The avant-garde jazz musician Sun Ra — whose real name was Herman Poole Blount — was born in Birmingham in 1914 and grew up playing in the city's jazz scene before moving north in the 1940s. He is honored in the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame at the Carver Theatre, alongside Nat King Cole, Lionel Hampton, and Dinah Washington — all of whom either grew up in or had deep connections to Alabama.
The Jazz Hall of Fame is the natural destination for anyone interested in this history. Birmingham's contribution to American jazz is disproportionate to its size and national profile — a fact worth pondering while walking the 4th Avenue Historic District, where many of these musicians first performed.