St. Albans was home to many artists of the
jazz,
hip hop, and
rap music genres. The following notable people are known to have lived in the area:
Music •
Count Basie (1904–1984), jazz pianist, lived at 17427 Adelaide Rd. •
Brook Benton (1931–1988), singer and songwriter •
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (1922–1986), saxophonist •
Phife Dawg (1970–2016), rapper and member of
A Tribe Called Quest •
Karl Grossman, journalist and professor of journalism. •
Milt Hinton, jazz double bassist and photographer, lived at 17305 113th Av. •
Lena Horne (1917–2010), singer, lived at 11245 178th St. •
Illinois Jacquet, jazz tenor saxophonist, lived at 11244 179th St. •
Bill Kenny, Pop and R&B vocalist & lead singer of The Ink Spots •
Wendell Marshall, jazz bassist and last surviving member of Duke Ellington's orchestra •
Eileen Southern, musicologist •
Slam Stewart, jazz bass player, lived at 11428 180th St. •
Roy Campanella (1921–1993), 1950s All-Star catcher with Brooklyn Dodgers, lived at 11410 179th St. •
Bob Cousy, 1950s All-Star basketball player with Boston Celtics •
Joe Louis (1914–1981), heavyweight boxing champion, lived at 17512 Murdock Av. •
Floyd Patterson (1935–2006), heavyweight boxing champion •
Will Poole, football player •
Eddie Sweat,
Secretariat's groom •
John Henry Brinckerhoff (1829–1903), merchant and public official •
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author and editor. W. E. B. Du Bois and
Shirley Graham Du Bois, both lived at 17319 113th Road •
Anna Lee Fisher (born 1949), astronaut •
Clarence L. Irving (1924–2014), cultural activist and mentor who made significant contributions to African-American history and heritage. •
Alex Katz (born 1927), painter best known for his large-scale landscape paintings and portraits of friends and family •
Al Roker (born 1954), meteorologist •
Percy Sutton (1920–2009), black political leader, lived at 11419 179th Street •
Roy Wilkins (1901–1981), longtime NAACP Head, Civil Rights activist He subsequently had his home in Addisleigh Park fashioned with a built-in Hammond organ. He died in 1943 from bronchial pneumonia. In 1937, jazz pianist and bandleader
Count Basie moved his orchestra from Kansas City to New York. Count Basie's orchestra performed at world-famous Manhattan venues including the
Roseland Ballroom, the
Savoy Ballroom, and the Woodside Hotel. In 1946, Basie and his wife, Katy, bought a home in Addisleigh Park, where the couple lived until 1973 when it was sold to bandleader/singer/pianist, Robert (Bubber) Johnson. Singer, film actress, and Civil Rights Activist
Lena Horne also moved into the Addisleigh Park neighborhood in the year 1946. Soon after Horne, jazz trumpeter and bandleader
Mercer Ellington, son of jazz great
Duke Ellington, moved into Addisleigh Park in 1948. Eight years earlier, he had worked for renowned jazz trumpeter
Cootie Williams as his road manager. Cootie Williams bought a home in Addisleigh Park in 1947. While residing in Addisleigh Park, Mercer Ellington employed
Dizzy Gillespie,
Kenny Dorham, and
Charles Mingus. Throughout the 1940s, Mercer and his father, Duke Ellington, frequently borrowed musicians from one another's ensembles. Saxophonist
Earl Bostic moved to Addisleigh Park in 1948, the same year Bostic's sextet hit success with their first single "Temptation". Bostic was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the early 1930s, he played with Midwestern territory bands before moving to New York City in 1938 to play with Don Redman. Bostic's second hit, "Flamingo", was produced in 1951, while he was still living in Addisleigh Park. In 1956, Bostic and his wife left Addisleigh Park to settle in Los Angeles. Earl Bostic died onstage from a heart attack in Rochester, New York, in 1965. Bostic's neighbors on Murdock Avenue were
Ella Fitzgerald and her then-husband, famous bassist and cellist
Ray Brown. Fitzgerald owned her Addisleigh Park home from 1949 until 1956. During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Fitzgerald had become one of the most recognizable names of wide-release swing music in the United States. She met Brown in 1946 while on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band. The couple divorced in 1952.
Vicksburg, Mississippi, native and famous jazz bassist
Milt Hinton moved into Addisleigh Park in 1950. Coltrane had just met tremendous critical success after his collaborations with
Thelonious Monk and
Miles Davis. In January 1960, Coltrane released
Giant Steps, his first album with Atlantic Records.
Giant Steps is considered to be the album that catapulted Coltrane into jazz legend. == See also ==