B.B. King - The Guitar King

B.B. King is one of the greatest creative figures - perhaps the greatest of all - in modern blues. His musical genius has taken him directions which are far beyond the traditional world of the blues artist, and into the challenging worlds of rock, soul and jazz, but whenever B. B. King happens to go, he performs with matchless skill and authority. above all he is the King of the blues guitar, and his singular influence has touched almost every player who has come after him.

For nearly 50 years B. B. King has been one of the most durable Blues artists. Successfully mixing Memphis, Los Angeles and Chicago styles, his music can be tragic and dramatic yet relaxed and sensual as well. A resurgence in his popularity in the late 1960's saw him capture a global audience. More recently, following his collaboration with U2, Eric Clapton, Gary Moore and many other artists, one can find him firmly enthroned as King of the Blues.

Riley B. King was born in the country near Itta Bena, Mississippi on 16th September 1925 and was orphaned before he reached his teens. If not for his love of music, he would have spent his life, like many of his contemporaries, as a farm labourer in a system designed to keep poor people poor. Even as a musician, he might not have risen above country blues. Many blues-singers of his generation aspired no higher than that. But a combination of talent and personality and, above all, receptiveness, destined King for a life with greater horizons.

He became interested in playing guitar when he was seven and later joined a gospel group from nearby Indianola. Soon after World War II, he moved to Memphis. living with his cousin, a blues-singer and guitarist Booker White. Later, with the help of Sonny Boy Williamson II he secured a residency at a Cafe and a daily 10-minute radio spot on WDIA, Memphis' pioneering black radio station. Soon he was playing not only his own music but others', as a DJ with a regular show. He was well fitted for the job since he had always had a fan's passion for records, and over the years he would amass a huge collection. Round about this time too, he began using the billing "The Beale Street Blues Boy" which soon changed to "Blues Boy" King and needed only a little further trimming to become B.B.

In 1950 B.B. king began his long association with the Bihari brothers, and in 1952 had his first hit, on their RPM label, with the dramatic "Three o' Clock Blues" which stayed in the top slot of the national R&B chart for 15 weeks. It was followed into the R&B Top Ten in the same year by "You Didn't Want Me"/"You Know I Love You" then by "Woke Up This Morning" and "Please Love Me" (both in 1953), "You Upset Me Baby" (1954), "Sweet Little Angel" (1956), "Please Accept My Love" (1958) and "Sweet Sixteen" (1960). During this decade he formed a style of singing and guitar playing that drew on many influences yet blended them to an entirely personal formula.

Following the years under contract to the Los Angeles based Bihari Brothers, recording on labels like RPM, Crown and Kent, which were sold almost entirely through black outlets, in early 1962 King made his first breakthrough to a national and potentially multiracial audience when he signed with ABC Records, a major New York pop label. During his twelve year relationship with Los Angeles based record labels, he racked up 80 odd singles and more than 25 albums - an output several times greater than Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf's combined. In the process B.B. King also mellowed the traditional Chicago Blues. As one fan once put it - " B.B.'s got none of that nasty gut-bucket stuff, you know.... B.B.'s cleaned up the blues, refined it so it's smooth and easy - no harps, moaning or stuff like that. He brought the blues up to date - made it modern."

B.B. King has, as jazzmen say, great ears. He listens to music with enormous attention and a retentive memory. As a result of this his own guitar playing is a complex blend of ideas formed from the various influences of blues, jazz, rock and country music. But as always he is always the first to admit, his approach is rooted in what he learned from the playing of the great West Coast bluesman T-Bone Walker. What is immediately identifiable as Walker's contribution to B.B. King's guitar playing is the blend of long singing notes with abrupt, chattering clusters. King personalises this approach by funking it up. The long notes are bent more, giving an almost 'dirty' tone, while the clusters of short notes are less strictly managed than Walker's, and are more rhythmically wayward. Think of the two styles as if they were ways of speaking. Walker is articulate but never over-excited; he keeps his cool. King has just as much to say, but it comes out with less control, more instinctively. He ventures a statement, pauses, than adds to it, busily developing the idea, before stopping to take thought again. And much more than Walker, King can deliver right across the dynamic range, from ear-blisteringly load to notes as that are whisper quiet.

King was also a serious gigger and as the statistics tell, in 1956 alone he played an astonishing 342 one-night stands. The move to ABC Records in 1962 did not bring any immediate payoffs, either musically or commercially. The first few sessions, with large orchestras, laid more emphasis on King as a ballad singer, in songs like "Guess Who" and Lonnie Johnson's old hit "Tomorrow Night". By 1964 these experiments had been dropped in favour of more blues-oriented sessions. In November of that year came the classic album "Live at The Regal" recorded at a Chicago theatre, still probably the most vivid in-performance record ever cut by a blues artist. In 1967 ABC launches a blues-only label, Bluesway, with B.B.'s "Blues is King", another club recording. Over the next three years King made five more Bluesway albums, culminating in "Live and Well" and "Completely Well". By that time - 1969 - his career was certainly showing every sign of health. He was appearing in TV ads and movie soundtracks, and he had signed a management contract with a New York showbiz accountant, Sidney A. Seidenberg, who who would have a lot to do with the direction of his career in the 1970's and 1980's. Most important of all, white America's new found interest in the blues had put King on such unfamiliar stages as the Fillmores East (in New York) and West (in San Francisco), alongside rock eminences like Johnny Winter and Mike Bloomfield, who introduced him to the audience as "the greatest living blues guitarist".

Recommended Listening.

It would be impossible to do complete justice to B.B. King if I mention only a sample of his music on this short tribute. His talent is too expansive, his songbook is too big, and the fruit of his work over more than 40 years is simply too great. But for all that, the list of my favourite tracks and albums takes the listener on an eventful journey with plenty of views.

Tracks.

Albums.

Visit B.B. King's Official Website.

Buy the best B. B. King Albums right here.