As an infant, William Grant Still, lost his father, leading his mother, a teacher, to move from Mississippi to Little Rock, Arkansas. At nine, he gained a stepfather who nurtured the boy’s interest in music. At 15, he began violin lessons and taught himself to play clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bass, cello, and viola.
To please his mother, Still pursued pre-med at Wilberforce University but spent much of his time conducting the band, as well as composing and arranging. He left Wilberforce without a degree but moved on to study music at Oberlin Conservatory. Still even studied privately with avant-garde French composer Edgard Varèse, but Still always retained his essential folk- and jazz-inspired sound.
Before and after WWI, Still worked for the great W.C. Handy (self-described “Father of the Blues”) and ended up in Harlem where Still got connected with the Harlem Renaissance (c. 1918–37), an unprecedented blossoming of African American culture, especially in literature, art, theater, and music. With overt racial pride, participants sought to challenge racism and change pervasive stereotypes, essentially laying the groundwork for the civil rights movement.