The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Graham Jackson Sr. began his musical career with the jazz group the Seminole Syncopaters in Atlanta. He performed for Franklin D. Roosevelt over twenty-four times during his career, and at the president's funeral in 1945.
Courtesy of Auburn Avenue Research Library, Graham Washington Jackson, Sr. papers.
As part of a campaign to expand the roles for African Americans during World War II, Jackson enlisted and served in the Navy from 1942 until the war's end, in 1945.
Courtesy of Auburn Avenue Research Library, Graham Washington Jackson, Sr. papers.
Known as "The Ambassador of Good Will," Graham Jackson Sr. was invited to perform for U.S. presidents throughout his career. Jimmy Carter was the last president for whom Jackson performed.
Courtesy of Auburn Avenue Research Library, Graham Washington Jackson, Sr. papers.
Graham Jackson Sr. performed nightly at Johnny Reb's Dixieland canteen and restaurant in Atlanta until 1967.
Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Tracy O'Neal Photographic Collection, #N10-23_a.
Organizers of the second Atlanta International Pop Festival initially required tickets to enter the gated festival, shown here on opening day, July 3, 1970. However, unruly crowds soon prompted the organizers to allow free entry.
Photograph by Earl McGehee
The crowd at the second Atlanta International Pop Festival in Byron. Estimates vary, but the festival likely attracted between 200,000 and 300,000 people.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Alex Cooley, pictured in 1978, owned and operated a number of the best-known rock venues in Atlanta, including Alex Cooley's Electric Ballroom and the Tabernacle. In 1987 Cooley was inducted as a nonperformer into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
This homemade blacklight poster is designed after the 1970 cover of the Second Annual Atlanta International Pop Festival newspaper.
Photograph by Earl McGehee
This centerfold from the second Atlanta International Pop Festival program showcases artists including Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and The Allman Brothers Band.
Photograph by Earl McGehee
The second Atlanta International Pop Festival took place July 3-5, 1970, in Byron.
Photograph by Earl McGehee
Scorching temperatures and high winds marked the second Atlanta International Pop Festival. Firetrucks were brought in to hose down attendees while medics treated sunburns.
Photograph by Earl McGehee
Litter quickly covered the ground at the second Atlanta International Pop Festival in Byron.
Photograph by Earl McGehee
The Reverend Dwight Andrews (left), of First Congregational Church, and Steven Darsey, of Meridian Herald, are pictured at the Atlanta Music Festival in 2009. The two cofounded the festival in 2001.
Courtesy of Meridian Herald
The Atlanta Auditorium and Armory (later Atlanta Municipal Auditorium), pictured circa 1916, was the venue in 1910 for the first concert presented by the Atlanta Colored Music Festival Association. The concerts continued annually until about 1918.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # ful0183.
Members of the First Congregational Church, including the Reverend Henry Hugh Proctor (standing seventh from left), in Atlanta are pictured circa 1899. Today the church is an affiliate of the United Church of Christ, which formed in 1957.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Henry Hugh Proctor, the minister at First Congregational Church in Atlanta from 1894 until 1920, is pictured circa 1900. In 1910 Proctor founded the Atlanta Colored Music Festival Association, which produced annual concerts by classically trained African American performers for nearly a decade.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Marching through Georgia, one of the best-known songs of the Civil War, was composed in 1865 by Henry Clay Work. The song celebrates the success of Union general William T. Sherman's march to the sea in 1864.
Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins, pictured circa 1880, was a musical prodigy. He was born into slave status in Columbus and spent most of his life performing on the piano for audiences around the country. He also wrote original compositions, including the famous "Battle of Manassas."
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins, pictured circa 1860 at about the age of ten, was born into slave status in Columbus. He was recognized as a musical prodigy by his owner, James Bethune, and was hired out as a child to traveling showman Perry Oliver. During the presidency of James Buchanan (1857-61), Blind Tom became the first African American musician to perform at the White House.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Musician Joe South created the country soul genre in the 1960s. His songs were performed by major country and rock-and-roll singers and groups in the 1960s and 1970s.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Music Hall of Fame Collection.
Songwriter and musician Joe South won two Grammy Awards for his hit song "Games People Play" in 1969. While working as a studio musician in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and Nashville, Tennessee, South also played on recordings by such legendary performers as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Marty Robbins, and Simon and Garfunkel.
Image from Capitol Records
The Statesmen were a renowned gospel group formed in 1948 by Hovie Lister. Over the years the lineup of the group changed many times. Pictured is the last configuration of the performers. Seated left to right, Jack Toney (lead), Hovie Lister (pianist), and Wallace Nelms (tenor); standing left to right, Doug Young (bass) and Rick Fair (baritone).
Savannah-born James Moody was one of the early innovators of bebop. The jazz saxophonist, composer, and band leader recorded more than fifty albums.
