklorist John Lomax called "sound-photographs of Negro songs, rendered in their own native element". Mamie Smith retired in 1931. On the heels of his worship-fueled 2017 release, Crossover: Live in Music City, Travis Greene returns with another collection of praise and worship anthems. As members of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, Joan Pendergrass set up The Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church Youth Fund in the name of Pendergrass to provide assistance and a center for Philadelphia's inner city youth. It imagined the performers as men who sang their pain without concern for attention or financial reward, even though, in reality, they would very much have liked both. [7] The album's popularity was furthered by the disco hit "Get Up, Get Down, Get Funky, Get Loose", the ballad "It Don't Hurt Now", and the mid-tempo classic "When Somebody Loves You Back". She fulfilled that promise, and Teddy met his father when he was 11 years old. Kim Lizard 11" - Light Grey. Why Grace Jones is pop's greatest pioneer, a newly updated 1997 biography by Jackie Kay. In the 1920s US, glamorous, funny black female singers were the blues' first - and revolutionary hitmakers. Travis Greene. Kabza De Small has made quite an impression since he first started releasing music in 2016. As a young singer Hoiday became part of the vibrant Harlem Renaissance scene, performing in nightclubs and jazz clubs. If the surname is found, they can then view the microfilm for the details listed regarding the sex, age and color of the slaves. Marian Anderson is a contralto and international singer that triumphed over racial prejudice and became an inspiration for America's civil rights movement. GREENE: Theodore Johnson sees Biden's rise as the result of what he calls the politics of pragmatism. Yet a century later, Katherine Reynolds Chaddock observes in Uncompromising Activist: Richard Greener, KiDi and Teddy Rileys collaboration comes after the original song enjoyed massive airplay in Ghana and other parts of the world especially in Africa. While the shows move to cable suggests, to some, a diminished commitment to public television as the great equalizer in America society, it also demonstrates the shows capacity to remain viable amidst dramatic changes in the media landscape. July 25, 2005 (aged 58) Los Angeles, California, U.S. Sep 9, 1930 May 30, 2019 (88 years old). Singers Who Introduced the World to the Music of Black America (New In 1935, he made pianist Teddy Wilson a member of his trio. Lior Suchard Predictions, [21][failed verification][full citation needed]. A century later, however, it's a different story. He died from respiratory failure in January 2010. They sincerely loved this music but its unpopularity certainly enhanced its mystique, as did the murky sound that came from recording it on cheap equipment and pressing it on cheap plastic. Billie Holiday (1915-1959) was an American jazz singer, songwriter, actress, and an icon in American culture. Joe Greene (American singer) is an American gospel and soul singer and songwriter. How many deaths are caused by flu each year? For black, working-class women, the classic blues was an unprecedented new arena of self-expression which gave voice to overt sexuality, the peril of abusive men (like Bessie Smith's husband), and even queer perspectives. At the same time, the classic blues singers were too working-class and sexually frank for some of the urban middle classes. Another great performer was Sissieretta Jones (Black Patti), the daughter of a former slave, who sang opera arias and ballads for the Harrisons in 1892. By the time Pendergrass decided to return to the studio to work on new music he had struggled to find a recording deal. He turned instead to the flamboyant women who had honed their craft on the vaudeville and tent-show circuits, where the blues would be mixed up with comedy songs and dramatic routines professional entertainers who knew how to delight a crowd. He is a consulting producer on the 2021 music documentary, "Summer of Soul. Rv Shows California 2022, | READ MORE, Bryan Greene lives in Washington, D.C. and has written about music, history, and race and society for Poverty & Race. Who was Teddy Greene black musician? He was 59. [8] Watson attested to the fact that Pendergrass was sober and uncomprehending as to why the brakes did not function. After working briefly as a hotel porter, Evans proceeded to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he paid his way through school working as a groundskeeper. In 2006, Pendergrass announced his retirement from the music business. A bald, thin James Earl Jones, just off his Tony-Award-winning performance on Broadway in The Great White Hope, taped a segment for the Sesame Street pilot, where he slowly and authoritatively recited the alphabet. While Watson walked away from the collision with minor injuries, Pendergrass had a spinal cord injury, leaving him a tetraplegic, paralyzed from the chest down;[9][10] he never walked again.