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The Blues Thread

This was one of my favorite songs when I was a little kid. I'd play this all the time.
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Haven't seen this guy on here yet. His roots are blues, but now his guitar skills are just all over the place so to classify him as a blues guitarist wouldn't necessarily be correct and would, in fact, be limiting to him.

Here's one of his originals.
 
Big Mama Thornton with Buddy Guy's Blues Band ~ Ball And Chain

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Bobby 'Blue' Bland Celebrated By Dignitaries, Fellow Musicians At Funeral Service

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It was not one, but a multitude of Bobby "Blue" Blands who were hailed and mourned during funeral services at First Baptist Church -- Broad on Thursday.

To some, he was the "pearl of the blues world"; to others a singer whose artistry was not limited by any single genre or form, but always a man with an abundance of "charisma and melisma." Bland was remembered as a devoted husband, father and grandfather, but most of all a friend -- to those whom he knew and loved, as well as to those who simply bonded with him through his songs.

Family, colleagues and dignitaries from near and far gathered at First Baptist to sing Bland's praises, listen to his tunes, and mark the passing of a Memphis music giant. The 2 1/2-hour memorial proved a stirring celebration of the life of the veteran R&B singer, who died on Sunday at age 83 at his home in Germantown.

With Bland's casket flanked by a bevy of colorful wreaths, and his family, including widow Willie Mae, at the front, a procession of speakers came to the church's pulpit to tell the story of his life and legacy.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke about his long relationship with the singer, which began five decades ago in South Carolina, when he and his wife -- then just newlyweds -- went to see Bland perform.

"For more than 50 years he remained relevant... Bobby was a singer, but no one adjective is enough," said Jackson. "Validated by his fans and peers -- Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, the Allman Brothers, Elvis Presley all looked up to Bobby 'Blue' Bland."

"Today, death has been robbed," continued Jackson. "It has taken his frail body, but has not taken the crown prince of melodic music. You belong to us forever, Bobby."

Former Stax Records head Al Bell talked in detail about Bland's musical contributions, charting his career from his earliest Duke sides to his '70s work on ABC, to his later efforts for Mississippi's Malaco Records. Bell noted that though all the years, changes and albums, the singular spirit in Bland always shined through.

"I love the spirit that lived in Bobby 'Blue' Bland. And the spirit that lived in that body influenced us through its music, its thoughts, its contemplations and considerations for 83 years," said Bell. "What a blessing."

"Even though Bobby Bland is gone, you still can experience that spirit by just listening to his recorded music. You will experience the spirit, the care and love, the power and the glory."

Local politicos also paid their respects, with former congressman Harold Ford Sr. and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell among those paying homage.

City of Memphis Mayor AC Wharton -- who was out of town -- sent a video taped message. He praised Bland's talents and silky way with a song. "He was smooth, smooth, smooth often imitated, never duplicated," said Wharton.

Wharton referenced Bland's hit "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City": "Bobby, my dear friend, you got that wrong," said Wharton, referring to the outpouring of affection for Bland in Memphis. "Ain't nothing but love in the heart of the city for you."

Former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton also evoked one of Bland's signature tunes while reflecting on his passing. "Bobby's soul had to move," said Herenton. "You know, Bobby left us with a song: 'Further on Up the Road.' Well, just a few days ago, Bobby moved a little further on up the road."

Fellow musicians, including Stax songwriter David Porter, also shared unique personal insights. Porter told how he and his partner Isaac Hayes included a winking tribute in their classic 1967 hit "Soul Man", by having Sam & Dave singer Sam Moore do a couple of Bland's signature vocal "squalls" on the track.

Blues Foundation president Jay Sieleman reflected on Bland's enduring musical impact, recalling how just this spring the singer was given the state of Tennessee's highest cultural honor, the Distinguished Artist Award. While the recognition is typically reserved for those in the "fine arts" category, Sieleman noted that Bland represented the finest in any art form, praising him for his "exceptional talent and creativity."

The eulogy, delivered by pastor Keith Norman, closed a program filled with music, including recordings of Bland's own work, as well as rousing performances by gospel vocalist Deborah Manning-Thomas, Stax star Shirley Brown and Chicago soul singer and Hi Records artist Otis Clay.

The most halting moment of the ceremony, however, came near the end, as Bland's fellow music legend and lifelong pal, guitarist B.B. King, rose from the pews to briefly address the audience. "If it's possible that I see him again, I'll have some (wise) cracks for him, which we always had whenever we met up," said King.

"Bobby, I miss you, old boy," he added, looking toward Bland's casket. "He was my friend."

