We celebrate Black History Month with a roll call...

Here, with gratitude, we humbly submit a small list of black musicians who have made the world a better and more interesting place by sharing their art and soul with us all.

THANK YOU -

Louis Armstrong

Duke Ellington

Count Basie

Dizzy Gillespie

Charlie Parker

Miles Davis

John Coltrane

Charles Mingus

Billie Holiday

Ella Fitzgerald

Nina Simone

Nat King Cole

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Ray Charles

Robert Johnson

John Lee Hooker

Muddy Waters

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

B.B. King

Mahalia Jackson

Sam Cooke

The Staple Singers

Kirk Franklin

Chuck Berry

Little Richard

James Brown

The members of the Isley Brothers

Smokey Robinson

Diana Ross

Aretha Franklin

The members of The Temptations

Marvin Gaye

Otis Redding

Curtis Mayfield

Stevie Wonder

Jimi Hendrix

Sly Stone

George Clinton

The members of Earth, Wind and Fire

The members of Chic

Bob Marley

Grandmaster Flash

The members of Run DMC

The members of Public Enemy

Dr. Dre

Tupac Shakur

Biggie Smalls

The members of the Wu-Tang Clan

Jay-Z

Missy Elliot

The members of Outkast

Lil Wayne

Usher

Rihanna

Kendrick Lamar