List of composers of African descent
This is a list of composers of African ancestry.
A
- Michael Abels, US
- Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah, Egypt
- Muhal Richard Abrams, US
- H. Leslie Adams, US
- Eleanor Alberga, Jamaica
- Alcione, Brazil
- Amanda Christina Elizabeth Aldridge, England
- Kenneth Amis, US
- Thomas Jefferson Anderson, US
- Lil Hardin Armstrong, US
B
- David Baker, US
- Count Basie, US, pianist, bandleader
- Leon Bates, US, pianist
- Catalina Berroa, Cuba
- Eubie Blake, US
- James A. Bland, US
- Margaret Allison Bonds, US
- John William Boone, US
- Brittney Boykin, US, pianist
- Anthony Braxton, US
- George Bridgetower, Poland, violinist and composer
- Courtney Bryan, US, pianist and composer
- James Tim Brymn, US
- Harry Burleigh, US
C
- Billy Childs, US
- Robert Allen "Bob" Cole, US
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, England
- Ornette Coleman, US
- Alice Coltrane, US
- John Coltrane, US
- Geraldine Connor, UK
- Will Marion Cook, US
- Roque Cordero, Panama
- Arthur Cunningham, US
D
- William L. Dawson, US
- Anthony Davis, US
- Gussie Lord Davis, US
- Edmond Dédé, US
- Leonard De Paur, US
- Robert Nathaniel Dett, Canada
- John Thomas Douglass, US
- Rudolph Dunbar, Guyana
- Leslie Dunner, US
E
- Julius Eastman, US
- Justin Elie, Haiti
- Duke Ellington, US, jazz big band leader
- Mercer Ellington, US
- Joseph Antonio Emidy, Guinea
- Akin Euba, Nigeria
- James Reese Europe, US
F
- Donal Fox, US
G
- José Maurício Nunes Garcia, Brazil
- Philip Gbeho, Ghana
- Kerry J. Gilliard, US
- Harry P. Guy, US
H
- Adolphus Hailstork, US
- W. C. Handy, US, blues
- Edward W. Hardy, US, composer, violinist
- Robert A. Harris, US
- Henry Hart, US
- Scott Hayden, US, ragtime
- Talib Rasul Hakim, US
- Fletcher Henderson, US, jazz big band leader
- Ernest Hogan, US
- Moses Hogan, US
- David Hurd, US
I
J
- Michael Jackson, US, singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, choreographer, musician, businessman
- Tony Jackson, US, pianist
- Leroy Jenkins, US
- Jose Julian Jiménez, Cuba
- Lico Jiménez, Cuba
- Francis Johnson, US
- Hall Johnson, US
- James Price Johnson, US
- J. Rosamond Johnson, US
- Victor C. Johnson, US
- Irving Jones, US ragtime composer
- Trevor Jones, South Africa and United Kingdom, film composer
- Scott Joplin, US
- Quincy Jones, US
- Joe Jordan, US
K
L
- Vicente Lusitano, Portugal, born in the early 1500s
- Charles Lucien Lambert, US
- Lucien-Léon Guillaume Lambert, France
- Sidney Lambert, US
- Ludovic Lamothe, Haiti
- Tania León, Cuba
- John Lewis, US
- Melba Liston, US
- Sam Lucas, US
M
- Bobby McFerrin, US, jazz composer-vocalist-conductor
- Wynton Marsalis, US
- Arthur Marshall, US, ragtime
- Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, US
- Charles Mingus, US
- Roscoe Mitchell, US
- Thelonious Monk, US
- Carman Moore, US
- Undine Smith Moore, US
- Jeffrey Mumford, US
- Diedre Murray, US
- Billy Myles, US
N
- Brian Raphael Nabors, US
- Gary Powell Nash, US
- Oliver Nelson, US
- J. H. Kwabena Nketia, Ghana
P
- Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, US
- Julia Perry, US
- Zenobia Powell Perry, US
- Marvin Peterson, US, jazz composer
- Armand John Piron, US
- Florence Beatrice Price, US
- Prince, US
R
- Amadeo Roldán, Cuba
- Sonny Rollins, US
S
- Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Guadeloupe
- Ignatius Sancho, England
- James Scott, US
- Jacob J. Sawyer, US
- Wayne Shorter, US
- Alvin Singleton, US
- Chris Smith, US
- Hale Smith, US
- Fela Sowande, Nigeria
- William Grant Still, US
- Howard Swanson, US
- Billy Strayhorn, US, one of the most highly regarded jazz and big band composers and arrangers; Ellington's friend and arranger
T
- Shirley Thompson, English-born composer of Jamaican descent
- Henry Threadgill, US, jazz composer
- Dean Clay Taylor, US, classical composer
W
- George Walker, US
- Fats Waller, US, singer, jazz musician
- Pete Wentz, bassist of the band Fall Out Boy
- Randy Weston, US
- Clarence Cameron White, US
- Joseph White Cuba
- Thomas Wiggins or "Blind Tom", US
- Clarence Williams, US
- Julius Penson Williams, US
- Mary Lou Williams, US
- Olly Wilson, US
- John Wesley Work III, US
- Stevie Wonder
Z
- Pamela Z, US