Bland was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery. ___
(c)2013 The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.)
Visit The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.) at www.commercialappeal.com
 
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by Nick DeRiso May 1, 2015

UPDATE: B.B. King’s Facebook page has been updated with the following information: “A Message From B.B.: ‘I am in home hospice care at my residence in Las Vegas. Thanks to all for your well wishes and prayers.’ B.B. King.”

B.B. King has been treated by doctors after his daughter charged the blues legend’s longtime manager with elder abuse.

Patty King, who lives with her 89-year-old father, told TMZ that she became worried when her dad’s urine turned orange. She said he wasn’t eating either. But Laverne Toney, who has power of attorney over the ailing blues legend, allegedly refused to take him to the hospital. Patty King called the police, who then summoned paramedics.

B.B. King was then treated at a local hospital, where his daughter said he suffered a minor heart attack. She is now pushing for authorities to step in and protect King, who has worked with Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Peter Frampton, Joe Cocker, U2 and David Gilmour over the years.

This apparently isn’t her first complaint against Toney: TMZ reports that last November Patty charged her with elder abuse and burglary, saying that the manager and her assistant have siphoned off as much as $30 million from B.B. King, while allegedly withholding medications during King’s tour and pilfering jewelry valued at $250,000. Police investigated, according to TMZ, but ultimately no charges were filed.

King was rushed to the hospital last month after suffering from dehydration. An erratic show in April 2014 was attributed to a missed dose of diabetes medication. Dehydration was also blamed when a series of shows was postponed in the fall of 2014. King eventually canceled all of his remaining concerts last year.

Patty King now says she will move to switch her father’s power of attorney. Toney has not yet commented on these new charges.
 
Oft-imitated American music giant had global impact in a landmark career that stretched seven decades
By George Varga - San Diego Union-Tribune
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The thrill is gone for millions of music fans around the world, following the death on Thursday of B.B. King. His attorney said King died peacefully in his sleep at 9:40 p.m. PDT Thursday at his home in Las Vegas.


The iconic blues guitarist and singer was 89. He had been musically active until last fall, when he collapsed on stage during a concert in Chicago. No cause of death has been disclosed yet. But King was hospitalized in early April, when he was suffering from dehydration. He was briefly hospitalized again on April 30, according to his daughter, Patty King, who said he may have had a minor heart attack. He had also battled Type 2 diabetes for decades.


A message posted Friday, May 1, on King's website read: "I am in home hospice care at my residence in Las Vegas. Thanks to all for your well wishes and prayers."


King made his first record in 1949. He scored his first R&B chart-topper, an electrifying version of Lowell Fulson's "Three O'Clock Blues," in 1952. His star rose significantly higher in the 1960s, when the Rolling Stones, Clapton, Johnny Winter and many other blues-inspired English and American artists began singing his praises, emulating his sound and musical style, and performing and recording his songs.


"B.B. King changed my life," said Carlos Santana, who as a teenaged guitarist played songs by King in Tijuana nightclubs. "His music was liberating to me."


King and Clapton won a Grammy Award together in 2001 for their joint album, "Riding with the King." It sold more than 2 million copies in the U.S. alone and provided Clapton with an opportunity to publicly acknowledge the artistic debt he, like so many other musicians, owed to King.
"He’s like a father figure and uncle. He’s this genius artist to me," Clapton said of King in a 2007 U-T San Diego interview. "I can’t ever see myself as being in the same league with him."


Being embraced by the world of rock helped introduce King to an enormous audience of young new fans. In 1969, he performed at both the Atlantic City Pop Festival in New Jersey and the International Pop Festival in Texas, where he shared the stage with Led Zeppelin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Santana and Janis Joplin. His popularity on other continents also grew exponentially.


From then on, he was often imitated by scores of musicians on both sides of the Atlantic, but never equaled. "Rock Me Baby," "Sweet Little Angel," "The Thrill is Gone," "Sweet 16," "How Blue Can You Get," "Let the Good Times Roll" and other classic songs in his repertoire have long been standards performed by countless other musicians.


King both defined and transcended the blues with his stinging guitar work and alternately ferocious and tender vocals. Both were so distinctive that he could be identified after playing or singing just one or two notes. His musical disciples ranged from the Rolling Stones and U2 to John Mayer and D'Angelo, all of whom recorded with him, along with countless others, from superstars to bar bands. The rollicking "When Love Comes to Town," which King recorded with U2 for the band's 1988 album, "Rattle and Hum," rose to the No. 6 spot on the Billboard singles chart.
"He's influenced everybody," fellow guitarist David Lindley said of King. "Everyone who plays electric guitar has come through him, directly or indirectly."


