Marvin "Smitty" Smith - American jazz drummer and composer. Marvin Smith was born in Waukegan, Illinois, where his father, Marvin Sr., was a drummer. "Smitty" was exposed to music at a young age, receiving formal musical training at the age of three.

Louis Risbrook - Bassist in American funk/disco group, B.T. Express. Doc Pumus - American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the co-writer of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 1992, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Blues Hall […]

Jimmy Mundy - American jazz tenor saxophonist, arranger, and composer, best known for his arrangements for Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and Earl Hines. Joe Smith - American jazz trumpeter.  

Florence Ballard -  American singer and a founding member of the Motown vocal female group the Supremes. She sang on 16 top 40 singles with the group, including ten number-one hits. Ronald Winans - American Gospel singer who gained fame as a member of The Winans. Stanley Clarke -  American bassist, film composer and founding […]

Bobby Day - American rock and roll and R&B singer, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, and songwriter. He is best known for his hit record "Rockin' Robin", written by Leon René under the pseudonym Jimmie Thomas. Sly Johnson - American blues and soul singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. His most successful records included "Different Strokes", "Is […]

Bill Withers - American singer-songwriter and musician. He had several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine", "Grandma's Hands", "Use Me", "Lean on Me", "Lovely Day" and "Just the Two of Us". Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for six more. Ralph Johnson - American singer, songwriter, musician and […]

Arthur Blythe - American jazz alto saxophonist and composer. Tommy Lipuma - American music producer. He received 33 Grammy nominations, 5 Grammy wins, and his productions sold over 75 million albums.

Doc Severinsen - American jazz trumpeter who led the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Joe Zawinul - Austrian jazz keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with Miles Davis and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, a musical genre […]

Earl Van Dyke - American soul musician, most notable as the main keyboardist for Motown Records' in-house Funk Brothers band during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Louis Jordan - American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", he […]

Peter Brown - American singer-songwriter and record producer. Bonnie Pointer - American singer, best known for having been a member of the vocal group, the Pointer Sisters. Roquel Billy Davis - American songwriter, record producer, and singer. Davis was also known as a writer/producer of commercial jingles, mostly for Coca-Cola. He was also known as […]

Swamp Dogg - American soul and R&B singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. Big John Patton - American jazz, blues and R&B pianist and organist often known by his nickname, Big John Patton Bernie Wilson -  Second tenor and baritone R&B, funk and soul music vocalist, who was a member of Harold Melvin & the […]

Gerald Levert - American singer-songwriter, producer and actor. Levert was best known for singing with his brother, Sean Levert, and friend Marc Gordon of the vocal group LeVert. Levert was also a member of LSG, a supergroup comprising Keith Sweat, Johnny Gill, and himself.