[11]. Dignified, fastidious and enterprising, Evans taught at a small school in the summer near the Tennessee-Mississippi border. No other cars were involved. Fik Fameica, also known as Fresh Boy, is one of the most interesting rappers coming out of East Africa right now. Blues are here to stay." But theyd loosen up, because how can you hate someone who makes your child so happy?. mark spaeth a developer and city councilman in austin tex; emi latin records net worth; gadget and the gadgetinis; bank of america editable bank statement Theodore Phinney Greene (July 4, 1809 - August 30, 1887), was a rear admiral - Cached . [15] In his later years, Pendergrass's "Wake Up Everybody" has been covered by a diverse range of acts from Simply Red to Patti LaBelle and was chosen as a rallying cry during the 2004 Presidential campaign by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds to mobilize voters. Ida suffered six miscarriages before successfully giving birth to Teddy. Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay is published on 18 February. Teddy Pendergrass. [13] In 1998, Pendergrass released his autobiography entitled Truly Blessed.[14]. [20], Pendergrass published his autobiography, Truly Blessed, with Patricia Romanowski in 1998. Led by Alvin Ailey and a group of young African-American modern dancers, that performance changed forever the perception of American dance. Biography. To preserve the integrity of Dr. Calvin Baber Historical Home. Chester Pierce, an African-American psychiatrist and Harvard professor, helped design what he called the shows hidden curriculum to build up the self-worth of black children through the presentation of positive black images. His father left the family when Pendergrass was young and was killed in 1962. Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television judge. Her love of music takes her from East Harlem into the bohemian world of Greenwich Village and into the arms of African-American musician Teddy Greene. He is portrayed by Kelvin Harrison Jr. Amelia G {{ relativeTimeResolver(1585829350795) }} Lucy Fry stars in GODFATHER OF HARLEM as Stella Gigante, the sheltered 22 year old daughter of Vincent Chin Gigante, Stella is effected by winds of change that foretell a turbulent 1960s. Coinciding with the museums closure due to the COVID-19 Just say so. He also edits and writes articles for the IronSet blog where he shares his experiences. Frank Walker. When is Eurovision and how do you get tickets? Street fighting in Bakhmut but Russia not in control, Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore dies at 61, Alex Murdaugh's legal troubles are far from over, 'The nurses wanted me to feel guilty about my abortion, From Afghan TV fame to a US factory floor. Terms of Use Andrey is a coach, sports writer and editor. Find information about Theodore Greene online. The entrepreneurial songwriter Perry Bradford, a man so stubborn he was known as "Mule", knew better. Wisconsin Distilleries Map, A year later, he added vibraphonist Lionel Hampton to the lineup, which also included drummer Gene Krupa. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he initially rose to musical fame as the lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. As Marybeth Hamilton writes in her excellent book In Search of the Blues: Black Voices, White Visions, "Once only encountered at house parties and barn dances, on street corners and the black showbiz circuit, the blues could now be heard pouring out of speakeasies, nightclubs, houses, apartments, drug stores and barbershops, hardware stores and funeral parlours, anywhere race records were played or sold. Omah Lay caught our attention following the release of his song Bad Influence. The revolution was broadcast November 10, 1969, on public television. 4 ervna, 2022; Posted by: Category: Uncategorized; dn komente . Thomas Bowers The Colored Mario. Victoria Spivey appeared in King Vidor's 1929 movie Hallelujah, one of the first studio pictures to feature an entirely black cast. [23] His body was interred at the West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Teddy Greene is an aspiring musician who ends up falling in love with Vincent Gigantes daughter, Stella. He is mainly involved in weightlifting. Kane Brown is a black country artist who gained the public's attention through social media. on Aug. 7 at Halton Theater. The female blues singers were on the losing side of a long, complicated argument about what the blues should be. When Gil Scott-Heron recorded his Black Power anthem, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, in Harlem in 1970, he viewed it as a wake-up call to Americans who had been anesthetized by television. We were starting to walk that line between being entertainers and being civil rights advocates. Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass (March 26, 1950 January 13, 2010) was an American singer. Your Privacy Rights Teddy Greene Quality Assurance Specialist Kent, Washington, United States 42 connections. Tj Maxx Hirevue Interview, One of the main storylines of the show is the star-crossed love story between Gigante's 22-year-old daughter Stella (Lucy Fry) and local black musician Teddy Greene (Kelvin Harrison Jr.).. The classic blues was African-American culture's first mainstream breakthrough and . The 24-year-old steers away from typical mainstream Ugandan music and experiments with his sound that has been influenced by reggae. Clips of the concert, in particular his performance of his comeback song "Joy" can still be seen on YouTube. Wife of the popular singer, Dr. Jackie Gyamfi Greene, a Ghanaian dentist , has been married to Travis Greene for 8 years which has produced 3 sons. African-American. The man who published the sheet music for Crazy Blues was WC Handy, a songwriter, businessman and self-proclaimed "Father of the Blues". Nba G League Open Tryouts 2021, The albums completed his contract with Philadelphia International. She has given kizomba a refreshing twist, sometimes infusing it with elements of hip-hop and R&B. On Valentine's Day 1920, a little over a century ago, a 28-year-old singer named Mamie Smith walked into a recording studio in New York City and made history. [7] They eventually left Philadelphia International and toiled in relative obscurity, until Melvin's death in 1997. He was born in Kingstree, South Carolina. Those migrants craved music that built a bridge between their old and new lives. John Carroll became Archbishop of Baltimore, first Catholic Archbishop in United States. Both albums included material Pendergrass had recorded before the crash. toby o'brien raytheon salary. As if their enforced retirement weren't bad enough, these women suffered the double indignity of being retrospectively sidelined. Jazz legend Nat Adderley, Jr., played piano. african american singer teddy greene. ', "Teddy Pendergrass' all-star gala marks 25th anniversary of near-fatal car accident", "Teddy Pendergrass: sex, drugs and the tragic life of the 'Black Elvis, "Soul Singer Teddy Pendergrass Dies in Pa. at 59", "Teddy Pendergrass widow seeks to keep his legacy alive", "Teddy Pendergrass Doc to Premiere on Showtime This Month", "James Brown 'cape man' to be inducted into R&B Hall of Fame", American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Teddy_Pendergrass&oldid=1142439083, Philadelphia International Records artists, 20th-century African-American male singers, 21st-century African-American male singers, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox musical artist with associated acts, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2012, Articles with failed verification from March 2023, Articles with incomplete citations from March 2023, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 11:04. 2021 should be another bumper year for African music. KiDi, part of a new generation of Ghanaian artists, had his breakthrough moment when his recording Sugar won album of the year at the 2020 Ghana music awards. Joan Ganz Cooney, the creator of Sesame Street, said in a 1998 interview that a documentary she produced on the Harlem pre-school program that would become Head Start led her to become absolutely involved intellectually and spiritually with the Civil Rights Movement and with the educational deficit that poverty created. Soon thereafter, she teamed up with her friend Lloyd Morrisett, a psychologist and Carnegie Corporation executive, who was looking to back a pre-school education model that could reach a great number of inner-city children. Sesame Street cast member Loretta Long, who played Susan from the shows first episode through today, devoted a full chapter of her doctoral dissertation to Pierces curriculum, which included locating the show in an inner city neighborhood with old brownstones and lots of trashcans. Such a setting, the producers concluded, would help the inner city child relate more to us [cast members] as his neighbors., Producer Jon Stone said the shows set design was inspired by a 1968 public-service announcement campaign calling on New York City residents to Give a Damn about children living in blighted areas of Harlem. Pendergrass continued his successful solo career until announcing his retirement in 2007. Rarely has the music industrys received wisdom been upended by a single hit. Greener was the son of seaman Richard Wesley and Mary Ann (le Brune) Greener. In her dissertation, Long stressed, The most important thing about Roosevelt is that he always knows the correct answer, whether he talks in standard or nonstandard English. African-American CTW executives and others Cooney describes as upper-middle class blacks put up the strongest