Published: August 27, 2006
Blues Legend B.B. King Still Performing at Age 81
By Lauren Monsen, Washington File 
Guitarist has influenced generations of performers in U.S., U.K.
Billed as "King of the Blues" and widely acknowledged as the world's greatest living blues guitarist, 81-year-old B.B. King casts a long shadow over the countless musicians who have sought to emulate his stinging guitar style and fiery stage persona.
Born Riley B. King in Itta Bena, Mississippi, in 1925, the legendary bluesman gravitated toward music at an early age, singing gospel tunes in church and listening to his aunt's records of Mississippi Delta blues guitarists Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson. Although the devoutly religious community of his boyhood branded the blues as "devil's music," the young King quickly fell under its spell.
As he recalled years later in his autobiography, Blues All Around Me, the blues sound had a potent effect on him. "Blind Lemon and Lonnie hit me the hardest, ... because their voices were so distinct, natural, and believable," he explained. "I heard them talking to me ... they entered my soul and stayed."
King acquired his first guitar at age 15, and by the mid-1940s, he had moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to apprentice himself to his cousin, blues guitarist Bukka White. Under White's tutelage, King soon developed his own signature guitar technique, introducing an unprecedented and instantly recognizable vibrato sound that mesmerized listeners. (Vibrato is a musical effect created by quickly and repeatedly raising and lowering a note or sound to produce a shimmering quality.) King eventually would be credited with bringing vibrato to the electric guitar, an innovation that has been borrowed by scores of other performers who followed in his wake.
In Memphis, King began playing blues and gospel music on street corners near Beale Street, which was the hub of the city's African-American club scene. After landing a 10-minute show on a local radio station, King was dubbed the Beale Street Blues Boy, which was shortened to "Bee Bee," a nickname that produced his now-famous initials. King was briefly signed to the short-lived Bullet Records Company before being discovered by musician and talent scout Ike Turner, who steered him toward the Kent/Modern/RPM label. In 1951, King released a single for his new label called "Three O'Clock Blues," which became a number-one hit on the R&B (rhythm and blues) sales charts.
During this period, King crossed paths with producer Sam Phillips, who was becoming a major force in the recording industry. Phillips, a visionary entrepreneur who had opened a recording studio in Memphis in the late 1940s, was a fan of blues, gospel, country, folk and virtually every other strain of American popular music. He helped fuse these different genres into a format that became known as rock & roll, and he strongly encouraged the mingling of musical traditions. At first, King resisted the trend toward cross-fertilization, but when he finally expanded his blues style by adopting the electric guitar, his masterful handling of the instrument became the gold standard by which aspiring guitarists would measure themselves. (See related article.)
King left Modern Records in 1962, and promptly signed with ABC (now MCA) Records, while continuing a marathon tour schedule that numbered some 300 shows a year. (He would maintain that breakneck pace for more than two decades, and still performs more regularly than many musicians half his age.) Although King was considered a giant by blues aficionados, he did not become a crossover sensation until 1968, when he hired manager Sidney Seidenberg. The astute Seidenberg booked King into mainstream rock venues such as San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium, and arranged for him to perform on such prime-time television programs as The Tonight Show and the Ed Sullivan Show. With repeated exposure to larger audiences and media markets, King scored a huge hit ("The Thrill is Gone") in 1970, and his long-overdue commercial success brought him universal recognition as the legendary bluesman that his musical followers had always known him to be.
Cited as an indispensable influence by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and blues-rock guitarist Eric Clapton, King continues to dominate his field. Over the course of his career, he has won 14 Grammy Awards; in 1984, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, and in 1987, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In 1988, he joined forces with Bono, of the Irish rock group U2, to write and perform a duet ("When Love Comes to Town") that was included on the U2 concert movie Rattle and Hum. King's towering reputation was validated when President Bill Clinton celebrated the guitarist's accomplishments at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony in 1995.
King's impassioned guitar style and larger-than-life presence ensure that he remains a sold-out attraction on the concert circuit, and his 2006 tour dates include performances in Brazil, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United States. As he travels from venue to venue with his constant companion, a custom Gibson guitar affectionately known as "Lucille," King insists that he has no intention of retiring anytime soon. In a recent interview with reporter Kevin Chappell of Ebony magazine, he explained why: "If five people out of 100 get something out of my music, then it's worth it."
Source: U.S. Department of State
alan@newsblaze.com
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