Freedom's song : 100 years of African-American struggle and triumphAfrican American Music Appreciate Month is celebrated every year during the month of June. It was established as Black Music Month in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter. President Barack Obama has announced the observance under its new title, African American Music Appreciation Month, every year of his term. Read the 2013 Presidential Proclaimation at whitehouse.gov
Image Credit: William Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress
Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Milt (Milton) Jackson, and Timmie Rosenkrantz, Downbeat, New York, N.Y., 1947
Listen to the Dizzy Gillespie Quintent perform Confirmation live at Carnegie Hall in 1947.
Black Music Research Journal
Ethnomusicology Forum
Gospel Glory by 
Carmell Jones by 
Great Ladies of Jazz
To make this list, Rolling Stone asked 33 artists and experts – from Rick Rubin to Busta Rhymes – to choose their favorite hip-hop tracks, then crunched the numbers. Click to read the full list of voters.
