A lost voice from the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance, an upheaval in art and music in African American culture, saw the rise of many of today’s household names—Louis Armstrong, Langston Hughes, and Duke Ellington, for instance. William Grant Still, though, does not hold the same revered place in our national consciousness. A pioneer of the classical world, Still molded the genres of classical and jazz into today’s shapes. While his name is forgotten, his influence is unmistakable in the music of the present.