objections, and Roosevelt Franklin was cut from the show. He was about six five, 270 pounds, quick on his feet . + show more. by Millard Powers, David Bryson, Adam F. Duritz, James Bogios, David Immergluck, Dan Vickrey and Charles Gillingham. He is also leading the pack of new school artists from Nigeria and has worked with American singer and rapper 6lack. Hits off Teddy included the classics "Come Go with Me", the erotic ballad "Turn Off the Lights",[7] and the uptempo album cut "Do Me". Who is the new host of Dancing with the Stars? If you continue to use the site, we will assume that this suits you. He was a student at the old Thomas You can narrow down your search by adding date ranges and geographical information of where the deceased lived. And so there's a little Sam Cooke tossed in there, but Ted, he's fictional". Like the man WC Handy spotted at Tutwiler station, their alienation guaranteed their authenticity. Elaine captured fans with her authenticity and her 2019 song called You're the One. Teddy Earl Greene. By early 1982, Pendergrass was perhaps the leading R&B male artist of his day, equaling the popularity of Marvin Gaye, and surpassing Barry White and all others in the R&B field. Cookie Policy A small donation would help us keep this available to all. A January 1970 Ebony profile of Sesame Street included a photo of Cooney flanked by a team of African-American women, including the head of Seattle Head Start and the headmistress of a New York preschool. Bradford then decided to use Smith to popularise a form of music that had been packing out venues in the South for almost 20 years. Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass (March 26, 1950 January 13, 2010) was an American singer. "It is surely no accident that so many of the early blues performers that revivalists scorned as inauthentic were women; to them, authenticity had a male voice," writes Hamilton. The "Blues Mafia" clique of record collectors (all white, all men) who established the blues canon after World War Two scorned the 1920s hits as commercial junk and sought out the obsolete flops that nobody else cared about. In 1980, the Isley Brothers released "Don't Say Goodnight (It's Time for Love)" to compete with Pendergrass's "Turn Off the Lights", which sensed Pendergrass's influence on the quiet storm format of black music. Richard Theodore Greener, (born January 30, 1844, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.died May 15, 1922, Chicago, Illinois), attorney, educator, and diplomat who was the first African American graduate of Harvard University. In an interview for journalist Michael Davis definitive book on the history of the show, Street Gang, Stone said, For a preschool child in Harlem, the street is where the action isOur set had to be an inner-city street, and more particularly it had to be a brownstone so the cast and kids could stoop in the age-old New York tradition. The song was originally written for The Dells, but the group passed on it. With no need for backing bands or stage costumes, the men were much cheaper, too. Only a handful were still making blues records in the 1930s. By 1975, Pendergrass and Harold Melvin were at odds, mainly over financial issues and personality conflicts. While a few women, notably Victoria Spivey and Edith Wilson, lived long enough to return to the stage during the 1960s blues revival, the likes of Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones were far more interested in the hardbitten men of the Delta. "Now every phonograph company has a coloured girl recording. It was brought to you by letters W, S, and E, and the numbers 2 and 3. Where Is James Comey Now 2021, He commits extremely violent acts, which are depicted explicitly (often with guns) and accompanied by blood, wounds, and groaning. [7] The latter song firmly established Pendergrass as the top male sex symbol in soul music. Pendergrass grew up in the impoverished section of North Philadelphia and often sang at church. The rapper made his first appearance on the music scene in late 2017 with the single Kutama. Tara Palmelatto Gold 9" - Light Blue. Though he served in the state legislature for only two years, Evans proposed bills allowing blacks to work on state road crews and appointing an assistant superintendent of education to oversee black public schools. Theodore DeReese Pendergrass (March 26, 1950 - January 13, 2010) was an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter. We were starting to walk that line between being entertainers and being civil rights advocates. On the final day of Black History Month, let's celebrate historical African-American leaders in classical music. Why were they then relegated to the sidelines, asks Dorian Lynskey. His influence can be heard in tracks recorded across the continent and that was recognised when he was nominated in MTV Europe's Best African Act category last year.