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His reign as King of the Blues has been
as long as that of any monarch on earth.
Yet B.B. King continues to wear his
crown well. At age 76, he is still light
on his feet, singing and playing the
blues with relentless passion. Time
has no apparent effect on B.B., other
than to make him more popular, more
cherished, more relevant than ever.
Don't look for him in some kind of semi-retirement;
look for him out on the road, playing
for people, popping up in a myriad of
T.V. commercials, or laying down tracks
for his next album. B.B. King is as
alive as the music he plays, and a grateful
world can't get enough of him.
For
more than half a century, Riley B. King
- better known as B.B. King - has defined
the blues for a worldwide audience.
Since he started recording in the 1940s,
he has released over fifty albums, many
of them classics. He was born September
16, 1925, on a plantation in Itta Bena,
Mississippi, near Indianola. In his
youth, he played on street corners for
dimes, and would sometimes play in as
many as four towns a night. In 1947,
he hitchhiked to Memphis, TN, to pursue
his music career. Memphis was where
every important musician of the South
gravitated, and which supported a large
musical community where every style
of African American music could be found.
B.B. stayed with his cousin Bukka White,
one of the most celebrated blues performers
of his time, who schooled B.B. further
in the art of the blues.
B.B.'s
first big break came in 1948 when he
performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's
radio program on KWEM out of West Memphis.
This led to steady engagements at the
Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis,
and later to a ten-minute spot on black-staffed
and managed Memphis radio station WDIA.
"King's Spot," became so popular,
it was expanded and became the "Sepia
Swing Club." Soon B.B. needed a
catchy radio name. What started out
as Beale Street Blues Boy was shortened
to Blues Boy King, and eventually B.B.
King.
In the
mid-1950s, while B.B. was performing
at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, a few
fans became unruly. Two men got into
a fight and knocked over a kerosene
stove, setting fire to the hall. B.B.
raced outdoors to safety with everyone
else, then realized that he left his
beloved $30 acoustic guitar inside,
so he rushed back inside the burning
building to retrieve it, narrowly escaping
death. When he later found out that
the fight had been over a woman named
Lucille, he decided to give the name
to his guitar to remind him never to
do a crazy thing like fight over a woman.
Ever since, each one of B.B.'s trademark
Gibson guitars has been called Lucille.
Soon
after his number one hit, "Three
O'Clock Blues," B.B. began touring
nationally. In 1956, B.B. and his band
played an astonishing 342 one-night
stands. From the chitlin circuit with
its small-town cafes, juke joints, and
country dance halls to rock palaces,
symphony concert halls, universities,
resort hotels and amphitheaters, nationally
and internationally, B.B. has become
the most renowned blues musician of
the past 40 years.
Over
the years, B.B. has developed one of
the world's most identifiable guitar
styles. He borrowed from Blind Lemon
Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others,
integrating his precise and complex
vocal-like string bends and his left
hand vibrato, both of which have become
indispensable components of rock guitarist's
vocabulary. His economy, his every-note-counts
phrasing, has been a model for thousands
of players, from Eric Clapton and George
Harrison to Jeff Beck. B.B. has mixed
traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream
pop and jump into a unique sound. In
B.B.'s words, "When I sing, I play
in my mind; the minute I stop singing
orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille."
In 1968,
B.B. played at the Newport Folk Festival
and at Bill Graham's Fillmore West on
bills with the hottest contemporary
rock artists of the day who idolized
B.B. and helped to introduce him to
a young white audience. In ``69, B.B.
was chosen by the Rolling Stones to
open 18 American concerts for them;
Ike and Tina Turner also played on 18
shows.
B.B.
was inducted into the Blues Foundation
Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He received
NARAS' Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award
in 1987, and has received honorary doctorates
from Tougaloo(MS) College in 1973; Yale
University in 1977; Berklee College
of Music in 1982; Rhodes College of
Memphis in 1990 and Mississippi Valley
State University in 2002. In 1992, he
received the National Award of Distinction
from the University of Mississippi.
In 1991,
B.B. King's Blues Club opened on Beale
Street in Memphis, and in 1994, a second
club was launched at Universal CityWalk
in Los Angeles. A third club in New
York City's Times Square opened in June
2000 and most recently two clubs opened
at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut in
January 2002. In 1996, the CD-Rom On
The Road With B.B. King: An Interactive
Autobiography was released to rave reviews.
Also in 1996, B.B.'s autobiography,
"Blues All Around Me" (written
with David Ritz for Avon Books) was
published. In a similar vein, Doubleday
published "The Arrival of B.B.
King" by Charles Sawyer, in 1980.
B.B.
continues to tour extensively, averaging
over 250 concerts per year around the
world. Classics such as "Payin'
The Cost To Be The Boss," "The
Thrill Is Gone," How Blue Can You
Get," "Everyday I Have The
Blues," and "Why I Sing The
Blues" are concert (and fan) staples.
Over the years, the Grammy Award-winner
has had two #1 R&B hits, 1951's
"Three O'Clock Blues," and
1952's "You Don't Know Me,"
and four #2 R&B hits, 1953's "Please
Love Me," 1954's "You Upset
Me Baby," 1960's "Sweet Sixteen,
Part I," and 1966's "Don't
Answer The Door, Part I." B.B.'s
most popular crossover hit, 1970's "The
Thrill Is Gone," went to #15 pop.
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