A 1987 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, King devoted more than 70 years of his life to the vibrant music that was long synonymous with his name. His billing as the "King of the Blues" qualified as a factual statement, not a boast. He ranks alongside Hank Williams, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday as an American music giant whose music was both of, and beyond, its time.


King had been in failing health in recent years and had difficulty walking or standing for more than a few minutes at a time. For much of the past decade, he performed his concerts while seated, although his musical decline only became overtly apparent over the past few years.
When he performed Aug. 27 at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, in what proved to be his final San Diego appearance, he appeared confused and sang and played erratically, struggling to find the right notes on his guitar and starting and ending his songs abruptly. Some oafish concertgoers loudly heckled him.


Less than two months later, following a series of equally disheartening shows, his performing career came to an end after he collapsed on stage during an Oct. 3 concert in Chicago. It was a sad coda to one of the most prolific and profoundly inspirational careers in American music history.


A tireless performer, in good health and bad, King toured relentlessly, playing up to 300 shows a year even after scoring a Top 15 pop radio hit in 1970 with "The Thrill is Gone." In 2005, at the age of 80, he still averaged 150 concerts a year. Last year, he performed close to 100 shows before his failing health resulted in his unofficial retirement. Ironically, his Oct. 3 collapse in Chicago came the same day that a Toyota TV commercial debuted that featured King playing Lucille, the name he gave to his legendary electric guitar.


As long as a decade ago, King acknowledged he was entering his twilight period. But vowed he would keep moving forward, and continued performing for another eight years after his 2006 "farewell" tour.


"At my age, I feel like if I don't learn something new every day, it's kind of like a day lost," King said in a 2005 U-T San Diego interview. "I think the clock is ticking, yes. In fact, I know it is. Frank Sinatra sang about `the September of (his) years'; I think I'm in the November of my years...
"I don't drink or smoke, but I like looking at the girls! I'm a diabetic, yes, but I'm pretty healthy. I'm 80 years old, yes, but I get along very well; I hardly remember I'm 80 unless I have to run up a hill or stairs. As long as people buy my records and come to my concerts, I don't see anything else I'd like to do. So I feel if I live to be 90 or more, I'll be pretty lucky. One of the great joys for me is to be able to think that people appreciate what I've done, through the way they act and their way of treating me. That makes me feel that I've been kind of productive, somewhat, and that's the richest feeling you can have."


Riley B. King was born Sept. 16, 1925, midway between the tiny Mississippi communities of Itta Bena and Indianola, As a boy he sang in a church choir and grew up picking cotton and doing farm labor. The cousin of blues pioneer Bukka White, he was a self-taught guitarist who honed his craft playing on street corners, where he realized he could make more in tips in one night than from a week of grueling farm work.


King was inspired to pick up the electric guitar at 17 after hearing T-Bone Walker's landmark recording of "Stormy Monday Blues." He subsequently teamed with seminal blues artist Sonny Boy Williamson, and made his first record in 1949. Also in 1949, he began hosting his own radio program on WDIA in Memphis, "The Sepia Swing Show," where he would often sing and play along with the records he was airing by other artists.


As he developed the razor-sharp, single-string guitar lines that would become one of his trademarks, King collaborated with such fellow future music legends as Bobby "Blue" Bland and Johnny Ace. In 1950, King was signed to a record deal by talent scout and fellow musician Ike Turner. Soon, King was recording at Memphis Recording Service, a studio operated by Sam Phillips, who would soon earn fame as the man who discovered and signed Elvis Presley.


King would go on to make more than 50 albums, including one with the Count Basie Orchestra that he counted as a personal favorite. He won 15 Grammy Awards, the most recent in 2009, and – in 1987 – received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy. Among his many other honors are a National Medal of the Arts in 1990, a Kennedy Center Honor in 1995, Sweden's Polar Music Prize in 2004, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006, and honorary doctorates from Yale and other universities.


Some of his awards are on display at the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, which opened in 2008 near his birthplace in Mississippi. He has been the subject of numerous books, including his acclaimed 2010 autobiography, "Blues All Around Me." He is also the subject of the 2014 film documentary, "The Life of Riley," in which Clapton, Santana, Bonnie Raitt and other prominent musicians discuss how influential King has been to them and to the world of music.


