He was a farm laborer and bulldozer driver who became a premier blues guitarist. Self-taught, first on a one-string "diddley-bow" and then on a guitar he made from a cigar box, King played left-handed and upside down. In 1956 he moved to Lovejoy, Illinois, across the river from St. Louis. King perfected his searing guitar sound in the historic 1950s and 60s St. Louis blues and R&B scene. In 1966 he signed with the Stax label, where he recorded such classics as "Crosscut Saw" and "Born Under A Bad Sign." After a legendary 1968 Fillmore West concert series and recording, Albert King was called "the most-imitated blues guitarist in the world."
The guitar work of Albert King lives on in the playing of literally thousands of blues, rock, and jazz guitarists. Picking with his bare fingers Albert created perhaps the most cutting and immediately identifiable electric blues guitar style ever. Absolutely one of the most powerful, articulate, and soulful string benders ever.
During the 1970s King toured extensively, often playing to rock and soul crowds. King was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1983.He continued touring throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, playing festivals and concerts, often with B.B.King. He died of a heart attack December 21, 1992, just prior to starting a major European tour.
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Born Born Riley B. King in Itta Bene, Mississippi, September 16, 1925.
King's earliest interest in music came from the church, which is where he learned to sing gospel music.
After being taught a few chords on the guitar by the minister of his church, King's interest started to extend beyond just singing. He began listening to guitar-playing bluesmen more intently and was moved by the jazz guitar work of Charlie Christian. As a young man King was a Mississippi Delta farmhand and tractor driver, working the fields during the week and playing music on weekends.
At age 23 (1948), Riley moved to Memphis to make a living as a blues musician, living with his cousin Bukka White. Sonny Boy Williamson got him a job filling in for him on West Memphis Radio where he was known as the "Beale Street Blues Boy". (Later shortened to B.B.) With the help of Robert Jr. Lockwood, B.B. worked on his guitar technique. He landed a spot on the Amature Show at the Palace Theater thn did locl gigs around Memphis. Though his first records were made in 1949, his version of "Three O'Clock Blues" hit the charts in 1951 and stayed at #1 for 17weeks.
In the mid-1950's while B.B. was performing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, a few fans became unruly. Two men got into a fight and knocked over a kerosene stove, setting fire to the hall. B.B. raced outdoors to safety with everyone else, but then realized that he left his $30 guitar inside, so he rushed back inside to retrieve it, narrowly escaping death. When he later found out that the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, he decided to give the name to his guitar. Each one of B.B.'s guitars since that time have been called Lucille.
Over the past 50years B.B.King has become the most recognised and respected blues artist on the planet. Over this time he has averaged over 250 concerts per year.
B.B. King was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, where Sting of the Police made the induction speech. B.B. was the recipient of the 1986 National Association for Campus Activities Hall of Fame Award. B.B. was "Blues Act of the Year" in 1985, 1987, and 1988 Performance Award polls. He is a founding member of the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center. B.B.King received the Grammy "Lifetime Achievement Award" in December of 1987 at the first televised awards in May 1990. B.B. has received four honorary doctorates: Tougaloo (Mississippi) College (LH.D.) in 1973; Yale University (D. Music) in 1977; Berklee College of Music (D. Music) in 1982; and Rhodes College of Memphis (D. Fine Arts) in 1990. In 1992, he received the National Award of Distinction from the University of Mississippi.
On May 3, 1991, "B.B. King's Blues club" opened in Memphis, and also at the Universal City Walk in Los Angeles in 1994, and although King resides in Las Vegas, he plans to play at his clubs at least four times a year.
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and raised in Texas.
Freddie King, the one and only "Texas Cannonball", fused the open-string sound of Texas blues guitar and raw Chicago blues. As a guitarist, he is best known for his extremely aggressive picking attack (using a thumbpick and steel fingerpick), his phenomenal collection of signature riffs, and one of the most wicked vibratos the planet has ever seen. His guitar playing was matched in intensity only by his voice.
Though he first recorded in the 1950s, it wasn't until 1961 when his first big hit tune "Hide Away" reached #29 onthe Billboard charts, that he began to be noticed.
King was only forty-two years old when he died December 28, 1976 of bleeding ulcers and heart failure.
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