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Chief Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye MFR (born 22 September 1946), known professionally as King Sunny Adé, is a Nigerian jùjú singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is regarded as one of the first African pop musicians to gain international success, and has been called one of the most influential musicians of all time.

Sunny Adé formed his own backing band in 1967, eventually known as his African Beats. After achieving national success in Nigeria during the 1970s and founding his own independent label, Sunny Adé signed to Island Records in 1982 and achieved international success with the albums Juju Music(1982) and Synchro System (1983); the latter garnered him a Grammy nomination, a first for a Nigerian artist. His 1998 album Odu also garnered a Grammy nomination. Sunny Adé currently serves as chairperson of the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria.

Sunny Adé was born in Osogbo to a Nigerian royal family from Ondo and Akure, thereby making him an Omoba of the Yoruba people. His father was a church organist, while his mother, Maria Adegeye (née Adesida), was a trader. As a member of the Adesida dynasty, his mother’s relatives included her father Oba Adesida I (who ruled Akure for 60 years) and would later include her nephew and Adé’s cousin, Oba Adebiyi Adegboye Adesida Afunbiowo II, a future king of Akure.

Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi (22 September 1952 – 23 January 2019) was a Zimbabwean musician, businessman, philanthropist, human rights activistand UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Southern Africa Region. Tuku was considered to have been Zimbabwe’s most renowned and internationally recognised cultural icon of all time.

Mtukudzi grew up in Highfield, a poor neighborhood in Salisbury (modern-day Harare) in Southern Rhodesia, as the eldest of six siblings. While both his parents sang in a choir, they were initially not supportive of his continued interest in music, consequently breaking his first homemade guitar.

In 1975, at the age of 23, he released his debut single, “Stop After Orange.” Two years later, he began performing with the Wagon Wheels, a group that featured another highly influential musician, Thomas Mapfumo. Although his tenure with the band was relatively short-lived, he landed his first major hit with 1977’s “Dzandimomotera,” a song that reflected the black population’s struggles under white-minority rule of what was then still the country of Rhodesia. By 1978, he had left the Wagon Wheels, taking several of the band’s musicians with him to form his new backing group the Black Spirits.

Jalaal Zulfonun (Persian: جلال ذوالفنون‎, romanized: Jalâl Zolfonun, pronounced [dʒæˈlɒːl zolfʊˈnuːn]) was an Iranian musician, setaar player, and a prominent composer and teacher of Persian music.

William Overton Smith (September 22, 1926 – February 29, 2020) was an American clarinetist and composer. He worked extensively in modern classical music, Third Stream and jazz, and was perhaps best known for having played with pianist Dave Brubeck intermittently from the 1940s to the early 2000s. Smith frequently recorded jazz under the name Bill Smith, but his classical compositions are credited under the name William O. Smith.

Smith was born in Sacramento and grew up in Oakland, California, where he began playing clarinet at the age of ten. He put together a jazz group to play for dances at 13, and at the age of 15 he joined the Oakland Symphony. He idolized Benny Goodman, but after high school, a brief cross-country tour with a dance band ended his romance for the life of a traveling jazz musician. He gave two weeks’ notice when the band reached Washington, D.C. Encouraged by an older band member to get the best education he could, Smith headed to New York.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCb1Om939uo

James Marcellus Arthur “Sunny” Murray (September 21, 1936 – December 7, 2017) was one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming.

Murray was born in Idabel, Oklahoma, where he was raised by an uncle who later died after being refused treatment at a hospital because of his race. He began playing drums at the age of nine. As a teen, he lived in a rough part of Philadelphia, and spent two years in a reformatory. In 1956, he moved to New York City, where he worked in a car wash and as a building superintendent. During this time, he played with musicians such as trumpeters Red Allen and Ted Curson, pianist Willie “The Lion” Smith, and saxophonists Rocky Boyd and Jackie McLean.

In 1959, he played for the first time with pianist Cecil Taylor and, according to Murray, “[f]or six years all the other things were wiped from my mind…” “With Cecil, I had to originate a complete new direction on drums.” Murray stated: “We played for about a year, just practicing, studying — we went to workshops with Varèse, did a lot of creative things, just experimenting, without a job.” In 1961, Murray made a recording with Taylor’s group that was released under the auspices of Gil Evansas one side of Into the Hot.