One of King's best-known songs, "Sweet Little Angel," was a tart ballad with suggestive lyrics that he delivered with a nod, a wink, and palpable passion. But he was himself an angel to an array of nonprofit organizations. They included San Diego's Photocharity, which since 2001 has raised more than $2.5 million to aid homeless and abused youth. During the past decade, King helped Photocharity raise $165,000 by donating and autographing more than a dozen guitars. In 2007, he headlined a Photocharity benefit concert at San Diego State University's Open Air Theatre.


King received many rave reviews over the years. But the first internationally prominent critic to single him out for praise was Stanley Dance, who went on to pen the liner notes for the 1967 album "Blues is King." Dance, a native of England who is now deceased, later moved to San Diego. Whenever Dance attended one of his concerts here, King would warmly introduce him from the stage.


A versatile singer, King could roar like a lion one moment, then croon sweetly the next. He named his first electric guitar, a Gibson L-30 model, Lucille. King explained the origin of the guitar's name many times in concert and interviews over the years.


“One night, two guys started to fighting and one knocked down one of them (kerosene heating) containers, and it was already burning with kerosene," King told Jazz Weekly. "And, so, when it spilled onto the floor, it looked like a river of fire and everybody started to run for the front door – including B.B. King.


“But when I got on the outside, I realized then that I had left my guitar on the inside. So I went back for it. The building was a wooden building and burning rapidly. It started to collapse around me and I almost lost my life trying to save my guitar. So the next morning, we found out that these two guys that were fighting were fighting about a lady that worked in the little dance hall. We learned that her name was Lucille. So I named the guitar Lucille to remind me to never do a thing like that again!”


King soon graduated to a series of different, higher-quality Gibson guitars. In 1980, he and Gibson teamed up to produce the first official line of B.B. King Lucille signature models. But what was truly notable about King wasn't what guitar he played, but how he played it. His sustain and ability to bend notes with pinpoint accuracy set an enduring standard. So did his penchant for playing with crisp economy and his ability to express more with just a few notes than many other guitarists could with a hundred.


Just how effective that approach could be was demonstrated to fellow guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan when he and King played together in Texas in 1985. "Sometimes you can do less by playing a lot at once, but then you don't have to play a lot all the time. Sometimes one note is all you need. B.B. King showed me that," recalled Vaughan, who died in 1990, during a 1985 U-T San Diego interview. "We were playing in Austin, and I had the pleasure of sitting in with him. He played rhythm guitar for me for four songs that I played lead on. Then he stood up and played one note, and I died. It was the best note I've heard in years!"


In a separate U-T San Diego interview the same year, King noted that he had long considered himself a singer who played guitar to accompany his vocals. "I never thought of myself as a guitarist until the 1960s, when I read what young rock superstars like Eric Clapton and John Lennon were saying about me," he said. "What they said was always positive, but it always had to do with my guitar playing, and never with my singing. That's when I started trying to see what I could do with the guitar. I had always thought of myself as a singer who plays guitar, but now I think I do one as well as the other. Which, as far as I'm concerned, is five or six on a scale of one to ten. I think I'm a guy that 'sings', musically, on the guitar, and when I'm singing orally I still hear myself playing guitar. I never do both at the same time. It seems my coordination is off so much I don't even try to do both. But I can get away with more if I'm playing guitar, because I've always had trouble with time. When I'm singing it's easier to lose the time."


King was married and divorced twice, and told interviewers he had 15 children by 15 women. He also acknowledged, with regret, that his constant focus on his career had made him an absentee father who provided for his children financially, but not often emotionally or in person. Eleven of his children are still alive; several of them failed, in an early May court bid, to wrest control of their father's affairs and care from King's manager, who has power-of-attorney for the blues legend.


Over the years, King made a number of classic live albums, including the epic "Live at the Regal." But 1971's "Live in Cook County Jail" held a special significance for King, who performed at dozens of prisons across the country, free of charge.


"A lot of people who have gotten in trouble came up the same as I did," King, who dropped out of high school after 10th grade, said in one of his U-T San Diego interviews. "Their families weren't rich and a lot of them had to go through a lot of problems to survive. And some of them made mistakes. I feel if it had not been for me having friends and guardians that helped me go straight, it's possible I might have made the same mistakes."


"They claim that music soothes the savage beast, and I guess that has had a lot to do with it in my case. Music kept me busy. It gave me reason for hope. Because if I was hungry and in need, or if I needed friends, music helped me. And it's also brought fame, and that's helped me. I play for people, and I like to make people happy and enjoy, even though I'm playing blues. I like to make blues a stimulant that helps you forget. I like to show that I love people, and I feel that people love me. So that makes me want to perform even more."
 