Jazz musician James Moody, a native of Savannah, performs in 2007 at his eighty-second birthday celebration, held in New York City.
Photograph by Ned Radinsky. Courtesy of rockymountainjazz.com
Traditional gospel singer and songwriter Dottie Peoples is also a record producer and the host of the radio show The Dottie Peoples Showcase.
Photograph from Dottie Peoples
Protesters march down Broad Street in Albany during the Albany Movement, one of the largest civil rights campaigns in Georgia. From 1961 to 1962 Black residents protested the city's segregationist practices. Around 1,200 protesters were imprisoned as a result of their activities during the movement.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #dgh231-86.
Babbie Mason is an award-winning contemporary Christian singer and songwriter.
Courtesy of Babbie Mason
Blues musician Precious Bryant performs at the Atlanta History Center Blues Festival. Born in Talbot County in 1942, Bryant learned to play guitar as a child and began performing publicly in the 1960s.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
An old-time string band from Gordon County, the Georgia Yellow Hammers made many recordings in the 1920s.
Located on South Wall Street in Calhoun, the Moss Music Company was owned by Lawrence Moss, the stepfather of Phil Reeve of the Georgia Yellow Hammers. In the photograph pianos can be seen in the right background and sewing machines in the right foreground. Pictured, left to right: the Harper brothers, Phil Reeve, and Moss.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
gor298.
Southern gospel music songwriter and performer Lee Roy Abernathy was an innovator. He invented a music typesetting system, pioneered the use of public address systems in gospel concerts, and wrote the first singing commercials.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Music Hall of Fame Collection.
Larry Jon Wilson, an Augusta-based singer, songwriter, and composer, began his musical career in 1975 with the release of his first album, New Beginnings. His work is described by critics as a blend of country, soul, and folk.
Courtesy of Larry Jon Wilson
Georgia singer, songwriter Larry Jon Wilson with his guitar. WIlson's released his first album in 1975 and released six more before his death in 2010.
Courtesy of Larry Jon Wilson
Singer, Songwriter Larry Jon Wilson performing on stage. Wilson taught himself to play the guitar at age thirty and soon transferred from a career in chemistry to one in music.
Courtesy of Larry Jon WilsonÂ
Bill Lowery began his career in Atlanta as a disc jockey and broadcaster for Georgia Tech football games at radio station WGST in 1948. His weekly programs at the station included Musical Tune and Uncle Ebenezer Brown.
Bill Lowery, pictured in 1969, poses at Bill Lowery Enterprises, which included the Lowery Music Company and the National Recording Corporation. Lowery, known as "Mr. Atlanta Music," was a prominent disc jockey, producer, manager, and music publisher in the city from 1948 until his death in 2004. He was one of the first two inductees into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, which he also helped to establish.
The rap musician Ludacris poses in 2003 outside the Def Jam South offices in Midtown Atlanta. Ludacris signed with Def Jam in 2000 and later that year released the album Back for the First Time, which contained his first national hit, "What's Your Fantasy?"
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Ludacris, a rapper in the "Dirty South" style, performs during the 2005 Vibe Music Festival at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Ludacris began his career as a disc jockey in Atlanta and relased his first album, Incognegro, in 2000. The following year he established the Ludacris Foundation for underprivileged children in Atlanta.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Usher, a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, began his recording career in 1994 with Atlanta-based LaFace Records. In 2001 the artist received two Grammy awards. Usher has also starred in several feature films.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Country musician Travis Tritt performs at the Country Fair 2000 in his hometown of Marietta. That year, Tritt released Down the Road I Go, his eighth new album and the first with Columbia Records.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Travis Tritt, a native of Marietta, is a Grammy Award-winning country musician and member of the Grand Ole Opry. In 1999 he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Tritt's platinum-selling albums include Country Club (1990), It's All about to Change (1991), and T-R-O-U-B-L-E (1994).
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Chuck Leavell stands among the longleaf pines on Charlane Plantation, his timber farm and hunting preserve in Twiggs County. Leavell and his wife, Rose, have received state and national awards recognizing their efforts in conservation.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Pianist Chuck Leavell, a resident of Twiggs County since the early 1980s, has played with such notable acts as the Allman Brothers Band and the Rolling Stones. Inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2004, Leavell has also released several solo albums.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Savannah Theatre opened in late 1818, with productions of the comedies Soldier's Daughter and Raising the Wind, and incorporated twenty years later. Theater was the predominant form of entertainment in antebellum Georgia, and performances often incorporated popular songs of the day.
Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society, Cordray-Foltz Photography Studio photographs, #GHS 1360-03-06-06.
