Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Alan Page
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Alan Page, an American gridiron football player who in 1971 became the first defensive player to win the Most Valuable Player award of the National Football League (NFL). He was inducted...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Al Green
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Al Green, an American singer-songwriter who was the most popular performer of soul music in the 1970s. By further transforming the essential relationship in soul music between the sacred...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Alice Dunbar Nelson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Alice Dunbar Nelson, a novelist, poet, essayist, and critic associated with the early period of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and '30s.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Alicia Keys
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Alicia Keys, an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress, who achieved enormous success in the early 2000s with her blend of R&B and soul music.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Allen Toussaint
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Allen Toussaint, a songwriter, pianist, and producer, Toussaint was responsible for national hits by Ernie K-Doe, Chris Kenner, Jessie Hill, Aaron Neville, Irma Thomas, and the Showmen,...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Allen Iverson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Allen Iverson, an American basketball player known for both explosive play on the court and controversy away from the game. He became the first great athlete to be strongly identified with...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Amanda Smith
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Amanda Smith, an American evangelist and missionary who opened an orphanage for African-American girls.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Anna Deavere Smith
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Anna Deavere Smith, an American playwright, actress, author, journalist, and educator, who was best known for her one-woman plays that examined the social issues behind current events.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Art Tatum
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Art Tatum, a blind, self-taught American pianist, considered one of the greatest technical virtuosos in jazz.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Barry Sanders
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Barry Sanders, an American professional gridiron football player. In his 10 seasons with the Detroit Lions (1989-98), Sanders led the National Football League (NFL) in rushing four times...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Bennie Moten
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Bennie Moten, a U.S. pianist, one of the earliest known organizers of bands in the Midwest in the emergent years of jazz.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Benny Carter
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Benny Carter, an American jazz musician, an original and influential alto saxophonist, who was also a masterly composer and arranger and an important bandleader, trumpeter, and clarinetist.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Ben Webster
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Ben Webster, an American jazz musician, considered one of the most distinctive of his generation, noted for the beauty of his tenor saxophone tone and for his melodic inventiveness.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Big Joe Turner
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Big Joe Turner, a black American blues singer, or "shouter," whose records were imitated by white musicians in the early days of rock and roll.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Big Mama Thornton
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Big Mama Thornton, an American singer and songwriter who performed in the tradition of classic blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie. Her work inspired imitation by Elvis...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Bill Dixon
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Bill Dixon, an American jazz artist born Oct. 5, 1925, Nantucket, Mass.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Billy Eckstine
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Billy Eckstine, an American singer and bandleader who achieved great personal success while fostering the careers of a number of younger jazz musicians.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Blind Lemon Jefferson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Blind Lemon Jefferson, an American country blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter, one of the earliest black folk-blues singers to achieve popular success.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Blind Willie Johnson
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Blind Willie Johnson, an African-American gospel singer who performed on Southern streets and was noted for the energy and power of his singing and for his ingenious guitar accompaniments.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Bobby Mc Ferrin
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Bobby McFerrin, an American musician noted for his tremendous vocal control and improvisational ability. He often sang a cappella, mixing folk songs, 1960s rock and soul tunes, and jazz...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Bobby Short
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Bobby Short, an American cabaret singer and piano player who in his personal and performance style came to represent a sophistication and elegance typical of an earlier era.
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Bob Hayes
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Bob Hayes, an American sprinter who, although he was relatively slow out of the starting block and had an almost lumbering style of running, was a remarkably powerful sprinter with as much...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Brock Peters
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Brock Peters, an American actor who employed his powerful bass voice and strong presence in portrayals of a wide range of characters, notably in the role of Tom Robinson in To Kill a...
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Encyclopedia Britannica: Brownie Mc Ghee
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Brownie McGhee, an American blues singer, guitarist, pianist, songwriter, and longtime partner of the vocalist and harmonica player Sonny Terry.