Music and Migration Lab

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.

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)

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

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.

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

Today we completed phase 2 of the Black musical diasporas project which details the ancestral lineages and migratory origins of every blues musician of African descent active in the U.S. up to WWII. Combined with phase 1 which covered jazz, we now move into phase 3 to cover all known musicians who played other forms of music through the same time periods. We believe the growing database will fundamentally change our understanding of the historical geography and evolution of Black music in the U.S. and across the world.

Yesterday we completed our research on Texas blues. Below is a peak at the origins of Texas blues and jazz musicians. Now we turn to finishing the final parts of the blues research on states less commonly affiliated with the genre such as Oklahoma, Florida, Kansas, Washington, California, Colorado, and Montana. That will wrap up phase 2 of the Black Musical Diasporas project.

Musicians Included in Study: 3,039
Migrational Movements Catalogued: 15,379

We are closing in on finishing our blues research on Texas where approximately 10% of all blues musicians active before WWII were born. (If you’re wondering, it’s only exceeded by Mississippi where about 16% were born from the pre-war era).

Today we finished our research on Kentucky and coded the data. We just have Texas left to complete our research on blues.

Musicians Included in Study: 2,919
Migrational Movements Catalogued: 14,917

Today we finished our research on South Carolina blues musicians. Just two major states remain. Kentucky is next.

Musicians Included in Study: 2,893
Migrational Movements Catalogued: 14,828