African American Women Play Musical Instruments: Webpages and More: African American Women Instrumentalists

For this particular list, we choose to focus on black women guitarists and bassists from prior to 1999. We did this specifically to showcase the legends—many of whom unfortunately have been overlooked, dismissed, or forgotten—that should be recognized as pillars of music history.

Margaret Bonds Signature Series: We launched our “Margaret Bonds Signature Series” in 2021. There are more than a dozen titles including works for orchestra, piano, chorus, solo voice, and a study score for Bonds’ orchestral work – “Montgomery Variations”.

Fabi Reyna, founder of Sheshreds Media, highlights artists often left out of history books in her article 7 Guitarists That Prove Black Women Were Pioneers In Music History.

The shifting roles for women in Senegal. This paper looks at changing gender roles in traditional sabar drumming performances.

These bands were the centerpiece for parades, military events, and circuses. Even companies created bands as a type of workplace community gathering.

The three members of the fast-rising all-Black women musical group The String Queens — Kendall Isadore, Élise Sharp, and Dawn Johnson — have each experienced racism during their musical career. However, they used it as their fuel to serve as an instrument for change and diversity in the field of classical music.

Black women have been composers, bandleaders, instrumentalists, and innovators who have pushed the boundaries of the genre and left an undeniable mark on its sound.

In her forthcoming book, Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop, Danyel Smith writes, "Who else but a Black woman would lead me, or at least take me on trial runs?"

Rhiannon Giddens is joined by Canadian-American musician-songwriter Allison Russell (Po’ Girl, Birds of Chicago), Leyla McCalla (Carolina Chocolate Drops) and Amythyst Kiah (Amythyst Kiah & Her Chest of Glass) for the new album Songs of Our Native Daughters.