My bike's name is Lucille and I picked up a guitar because of this guy
 
Mick Jagger: So sad to hear of BB King's passing, he was someone we all looked up to...

Keith Richards: The passing of BB King is a great loss for me and everyone who loves music. At least we have his recordings. Farewell BB.

Gladys Knight: What a brilliant man you were. One who will forever be noted as such an inspiration to millions

Bryan Adams: RIP BB King, one of the best blues guitarists ever, maybe the best. He could do more on one note than anyone.

Bill Wyman (Rolling Stones): video

Aretha Franklin: The epitome of the blues and soul, mentor to so many and teacher! Long live the legend, and great memories of moments with B.B. King!

Stevie Wonder: As we pain, we must celebrate that his music, his style of playing and singing will last forever, from the recordings that he has done and the influence that he has had and will have on guitarists all over this planet. Long live the spirit of B.B. King

Jon Farris (INXS): So sad to hear that BB King has passed away, a true inspiration, pioneer and legend.

Lenny Kravitz: BB, anyone could play a thousand notes and never say what you said in one.

Carlos Santana: I am deeply saddened by the passing of “The Chairman of the Board,” B.B. King. He is now on the other side with Bob Marley, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and many others. His one of a kind sound was an inspiration to an entire generation of musicians, including myself. He will be missed by millions of fans and by countless musicians. I would like to extend my sincerest condolences to the King family. May he rest in eternal peace.

Matt Sorum (Guns N Roses/Velvet Revolver): Farewell #BBKing you left us with so much music that will live forever

Zoë Saldana: Lucky to have had such a legendary musician among us for 89 years- #BBKing may the good times keep rollin in heaven

Randy Bachman
Brad Paisley: Sad to hear B.B. King has left us. I loved collaborating with him, loved his music, & his spirit. He changed music forever. God bless him.

Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi): My friend and legend BB King passed.. I'm so so sad....he was so great to me... We've lost the King..... My love and prayers to his family.

Ringo Starr: God bless BB King peace and love to his family Ringo and Barbara

Joe Perry (Aerosmith): So sad to wake up this morning and hear the news about the passing of the great B B King.

Snoop Dogg: B.B. King you gone but you ain’t forgotten—we love you baby

Buddy Guy: This morning, I come to you all with a heavy heart. BB King was the greatest guy I ever met. The tone he got out of that guitar, the way he shook his left wrist, the way he squeezed the strings… man, he came out with that and it was all new to the whole guitar playin’ world. He could play so smooth, he didn’t have to put on a show. The way BB did it is the way we all do it now. He was my best friend and father to us all. I’ll miss you, B. I love you and I promise I will keep these damn Blues alive. Rest well. All my love, Buddy

Eric Clapton: I just wanted to express my sadness and to say thank you to my dear friend B.B. King. I wanted to thank him for all the inspiration and encouragement he gave me as a player over the years and for teh friendship we enjoyed. There’s not a lot left to say because his music is almost a thing of the past now—there are not many left to play it in the pure way that B.B. did. He was a beacon for all of us who love this kind of music, and I thank him from the bottom of my heart. If you’re not familiar with his work, I would encourage you to go out and find an album called B.B. King: Live at the Regal, which is where it all started for me as a young player.

Samuel L. Jackson: Play a BB King song today & remember him! RIP Mr King & thanks for all the Great Music!!

Gene Simmons: Very sad. BB KING: Rest In Peace..

Lee Brice: B.B. King. My heart just broke into a million pieces. Not enough space to describe my feelings of to describe my feelings of the man. Legend, pure, real, teacher..

Nikki Sixx (Mötley Crüe): Nobody lives forever but their music can.Thank you B.B.King for all those beautiful gems you gave us in your 89 years here. RIP

Slash: B.B. King R.I.P. King of the Blues!!

Papa Roach: Rest in peace to one of the greatest of all time: B.B. King

Brian Wilson (Beach Boys): Sad when we lose an artist who’s music has such an affect on so many people. Love & Mercy to B.B. King’s family and loved ones.

Peter Frampton: RIP BB King you are loved by all!

Carole King: Rest in peace B.B. King. We'll miss you.

Kelly Clarkson: When I heard B.B. King for the first time he was singing The Thrill Is Gone. The way he played & sang brought tears to my eyes.