Lowell Mason, known as the "Father of School Music" influenced the development of urban sacred music, as well as music education, in antebellum Georgia. A native of Massachusetts, Mason led the "better music movement," which favored the works of European classical composers, in his adopted home of Savannah.
From What We Hear in Music, by A. S. Faulkner
Jesse Mercer, a prominent Baptist leader in Georgia, served as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention from 1822 until his death in 1841. Also an active publisher, Mercer compiled a hymnal in 1810 and edited the Christian Index, a Baptist newspaper, from 1833 to 1840. In 1833 he founded Mercer Institute, which later became Mercer University.
The shape-note system in The Sacred Harp uses a different shape to represent each of the four syllables in the musical scale: a triangle (fa), a circle (sol), a rectangle (la), and a diamond (mi).
The tune "Windham" as it appears in The Sacred Harp, 1911 edition. Image from Wikimedia.
Alex Cooley gives an interview to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1998. Cooley became a concert promoter during the late 1960s and founded the city's Midtown Music Festival in 1994.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Francine Reed performs at Music Midtown, an annual festival in Atlanta begun in 1990s. A native of Illinois, Reed became known as Atlanta's "queen of the blues" following her move to Georgia in the early 1990s.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
Fletcher Henderson, a native of Randolph County, formed the first big band orchestra around 1920 in New York City. In 1921 Fletcher's orchestra began making records, and the group played at the Roseland Ballroom in New York for the rest of the decade.
Fletcher Henderson, an accomplished pianist and native of Cuthbert, is credited with forming the first big band orchestra in New York City during the 1920s. His musical contributions laid the foundation for swing music.
Image from Wikimedia
A publicity photo of Chet Atkins, a famed country music star credited with increasing country music's mainstream popularity. Â He won more than a dozen Grammy awards over his lifetime, and was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1995.
Copyright 1997 SonyMusic Entertainment Inc.
Willie Lee, or "Piano Red," Perryman was a blues pianist who played in the barrelhouse style. His professional music career began in the early 1930s and continued until the late 1960s.
Photograph from booklet "Piano Red, Dr. Feelgood," by Norbert Hess
Blind Willie McTell, a native of Thomson, was a great blues musician of the 1920s and 1930s. Based in Atlanta, he displayed an extraordinary range on the twelve-string guitar.
First Piece of the Rock was released in 1983 as a tribute to Willie Lee Perryman, a blues musician known as "Piano Red" for much of his career. Two of Perryman's songs, "Rockin' with Red" and "Red's Boogie," were recorded in Atlanta in 1950 and made the national charts.
Print by Mike McCarty. Courtesy of Lowery Group
Willie Lee Perryman, a blues pianist, created the Dr. Feelgood persona for his WAOK radio show, and he performed under the name with his band, the Interns. From left, Perryman, Curtis Smith, Bobby Lee Tuggle, Roy Lee Johnson, Beverly Watkins, and Howard Hobbs.
Photograph from booklet "Piano Red, Dr. Feelgood," by Norbert Hess
Willie Lee Perryman, also known as "Dr. Feelgood," poses in the early 1960s with his band, the Interns.
Photograph from booklet "Piano Red, Dr. Feelgood," by Norbert Hess
Antwan Patton, known as "Big Boi," performs in Atlanta in 2011. Big Boi is one member of the Atlanta hip-hop duo OutKast, which he formed with Andre Benjamin in the early 1990s.
Courtesy of Mike White | DEADLYDESIGNS.COM
The hip-hop duo Andre Benjamin and Antwan Patton, known as OutKast, released their first album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, in 1994 on LaFace Records, an Atlanta-based label. Their debut effort sold more than a million copies.
Andre Benjamin, known by his stage name Andre 3000, performs at Austin City Limits Festival in 2014. Benjamin is known for his mystical, abstemious "poet" persona in contrast to fellow OutKast member Big Boi's image as a partying, womanizing "player."
Photograph by Ultra 5280
Duane Allman was the guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band, which he formed with his younger brother, Gregg, in 1969. The band released its first album on Capricorn Records, a label based in Macon. Allman died in 1971 after being injured in a motorcycle accident.
Mattiwilda Dobbs, an Atlanta native and renowned soprano, performed the role of Olympia in the Metropolitan Opera's 1959 production of The Tales of Hoffman by Jacques Offenbach. Dobbs joined the Metropolitan Opera in 1956 and sang with the company for eight seasons.
Photograph by Louis Melancon
Jessye Norman, an Augusta native, began her career as an opera singer in 1969 with the Deutsche Oper Berlin in Germany. She subsequently performed in Milan, Italy, and London, England, before making her debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1983.
Image from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore
Phil Walden founded the Capricorn Record Series, an imprint of Atlantic Records, in 1969. He launched the "southern rock" genre under Capricorn, with such acts as the Allman Brothers Band, the Dixie Dregs, and Wet Willie.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Music Hall of Fame Collection.
