B. B. King (born Riley B. King, September 16, 1925) is an African American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter known for his expressive singing and inimitable guitar playing. One reviewer wrote, "King introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed." Critical acclaim and widespread popularity have cemented his reputation as possibly the most respected,successful, and most recognized bluesman, not just in the United States, but in the world. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him at #3 in "the 100 greatest guitarists of all time".
Career
B. B. King arrived in Memphis for the first time in 1946 to work as a musician, but after a few months of hardship he left, going back to Mississippi. There he decided to prepare himself better for the next visit and returned to Memphis two years later. Initially he worked at the local R&B radio channel WDIA as a singer and disc jockey, where he gained the nickname "Beale Street Blues Boy", later shortened to "B.B.". It was there that he first met T-Bone Walker. "Once I'd heard him for the first time, I knew I'd have to have [an electric guitar] myself. Had to have one, short of stealing!", he said. In 1949, King began recording songs under contract with Los Angeles-based RPM Records. Many of King's early recordings were produced by Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records. Before his RPM contract, King had debuted on Bullet Records by issuing the single "Miss Martha King" (1949), which got a bad review in Billboard magazine and did not chart well.
"My very first recordings [in 1949] were for a company out of Nashville called Bullet, the Bullet Record Transcription company," King recalls. "I had horns that very first session. I had Phineas Newborn on piano; his father played drums, and his brother, Calvin, played guitar with me. I had Tuff Green on bass, Ben Branch on tenor sax, his brother, Thomas Branch, on trumpet, and a lady trombone player."
King assembled his own band; the B.B. King Review, under the leadership of Millard Lee. The band initially consisted of Calvin Owens and Kenneth Sands (trumpet), Lawrence Burdin (alto saxophone), George Coleman (tenor saxophone), Floyd Newman (baritone saxophone), Millard (or billions) Lee (piano), George Joyner (bass) and Earl Forest and Ted Curry (drums). Onzie Horne was a trained musician elicited as an arranger to assist King with his compositions. (By his own admission, he cannot play chords well and always relies on improvisation. This was followed by tours across the USA with performances in major theaters in cities such as Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit and St. Louis, as well as well as numerous gigs in small clubs and "juke joints" of the U.S. Southern States. King meanwhile toured the entire Chitlin Circuit and 1956 became a record-breaking 342 concerts booked. The same year he founded his own record label; Blues Boys Kingdom with its headquarters at Beale Street in Memphis. There, amongst other projects, he produced artists such as Millard Lee and Levi Seabury. The record company eventually failed, however, because King's schedule was unable to stretch far enough to include that of a businessman.
In the 1950s, B. B. King became one of the most important names in R&B music, amassing an impressive list of hits including "You Know I Love You," "Woke Up This Morning," "Please Love Me," "When My Heart Beats like a Hammer," "Whole Lotta Love," "You Upset Me Baby," "Every Day I Have the Blues," "Sneakin' Around," "Ten Long Years," "Bad Luck," "Sweet Little Angel," "On My Word of Honor," and "Please Accept My Love." In 1962, B. B. King signed to ABC-Paramount Records, which was later absorbed into MCA Records, and then his current label, Geffen Records. In November 1964, King recorded the Live at the Regal album at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois.
King won a Grammy Award, for a tune called, "The Thrill Is Gone." His version became a hit on both Pop music and R&B charts, which was rare for an R&B artist. It also gained the number 183 spot in Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. He gained further rock visibility as an opening act on The Rolling Stones' 1969 American Tour. King's mainstream success continued throughout the 1970s with songs like "To Know You Is to Love You" and "I Like to Live the Love."
B.B. was present before the boxing match at the world championship between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in the stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire, in October 1974. His band's performance there was released on a DVD.
1980 saw B.B. King in the Blues Hall of Fame. In 2004 he was awarded the international Polar Music Prize, given to artists "in recognition of exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music."
