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7 Black Music Pioneers You Should Know This Black Music Month

From rock ’n’ roll to jazz and soul, these pioneers deserve a rightful place in the spotlight.

As a visionary producer, arranger, and composer, Stepney helped define the sonic identity of acts like Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton, Earth, Wind & Fire, and The Dells. As a prolific keyboardist and poet, he served as musical director for Nina Simone and penned “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”—one of the most essential anthems of the civil rights era. As a Black, gay minimalist in the predominantly white world of avant-garde classical music, Eastman used repetition and deliberate disruption to carve out space on his own terms.

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