Antonio "L.A." Reid cofounded LaFace Records, a rap and rhythm-and-blues label in Atlanta, with Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds in 1989. Reid continued to manage the company after Edmonds's departure in 1993, and since 2000 he has served as the president and chief executive officer of Arista Records, which bought out LaFace that same year.
Lena Horne, an acclaimed entertainer and civil rights activist, is pictured in a 1946 publicity still for Till the Clouds Roll By. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Horne spent part of her childhood in both Fort Valley and Atlanta before beginning her career in New York at the age of sixteen. In 1984 she received the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement in the performing arts.
Image from Wikimedia
Tony Merrell drums during a performance of the Georgia Sea Island Singers, as fellow member Frankie Sullivan Quimby looks on. The singers maintain a tradition, begun around 1900, of sharing the Gullah culture through performances and educational programs.
Courtesy of Georgia Sea Island Singers
Harry James, a renowned swing trumpet player during the 1930s and 1940s, rehearses for the Coca-Cola radio show in New York City around 1946. James was born in Albany to traveling circus performers and began playing the trumpet as a child.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Music Division, William P. Gottlieb/Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Fund Collection.
Pictured in New York circa 1947, Harry James was a renowned trumpet player and band leader. The Albany native played with some of the most prominent performers of the swing era, including Benny Goodman and Connie Haines.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Music Division, William P. Gottlieb/Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Fund Collection.
Gram Parsons's work on the album Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968) earned critical success and increased popularity for the Byrds, but it turned out to be the only album Parsons would record with the band.
Gram Parsons's influence on other musicians stems from his innovative fusion of the country and rock genres. Though he died young in the early 1970s, Parsons left behind a body of work that continues to earn the admiration of contemporary musicians.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Music Hall of Fame Collection.
Vocalist Emmylou Harris recorded two albums with Gram Parsons: GP (1973) and Grievous Angel (1974). Between the releases of these two records, Harris toured with Parsons's Fallen Angels band.
Photograph copyright Geoff Gibbs
The Allman Brothers Band formed in Florida in 1969 and moved to Macon later that same year.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Music Hall of Fame Collection.
The Allman Brothers Band recorded its first album in New York in August 1969, just five months after the band debuted in Jacksonville, Florida.
The Johnny Mercer Collection in the Special Collections and Archives Department at Georgia State University is home to a large collection of the songwriter's personal papers and effects, including correspondence, sound recordings, sheet music, and lyrics.
The Tams, a rhythm-and-blues vocal quintet from Atlanta, made their first recording in 1960. With a series of hits on the Billboard charts during the following decade, the group defined what is known as the "beach music" sound.
Members of the Tams, a musical group which formed in 1952 as the Four Dots, continue to perform today. The group recorded its first album as the Tams, with five members, in 1960 and enjoyed several hits in the 1960s. The Tams continued touring for decades, even after founding member Joe Pope died in 1996.
Curtis Mayfield began his career as a professional musician at age sixteen. His longtime affiliation with a vocal group called the Impressions was followed by a series of successful and influential solo projects. Today Mayfield is revered by many for his pioneering work in the soul and funk genres.
Image from Wikimedia
Propelled by two chart-climbing singles, Toni Braxton achieved stardom before the release of her first full-length record. When the rhythm-and-blues singer's debut album, Toni Braxton, finally came out in 1993, it sold more than 9 million copies.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Music Hall of Fame Collection.
In his unique career, Jermaine Dupri has been a breakdancer, songwriter, music producer, entrepreneur, rapper, and athletics manager. He has held high-level positions at major record companies, in addition to owning Atlanta-based So So Def Records, and he has produced several music acts that have gone on to sell millions of albums each.
Image from Timothy M. Moore
Isaac Hayes, credited with developing the "Memphis soul" sound in the 1960s and 1970s, was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1994. A Tennessee native, Hayes lived in Atlanta from the mid-1970s until 1992.
Courtesy of www.isaachayes.com
Isaac Hayes, an innovative soul musician, greets onlookers along the red carpet at the 2004 Turner Broadcasting System's Trumpet Awards, held at the Omni Hotel in Atlanta. Hayes began as a rhythm-and-blues musician in Memphis, Tennessee, before establishing himself as a soul musician with the 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Soul musician Isaac Hayes performs in 2003 at Philips Arena (later State Farm Arena) in Atlanta during an NBA All-Star event.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Norman Blake, a highly regarded perfomer of traditional southern music, married musician Nancy Blake in 1972. Since that time, the two have often performed and recorded together.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Music Hall of Fame Collection.
First published in 1844, The Sacred Harp songbook has helped to promote the style of singing known as "Sacred Harp," "shape-note," or "fasola" singing.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
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