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B.B. King is an icon of American music. He is a blues musician
whose distinctive guitar playing and evocative voice have inspired
generations of rock and jazz performers. For the final session of
his 2007 Harvard Extension School class “A History of Blues in
America,” Professor Charles Sawyer staged a tribute concert to B.B.
King, including performances by blues artists J. Geils, “Monster”
Mike Welch, Sweet Willie D., Sunny Crownover, and Sawyer's own
band, 2120 South Michigan Avenue. This program features complete
footage of that concert as well as interviews with B.B. King and
Rounder Records producer Scott Billington, and photographs
depicting King's life from birth to stardom and the world of blues
artists.
Born in 1925 in the Mississippi Delta, King was a virtual orphan at
age 14, living alone in the hills east of the Delta country and
sharecropping one acre of cotton. Eventually, King became a disk
jockey, then a band leader, then was "discovered" by Ike Turner,
who sent his records to Modern Records in California. At one point
in his life, B.B. King was touring and playing concerts 300 nights
a year. Now, King is in his 80's and still playing concerts. He has
played in more than 90 countries and been honored at the Kennedy
Center, and has received dozens of awards and honors including an
official "B.B. King Day" proclaimed by the Missisippi state
legislature.
King was profoundly influenced by mother's cousin Booker White, a
Delta Blues musician who played slide guitar. King wanted to make
that sound, but was clumsy with the slide. Instead, King invented a
unique method of rotating his hand from the elbow to play the
string, producing a distinctive, fluid pulse of sound. King also
innovated by melding country blues with more urbane, modern
music, mixing jazz harmonies into solos.
B.B. King's work is literally quoted in popular songs. "Blues is
like the background radiation from the Big Bang," Sawyer says in an
interview. There are traces of blues in almost every form of
popular American music. B.B. King's genius has brightened the
entire musical world.
For more information about Professor Sawyer's class, see Harvard Extension School's MUSI-E-139 “A History of Blues in America.”