January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006 Born Ruth Alston Weston in Portsmouth, Virginia, she attended I. C. Norcom High School, a historically black high school. Brown’s father was a dockhand who directed the local church choir, but the young Ruth showed more of an interest in singing at USO shows and nightclubs. She was … Read more
1998 Inductee Washington Irving Rucker was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on March 5th, 1937, and attended local schools through to graduation from Booker T. Washington High, developing a talent for the drums along the way. By his teens, Washington was working with bluesman Jimmy “Cry Cry” Hawkins and was soon off to UCLA to study and get … Read more
Inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 2012, police officer Justin Echolscroons the standards with a voice as smooth as melted chocolate and manipulates the ebonies and ivories as if he were born in a New Orleans jazz club. When Echols was faced with near immobility after a catastrophic car crash, the Oklahoma City police sergeant … Read more
July 9, 1915 – July 26, 1987 Joe Liggins was an R&B, jazz, and blues pianist who was the frontman in the 1940s and 1950s with the band, Joe Liggins and his Honeydrippers. His band was often a staple on the US Billboard R&B chart in those years, with their biggest hit being “The Honeydripper”, … Read more
Stephen L. Wiley is recognized as the first artist to have recorded a full-length Christian rap album. Wiley was born and grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and attended college at the University of Oklahoma. He began a career as a jazz drummer in 1979 and wrote a song called “Basketball”. This tune would later go … Read more
July 5, 1949 – December 7, 2007 Glenn Edward Burleigh was the first of three children born to Rev. Nathaniel and Iona Burleigh, July 5, 1949 in Guthrie, Oklahoma. He graduated from Favor High School in 1967 and entered the University of Oklahoma as a piano major studying with Digby Bell and Lois Gauger, and … Read more
They call jazz “America’s classical music.” Jazz was born and bred in the United States; originally inspired by ragtime and folk songs, early jazz artists drew their musical inspiration from country dances, field hollers, work songs, and the blues. Oklahoma musicians were instrumental in the creation of the so-called “Kansas City” style of jazz, bluesy … Read more
September 21, 1944 – June 22, 1988 2002 Blues Inductee Jesse Ed Davis was born in Norman, Oklahoma on September 21, 1944 of Kiowa and Cherokee parents. He was playing guitar at venues in and around Oklahoma City by his early teens with other young musicians like bassist John Selk, vocalist Jerry Fisher, and drummer … Read more
Ernestine Dillard, from Bixby, is perhaps best remembered for her April 23, 1995 performance, when she electrified 11,000 mourners and a national television audience with her “God Bless America” medley that closed the Oklahoma City Memorial Service for the victims of the Murrah Building bombing. In 1994, she ended a 33-year career as a registered nurse, the last … Read more
November 28, 1950 – February 2001 Born Deborah Ruth Vorhies on November 28, 1950 in Forth Worth, Texas, Debbie received her first guitar as a Christmas gift from her parents when she was 12 years old. She began touring nationally while still in her teens with an all-girl band, the Kandy Kanes, and then went … Read more