Although King began recording less beginning in the 1980s, he continued to maintain a highly visible and active career, appearing on numerous television shows and performing 300 nights a year. In 1988 King reached a new generation of fans with the single "When Love Comes to Town", a collaborative effort between King and the Irish band U2 on their Rattle and Hum album. In 2000, King teamed up with guitarist Eric Clapton to record Riding With the King. In 1998, King appeared in The Blues Brothers 2000, playing the part of the lead singer of the Louisiana Gator Boys, along with Clapton, Dr. John, Koko Taylor and Bo Diddley. Among his jazz colleagues like Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, King once said, "What they did, simply went over my horizon."
King owns several clubs in the U.S., including at Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, in New Orleans and Nashville, where he occasionally visits. In addition, he invested in merchandise including barbecue accessories and endorsed a line of his own custom guitar strings.
Since 2004, King began to cite age and health reasons for touring less frequently. In the summer of 2005 he undertook a "Final Farewell Tour" through Europe. But in 2006 he entered the United States and again in Europe.
Farewell tour
Aged 80 at the time, on March 29, 2006, King played at Sheffield's Hallam Arena. This was the first date of his UK and European farewell tour. He played this tour supported by ex-shredder/rocker turned bluesman Gary Moore, with whom King had previously toured and recorded, including the song "Since I Met You Baby". The British leg of the tour ended on 4 April with a final UK concert at Wembley Arena.
In July King went back to Europe, playing twice (July 2 and 3) in the 40th edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival and also in Zürich at the Blues at Sunset on July 14. During his show in Montreux at the Stravinski Hall he jammed with Joe Sample, Randy Crawford, David Sanborn, Gladys Knight, Lella James, Earl Thomas, Stanley Clarke, John McLaughlin, Barbara Hendricks and George Duke. The European leg of the Farewell tour ended in Luxembourg on September 19, 2006 at the D'Coque Arena (support act: Todd Sharpville).
In November and December, King played six times in Brazil. During a press conference on November 29 in São Paulo, a journalist asked King if that would be the actual farewell tour. He answered: "One of my favorite actors is a man from Scotland named Sean Connery. Most of you know him as James Bond, 007. He made a movie called Never Say Never Again."
In June 2006, King was present at a memorial of his first radio broadcast at the Three Deuces Building in Greenwood, Mississippi, where an official marker of the Mississippi Blues Trail was erected. The same month, a groundbreaking was held for a new museum, dedicated to King.in Indianola, Mississippi.
The museum opened on September 13, 2008.
In late October 2006, he recorded a live CD and DVD, B.B. KING LIVE, at his B.B. King Blues Clubs in Nashville and Memphis. The four night production featured his regular B.B. King Blues Band and captured his show as he performs it nightly around the world. It was his first live performance recording in 14 years.
On July 28, 2007, King played at Eric Clapton's second Crossroads Guitar Festival with 20 other guitarists to raise money for the Crossroads Centre for addictive disorders, located in Antigua. Performing in Chicago Illinois, he played "Paying the Cost to Be the Boss" and "Rock Me Baby" with Robert Cray, Jimmie Vaughan and Hubert Sumlin. In the live broadcast, he offered a toast to the concert's host, Eric Clapton, and philosophized about his age and life. This never made it in its entirety to the subsequently released PBS broadcast or Crossroads II DVD.
2008 - Present
In June 2008, King played at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, and on August 1, 2008, he performed at the South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset, Massachusetts.
King was also the final performer at the 25th annual Chicago Blues Festival on June 8, 2008. Additionally in June 2008, King played the final set of the Monterey, California Blues Festival following Taj Mahal. King rounded off the month when he was also, in June, 2008, inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame alongside Liza Minnelli and Sir James Galway.
In July 2008, Sirius XM Radio's Bluesville channel was re-named B.B. King's Bluesville.
On December 1, 2008 King performed at the Maryland Theater in Hagerstown, Maryland.
On December 3, 2008 King, along with John Mayer, was the closing act at the 51st Grammy Nomination Concert, playing "Let the Good Times Roll" by Louis Jordan.
On December 30, 2008 King played at The Kennedy Center Honors Awards Show. His performance was in honor of Morgan Freeman.
(from Wikipedia)