Charles Thomas Potter (September 21, 1918 – March 1, 1988) was a jazz double bass player, best known for having been a member of Charlie Parker‘s “classic quintet”, with Miles Davis, between 1947 and 1950.

Born in Philadelphia, Potter had first played with Parker in 1944, in Billy Eckstine‘s band with Dizzy Gillespie, Lucky Thompson and Art Blakey.^[1]

Potter also performed and recorded with many other notable jazz musicians, including Earl Hines, Artie Shaw, Bud Powell, Count Basie, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Max Roach, Eddie Heywood, Tyree Glenn, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Buck Clayton and Charles Lloyd.

Leroy Eliot “Slam” Stewart (September 21, 1914 – December 10, 1987) was an American jazz double bass player, whose trademark style was his ability to bow the bass (arco) and simultaneously hum or sing an octave higher. He was a violinist before switching to bass at the age of 20.

Stewart was born in Englewood, New Jersey, United States and began playing string bass while attending Dwight Morrow High School. While attending the Boston Conservatory, he heard Ray Perry singing along with his violin. This gave him the inspiration to follow suit with his bass. In 1937, Stewart teamed with Slim Gaillard to form the novelty jazz act Slim and Slam. The duo’s biggest hit was “Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy)” in 1938.

Steve Coleman (born September 20, 1956) is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. In 2014, he was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Steve Coleman was born and grew up in South Side, Chicago. He started playing alto saxophone at the age of 14. Coleman attended Illinois Wesleyan University for two years,. followed by a transfer to Roosevelt University (Chicago Musical College).

Coleman moved to New York in 1978 and worked in big bands such as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Slide Hampton‘s big band, Sam Rivers‘ Studio Rivbea Orchestra, and briefly in Cecil Taylor‘s big band. Shortly thereafter, Coleman began working as a sideman with David Murray, Doug Hammond, Dave Holland, Mike Brecker and Abbey Lincoln. For the first four years in New York Coleman spent a good deal of time playing in the streets and in tiny clubs with a band that he put together with trumpeter Graham Haynes, the group that would evolve into the ensemble Steve Coleman and Five Elements that would serve as the main ensemble for Coleman’s activities. In this group, he developed his concept of improvisation within nested looping structures. Coleman collaborated with other young African-American musicians such as Cassandra Wilson and Greg Osby, and they founded the so-called M-Base movement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1-CQyeEHLg

Eric Gale (September 20, 1938 – May 25, 1994) was an American jazz and R&B guitarist.

Born in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, Gale grew up in a diverse household. He was of Black-American, Native-American, and British-American heritage. Gale’s grandfather was from Yorkshire, England, who moved to Barbados and met his future wife there. Gale held dual-citizenship by descent to the UK, where he spent a lot of time going back and forth to visit family and for further studies.

Gale began playing guitar at the age of 12. In high school, he visited the home of John Coltrane after school and sat in on the jam sessions, which inspired Gale’s style. Gale received his Master of Science in chemistry at Niagara University, he was also on the football team. Later, Gale was pursued by Frank Sinatra to work on the hit song “My Way”, as mentioned in Frank Sinatra’s autobiography. Gale decided to commit to a musical career full time, instead of getting his Phd in Chemistry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzkC6BCXmfA

Elvira “Vi” Redd (born September 20, 1928) is an American jazz alto saxophone player, vocalist and educator. She has been active since the early 1950s and is known primarily for playing in the blues style. She is highly regarded as an accomplished veteran who has performed with Count Basie, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Linda Hopkins, Marian McPartland and Dizzy Gillespie.

Redd is the daughter of New Orleans jazz drummer and Clef Club co-founder Alton Redd and Mattie Redd (née Thomas).^[3] She was born in Los Angeles. She was deeply influenced during her formative years by her father, who was one of the leading figures on the Central Avenue jazz scene. Another important musical mentor was her paternal great aunt Alma Hightower.