John Mayer: What a sad day, and a monumental loss. BB King's life was in and of itself a time capsule, and a yardstick for modern music history, most of which played out under his watch. Some people, they seem to hold a certain governing time and space together, and when they pass, you just know the facts, the recollections, the details...they're left to fend for themselves. But the facts about BB will never fade: he was a pioneer in the inception of electric blues music and he was its grand ambassador generations later. He will forever inspire guitar players to argue (successfully) that less is more, that heart will always win over mind. Whenever your heart hurts and you don't know if you have it in you right then and there to make sense of it, put on some B.B. King and feel what happens. Today, B.B.'s music is going to do something it's never done before: help us through the blues we have from losing him. Goodbye, B... John

Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top): It’s difficult to fathom a world without B.B. King. He’s been with me literally since the dawn of my musical consciousness. I first encountered him when I was a small child. My father was a musician would take me around to studios in Houston. We met B.B. King at ACA Studios when I was, maybe, seven. He made a huge impression on me and that encounter continues to resonate. Over the ensuing years we were privileged to spend time in his presence on numerous occasions. He was warm hearted, generous and giving. B.B. King was an early and continuing hero. His passing is very sad but we take solace in the fact that we still hold him in absolutely the highest regard as both a transcendentally talented musician and a truly wonderful human being whose spirt will always be with us.

Ludacris: He meant so much to music, not just one genre in particular, just to music. And it's good to see so many different entertainers showing their love through their social media and what he meant to music

Gov. Phil Bryant: Mississippi is known the world over as the birthplace of America's music, and BB King is one of its founding legends and one of our state's most treasured gifts to the music world. For decades, our souls have been stirred by his talents. From juke joints to concert halls, there is no place his influence hasn't reached. Mississippi has lost a legend. He is the king. The thrill is gone

Bill Clinton: He was a brilliant blues guitarist and a kind, good man. I will always be grateful that twice I had the chance to play with him, and that he received the Kennedy Center Honor when I was president. While an American legend has gone to his greater reward, the thrill of his gifts to us will never be gone.

Smokey Robinson: The world has physically lost not only one of the greatest musical people ever but one of the greatest people ever. Enjoy your eternity

Joe Boyd (music producer): His fusion of jump, jazz and blues styles became the template for blues and rock guitarists the world over. Without BB, there would be no Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, and without Jimi and Eric, no heavy rock — but we shouldn't hold that against him! A true great.

Chuck D: Rest in Peace, Mr BB.KING.The game should acknowledge that tomorrow at FEDEX Forum same street area that launched him

Cedric The Entertainer: A true Gentleman and Music Icon. Because of you sir "The Thrill will Never be Gone"

A C Wharton Jr. (mayor of Memphis): The fact that Beale Street Blues Boy is the origin of Riley King's nickname is the type of authentic connection that will never die. We have our own Memphis Music Hall of Fame because this city has been foundational in the careers of icons like Elvis Presley, Al Green, Johnny Cash and Isaac Hayes, to name a few. It is altogether fitting that we will mark the life of B. B. King on Beale Street this weekend.

Alyssa Milano: Rest with the angels, BB King.
 
Rolling Stone - May 16, 2015
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B.B. was a god from the first time we all heard him. You listen to those early recordings with that cry in his voice, even as a young man. I still have the 45 of "Rock Me Baby" that I wore out playing when I was a teenager. I used to sit there and play it and move the needle back to the beginning and play it over and over. It's so sexy and the groove is hellacious. A lot of people have covered that song, but that's my favorite version. Every great blues guitarist has his own style. But with B.B., it was about his vibrato, his phrasing and the licks he chose — and his restraint. It was all about what he played and what he didn't play. He was sweet and eloquent in his playing, but when he turned it on, he could be fierce.

My manager worked with Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, and B.B. was Buddy's hero, so I got to go backstage and see B.B. when he was in and out of blues festivals. He was always very complimentary about my playing. He was always so gentle and humble and appreciative and he got a big kick out of the fact that all us young white kids got him. We became friends and later he would confide in me about his personal life and how he loved the ladies. To watch him backstage flirting with beautiful women was a delight. He loved his fans, but he enjoyed the company of kind and appreciative women. I always wished he'd had a steadfast and steady partner, but he was on the road so much. He could have retired years ago and cut his schedule back, but he told me he stayed on the road to be able to support his band and crew. He had a big band. I always wondered how he could afford it. He just worked all the time.


He was pretty happy, but I always wondered if he was a lonely guy. But I never asked him about that — I didn't want to invade his space. He must have had some kind of pain in his life, but talk about overcoming whatever hardships he had.


