Du Sable High School - Notable Alumni

Notable Alumni

• Gene Ammons was a pioneering jazz tenor saxophone player.
• Ronnie Boykins was a jazz bassist, most noted for his work with Sun Ra.
• Maurice Cheeks is a former NBA guard (1978–93).
• Sonny Cohn was a jazz trumpet player, perhaps best known for his 24 years playing with Count Basie.
• Nat King Cole was a pianist and crooner, predominantly of pop and jazz works (Unforgettable). In 2000, he was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• Jerome Cooper was a jazz musician who specialized in percussion.
• Don Cornelius was a television show host and producer, best known as the host of Soul Train. (1971–93).
• Richard Davis is a bassist and professor of music at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
• Dorothy Donegan was a jazz pianist.
• Redd Foxx was a standup comedian and actor, best known for his role on the television series Sanford and Son.
• Von Freeman is a jazz tenor saxophonist.
• John Gilmore was a clarinet and saxophone player, best known for his time with the Sun Ra Arkestra, a group he briefly led after Sun Ra's death.
• Johnny Griffin was a bebop and hard bop tenor saxophone player.
• Eddie Harris was a jazz musician best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone.
• Johnny Hartman was a jazz singer (Lush Life), best known for his work with John Coltrane.
• Fred Hopkins (Dyett High School campus) is a jazz bassist.
• Joseph Jarman is a jazz composer, percussionist, clarinetist, and saxophonist.
• Ella Jenkins is a Grammy Award–winning musician and singer best known for her work in folk music and children's music.
• LeRoy Jenkins was a violinist who worked mostly in free jazz.
• John H. Johnson was the founder of Johnson Publishing Company (Ebony, Jet), and the first African-American on the Forbes list of the richest 400 Americans.
• Clifford Jordan (Dyett High School campus) was a jazz saxophonist.
• Walter Perkins was a jazz percussionist.
• Kevin Porter is a former NBA guard (1972–81, 82–83).
• Julian Priester was a jazz trombone player.
• Elise Wang (Dyett High School campus) is a Rhodes Scholar.
• Wilbur Ware was a hard bebop bassist.
• Dinah Washington was a Grammy award–winning jazz singer (What a Diff'rence a Day Makes, Teach Me Tonight). She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 as an "early influence".
• Harold Washington was the 51st Mayor of Chicago (1983–87), and was the city's first African–American mayor.