Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an influential jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer, whose innovations to the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano, and whose best-known compositions, “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose”, were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame posthumously, in…

Mabel Louise Smith was born in Jackson Tennessee (May 1, 1924 – January 23, 1972). In the early nineteen thirties the young Mabel won an amateur singing contest in Memphis, and decided that performing was for her. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select list(s) to subscribe toHarlem World Magazine Example: Yes, I…

Duke Ellington When his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the Wilber Sweatman Orchestra in New York City, Ellington made the fateful decision to leave behind his successful career in Washington, D.C., and move to Harlem, becoming one of the figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select…

In the brief time that I’ve been posting blog entries to Integral Post, rarely have I explicitly discussed the issue of race, which, it seems to me, is a blindspot of the Integral community. Yet I intend, more and more, to visit the theme of race and view it through an Integral lens. Become a…