When we recorded "Baby I Love You" [for the 1997 King duets album Deuces Wild], he had just played Dallas the night before and drove all night to get to the studio. He must have had two hours of sleep. But he was still such a champ. He was completely professional and said, "Whatever key you'd like." He was so classy and so bold at the same time. He was an old-school Southern gentleman, but his playing was razor-sharp. I learned so much about dynamics from him.

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By Terence McArdle October 20 Washington Post
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In this undated photo, from left, Leonard Chess, Marshall Chess and Phil Chess stand together for a photo in Chicago.

Phil Chess, who co-founded the Chicago-based music label Chess, which brought American blues, soul and early rock music to an international audience and influenced generations of musicians including the Rolling Stones, died Oct. 19 at his home in Tucson. He was 95.

Mr. Chess’s nephew Craig Glicken confirmed the death to the Chicago Sun-Times but did not provide a cause. Mr. Chess’s older brother, Leonard, who also started the label, supervised many of the blues recordings and was its public face, died in 1969.
In its 18 years as a family-owned business, Chess gave birth to such seminal records as Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” Etta James’s “At Last,” Muddy Waters’s “Hoochie Coochie Man,” Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?” and the Dells’ “Stay in My Corner.”

British-born blues enthusiasts Mick Jagger and Keith Richards named the Rolling Stones after a 1951 Chess recording by Waters, “Rollin’ Stone.” The rock band coalesced in the early 1960s after Richards spotted Jagger, a childhood playmate, at a train stop; Jagger was carting two Chess *albums.

The Rolling Stones, then well established, made a pilgrimage to record at the Chess studios in 1965. They named an instrumental after Chess’s address, “2120 South Michigan Avenue.”

“Phil and Leonard Chess were cutting the type of music nobody else was paying attention to — Muddy, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy [Williamson], Jimmy Rogers, I could go on and on — and now you can take a walk down State Street today and see a portrait of Muddy that’s 10 stories tall,” blues guitarist Buddy Guy, a former Chess artist, told the Sun-Times. “They started Chess Records and made Chicago what it is today, the blues capital of the world.”

The brothers were children when they came to the United States as Jewish immigrants from a Polish village without running water or electricity. They began their music careers in 1946 as proprietors of El Mocambo, an eatery on the predominantly black South Side that they converted into an after-hours jazz club. Although initially patronized by pimps and prostitutes, the bar developed a reputation as a hangout for Chicago’s bebop musicians.

The following year, they bought a stake in Aristocrat, an unsuccessful pop music label, initially to record jazz performers. But it was the amped-up Delta blues sound of Waters’s “I Can’t Be Satisfied” (1948) that gave them an initial burst of success. The record reportedly sold out its first 3,000 copies in one day.

By 1950, the brothers had bought out their Aristocrat partners and renamed the label Chess. Spinoff labels Checker and Argo (later renamed Cadet) soon followed.

Leonard Chess became well known through his handling of the label’s biggest names in blues and rock. Phil Chess, more often in the shadows, handled the doo-wop groups and a wide-ranging jazz roster that included pianist Ramsey Lewis, Gene Ammons and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Leonard’s son Marshall, who ran the company’s 1960s rock subsidiary Cadet Concept, was president of the Rolling Stones’ record company in the 1970s.

Of the era’s independent record labels, only New York-based Atlantic could claim a comparable range of talent. But Chess was also criticized in later years as having a cavalier attitude toward its artists.

“Life at the company has been compared to sharecropping,” Rich Cohen wrote in his 2004 book, “Machers and Rockers: Chess Records and the Business of Rock & Roll.” “Artists were often paid not in cash but in goods and services, in credit to the company store. These goods were given as if they were gifts, and then later, to the shock of the recipients, subtracted from royalties.”

Chess, like most indie labels, operated on street-level hustle — and even payola — for radio airplay. In one notorious instance, influential disc jockey Allan Freed was credited as co-writer on Berry’s song “Maybelline,” released by Chess.

Arc Music, the label’s publishing wing, owned most of its artists’ copyrights. In 1977, bluesmen Waters and Willie Dixon, unhappy with their meager royalties, sued Arc and used the settlement money to start their own publishing company, Hoochie Coochie Music.

To increase their records’ airplay, the Chess brothers purchased a radio station in 1963. As the first 24-hour R&B station in the Chicago market, WVON — its call letters stood for “the voice of the Negro” — competed with the local 50,000-watt top-40 powerhouses WCFL and WLS for young music fans and took an active role in the civil rights movement. A young civil rights activist, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, called the station to report the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

The next year, the brothers sold the station. In 1970, General Recording Tape purchased the company for $6.5 million and the label ceased to be a family business. The Chess catalogue is owned by Universal Music. Mr. Chess stayed on with the company until 1972, then retired to Arizona.

