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This musical first became popularized during the Harlem renaissance and is still being performed by famous Broadway stars to this day.

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Broadway.com #BuzzNow: SHUFFLE ALONG Opening with Audra McDonald, Billy Porter & More

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This was a blues piece performed on Louis's trumpet which came out in 1928.

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Florence mills was an entertainer who gained her fame with her talent in dancing an singing. She starred in several Broadway shows like "Shuffle Along."

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Mills, Florence (1896-1927) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed

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At the age of 31, Mills became ill with tuberculosis during a tour that included over 250 performances. She died in New York City on November 1, 1927 from an infection after surgery. Three thousand fans attended her funeral in Harlem and thousands more saw her funeral procession as it moved through the black community.

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Earned the title of "empress of blues." She was a black entertainer from Tennessee who sang, danced and acted. Had a huge impact on the growing music genre with her vocals.

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Bessie Smith earned the title of "Empress of the Blues" by virtue of her forceful vocal delivery and command of the genre.

Her singing displayed a soulfully phrased, boldly delivered and nearly definitive grasp of the blues. In addition, she was an all-around entertainer who danced, acted and performed comedy routines with her touring company. She was the highest-paid black performer of her day and arguably reached a level of success greater than that of any African-American entertainer before her.

Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1894. Like many of her generation, she dreamed of escaping a life of poverty by way of show business. As a teenager she joined a traveling minstrel show, the Moss Stokes Company. Her brother Clarence was a comedian with the troupe, and Smith befriended another member, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (a.k.a. the "Mother of the Blues"), who served as something of a blues mentor. After a decade's seasoning on the stage, Smith was signed to Columbia Records in 1923. Her first recording-"Down Hearted Blues" b/w "Gulf Coast Blues"-sold an estimated 800,000 copies, firmly establishing her as a major figure in the black record market. Smith sang raw, uncut country blues inspired by life in the South, in which everyday experiences were related in plainspoken language-not unlike the rap music that would emerge more than half a century later. She was ahead of her time in another sense as well. In the words of biographer Chris Albertson, "Bessie had a wonderful way of turning adversity into triumph, and many of her songs are the tales of liberated women."

Some of her better-known sides from the Twenties include "Backwater Blues," "Taint Nobody's Bizness If I Do," "St. Louis Blues" (recorded with Louis Armstrong) and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out." The Depression dealt her career a blow, but Smith changed with the times by adopting a more up-to-date look and revised repertoire that incorporated Tin Pan Alley tunes like "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." On the verge of the Swing Era, Smith died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident outside Clarksdale, Mississippi in September 1937. She left behind a rich, influential legacy of one hundred sixty recordings cut between 1923 and 1933. Some of the great vocal divas who owe a debt to Smith include Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin. In Joplin's own words of tribute, "She showed me the air and taught me how to fill it."

In 1989 Smith was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1994 the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative Bessie Smith postage stamp. Smith's song "Downhearted Blues" has also received numerous awards. In 2001 it was named one of the Songs of the Century by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2002 it was placed on the National Recording Preservation Board by the Library of Congress, and in 2006 it was placed in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Inductee: Bessie Smith (vocals; born April 15, 1894, died September 26, 1937)

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Bessie Smith earned the title of "Empress of the Blues" by virtue of her forceful vocal delivery and command of the genre. Her singing displayed a soulfully phrased, boldly delivered and nearly definitive grasp of the blues. In addition, she was an all-around entertainer who danced, acted and performed comedy routines with her touring company.

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This song shows the type of music that was popularized during the time.

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Many African american singers like Billie Holiday or Bessie Smith popularized vocal jazz and blues as well. This rebirth of African american culture became the Harlem renaissance.

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He was born and raised in a dangerous neighborhood in New Orleans by his mother. He later joined a jazz band in Chicago. Considered to have the most influential jazz records in history.

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Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. He was raised by his mother Mayann in a neighborhood so dangerous it was called “The Battlefield.” He only had a fifth-grade education, dropping out of school early to go to work. An early job working for the Jewish Karnofsky fami…

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Billie Holiday rose in fame by singing at jazz clubs when she was a teenager. She had her first record at 18 years old, and was later the first black person to work with a white orchestra.

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During the 1950’s Billie Holiday rose as a social phenomenon. Born Eleanora Fagan grew up in Baltimore. As a teenager she began singing in jazz clubs. At the age of 18 Billie was spotted by John…