Music and Migration Lab

09/07/2026

Makanda Ken McIntyre (1931-2001) was born on this day 95 years ago. In honor of him, the Music and Migration Lab made this map showing his origins in St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica, traceable back to 1833.

09/07/2026

In honor of the great multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator, Makanda Ken McIntyre (1931-2001), on his birthday, we are posting this clip of one of his lectures.

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Makanda Ken McIntyre speaks abou...

09/07/2026

In honor of the great saxophonist Sonny Rollins (1930-2026), the Music and Migration Lab created these maps showing his family's origins in the Caribbean: Nevis, St. Croix, and Sint Eustatius back to 1859.

09/07/2026

Happy birthday to the great saxophonist Sonny Rollins (1930-2026). He is deeply missed. Follow the link to this 2006 interview with the artist.

www.achievement.orgCopyright: American Academy of Achievement

08/14/2026

This summer, the Music and Migration Lab has been refining our data and building our archive further. Having concluded our blues research in May, we have spent the last few months systematically working through the Eileen Southern bibliographical entries to bolster the pre-1865 knowledge base of the archive that now includes nearly 3,800 musicians and nearly 17,000 documented migrational movements in the history of Black music in North America and the Caribbean.

Our director, Cisco Bradley, also co-founded an independent film production company together with producer Setshi Ford and began filming footage for the pilot episode of our forthcoming documentary series. We will continue to advance these projects into the coming academic year.

06/07/2026

The great saxophonist Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (1930-2026) was a true New Yorker and grew up in Harlem, spending his earliest years on 8th Avenue near 145th Street. He later lived on West 135th Street and by his late teen years had moved around the corner on Edgecombe Avenue. But his roots were among seafarers, craftsmen, and merchants in the Caribbean. His great-grandmother left St. Croix and lived for a time in Sint Eustatius, where his grandfather was born. By 1890, they were back in Christiansted, St. Croix, where his father, Walter William Rollins (Rawlings) grew up and after moving to New York in the 1920s, served as a steward in the U.S. Navy. His mother's family also came from St. Croix, but his maternal grandfather left Haiti and settled in St. Croix in the early 1900s.

06/04/2026

We haven't released updated statistics in a while. The numbers below are based on the six-year archive-building project we have concluded on the ancestral migrations of musicians of African descent in the United States (all jazz musicians born before 1950 and all blues, gospel, classical, etc. born before 1920):
1. Louisiana (1,315)
2. North Carolina (1,231)
3. Mississippi (1,187)
4. Virginia (938)
5. Alabama (820)
6. Texas (730)
7. Georgia (707)
8. Tennessee (633)
9. South Carolina (570)
10. Kentucky (431)
11. Ohio (395)
12. Pennsylvania (347)
13. Missouri, New York (307)
15. Arkansas (300)
16. Maryland (239)
17. Illinois (215)
18. Florida (207)
19. New Jersey (175)
20. Oklahoma (128)
21. District of Columbia (114)
22. Indiana (107)
23. Michigan (105)
24. Kansas (96)
25. West Virginia (94)
26. Massachusetts (93)
27. California (90)
28. Delaware (35)
29. Connecticut (30)
30. Iowa (26)
31. Wisconsin (20)
32. Colorado (16)
33. Minnesota (14)
34. Nebraska (13)
35. Arizona (10)
36. Washington (5)
37. Montana, New Mexico, New Hampshire (4)
40. Maine, North Dakota (3)
42. Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington (2)
47. Vermont, Utah (1)
No data points: Alaska, Idaho, South Dakota
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Though data on international western hemispheric migrational connections are not conclusive yet, we have also archived the following:
Canada (77)
Barbados (63)
Jamaica (40)
Haiti (38)
Bahamas (26)
U.S. Virgin Islands (24)
St. Kitts & Nevis (19)
British Virgin Islands (11)
Cuba (11)
Mexico (10)
Dominican Republic (9)
Guyana (9)
Trinidad & Tobago (9)
Panama ( 8 )
"British West Indies" (7)
"West Indies" (5)
Guadeloupe (4)
Antigua (3)
Montserrat (3)
Bermuda (2)
Grenada (2)
Martinique (2)
St. Lucia (2)
St. Martin (2)
St. Vincent (2)
Barbuda (1)
Belize (1)
Brazil (1)
Costa Rica (1)
St. Barthelemy (1)
St. Helena (1)

06/03/2026

Today we completed phase 4 of the research which was aimed at documenting lesser-known musicians of African descent who were active prior to 1865. Of particular note, we uncovered a number of additional post-revolution Haiti connections in this phase.

Musicians Included in Study: 3,638
Migrational Origins Catalogued: 16,477

05/28/2026

Today, Prof. Cisco Bradley finished phase 3 of our research which focuses on the ancestral origins of musicians of African descent born before 1920 who worked outside of blues and jazz.

Total musicians included in the study: 3,461
Migrational origin points catalogued: 16,163

Now we turn to Phase 4 which will form a sweep through nineteenth-century records to add lesser-known musicians to the study who we did not identify in the earlier phases.

05/19/2026

Last week we began are working on phase 3 which includes musicians of African descent who primarily played European classical music.

Total Musicians Researched: 3,139
Migrational Origins Catalogued: 15,749