Mr. Chess was born Fiszel Czyz on March 27, 1921, in Motal, a village in what is now Belarus. Their father soon immigrated to the United States, started a junkyard business and sent for his family in 1928. He also Anglicized their names. (Leonard was born Lejzor.)

Phil Chess briefly attended Bowling Green State University in Ohio on a football scholarship, then worked in a liquor store owned by Leonard until he was drafted into the Army in 1943 during World War II. His wife, Sheva Jonesi, died this year. Survivors include a daughter and two sons.

Chess was heralded in later years for its pioneering role in music, but, without explanation, it was Leonard and not Phil who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

“Chess not only became the true repository of American blues music, but it also presented black music for the edification of white audiences throughout the world,” the citation read. A film about the company and its roster of artists, “Cadillac Records” (2008), also featured Leonard but not Phil as a character.

Both brothers received a 2013 lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of the Recording Arts and Sciences.
“If you put a scale on the wall and ask me which one was do re mi, I couldn’t tell you and neither could Leonard,” Mr. Chess told writer Nadine Cohodas in her 2000 book “Spinning Blues Into Gold. “This (pointing to his ear) could tell you. That’s what told us.”
 
By Kory Grow March 16, 2017 Rolling Stone
james-cotton-dead-read-7a88a16c-91fc-445a-9fc7-a967d6889f57.jpg

Blues harmonica virtuoso and onetime Muddy Waters sideman James Cotton died on Thursday at a medical center in Austin of pneumonia. He was 81. A rep for the musician confirmed his death.

Cotton, who was born on a cotton farm in Tunica, Mississippi on July 1st, 1935, came to prominence in the Fifties when he cut two singles for the fledging label Sun Records and performed gigs with Waters. As a child, he'd become obsessed with harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson II's King Biscuit Time broadcasts and, at age nine, moved in with the elder harpist to learn the instrument.

He launched his own career as a teenager and toured with both Williamson and Howlin' Wolf. In 1953, he recorded his first Sun single, "Straighten Up Baby," which he followed up with "Cotton Crop Blues." At age 20, he began touring and recording with Waters and is featured on that artist's At Newport LP (1960), most notably "Got My Mojo Working." He later recorded a number of tracks for the Vanguard label's Chicago/The Blues/Today! compilation series and played on Otis Spann's 1969 album The Blues Never Die!

Cotton, dubbed "Mr. Superharp," formed the James Cotton Band in 1966, with the group issuing a self-titled debut the next year. His fellow musicians at the time were guitarist Luther Tucker and drummer Sam Lay. Cotton would later find himself playing with Matt "Guitar" Murphy and Hubert Sumlin, and would go on to explore blues-rock with performances with Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, B.B. King, Santana, Steve Miller and Freddie King, among others.

In the Seventies, he recorded for Buddha and Capitol, reuniting with Waters for LPs produced by guitarist Johnny Winter. The first, Hard Again, came out in 1977 and won a Grammy. He also made appearances on albums by Sumlin, Memphis Slim, Steve Miller and others, and welcomed Miller, Winter, Dr. John, Todd Rundgren, David Sanborn and others onto his own recordings.
Cotton continued to record throughout the Eighties, including a run on Alligator Records, and won the Best Traditional Blues Album Grammy for his Deep in the Blues LP in 1997. His most recent album was Cotton Mouth Man, which came out in 2013 and was nominated for a Grammy.

Cotton earned six Living Blues Awards in his lifetime and 10 Blues Music Awards. New York City's Lincoln Center recognized his contributions to blues with a tribute concert in 2010 that featured Sumlin, Taj Mahal, Shemekia Copeland and others. Five years later, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal gave Cotton its B.B. King Award for his contributions to the blues.

In 2013, Cotton – who played music professionally for six decades – told Rolling Stone about his thoughts on retirement. "You work so hard to get it that once you get it, you don't want to let it go, because at that point, it's yours," he said. "You paid the price for it, and it's yours. You didn't give it up when you didn't have a place to sleep tonight. It's because you want to be there and you enjoy yourself."

Funeral arrangements are to be announced. Cotton is survived by his wife, Jacklyn Hairston Cotton, daughters Teresa Hampton of Seattle and Marshall Ann Cotton of Peoria, Illinois, and son James Patrick Cotton of Chicago, as well as his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
[video=youtube;e6_ugQa6zIM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6_ugQa6zIM[/video]
 
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