Called by many "The Dean of African American Composers", William Grant Still is considered to this day a prolific American composer who infused popular themes of jazz, ragtime, and blues into his classical training. The son of educators, Still's family moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, after his father died when Still was an infant. He graduated as Valedictorian of his class at M. W. Gibbs High School in Little Rock, and went on to study pre-med at Wilberforce College in Ohio. While in college, he taught himself how to play many instruments and wrote pieces for the school band and string ensembles, which he conducted in concert. He dropped out of college to pursue a music career. 

Still had a varied musical career, touring the country as a blues and jazz performer, arranging music for Broadway, and studying classical composition with Edgard Varese and George Chadwick. In 1931, he became the first African American composer to be performed by a major symphony orchestra, with his piece Afro American Symphony by the Rochester Philharmonic. This work, as well as others by Still, have been recorded as part of a three-album cycle by the Fort Smith Symphony, distributed by Naxos Records.