B. B. King (original) (raw)

Chapter

1. The Polar Music Prize Ceremony

2. King of blues

3. Childhood

4. Mississippi

5. Breakthrough

6. Fifties & Sixties

7. Seventies

8. Live

9. Blues hall of fame

The Polar Music Prize for 2004 is being awarded to the American composer, singer and performer Riley B King for his significant contributions to the blues. King's total dedication to his music, a rich recording history and tireless touring lasting more than half a century have made him one of the most prominent figures within the blues. Through his achievements in spreading the blues throughout the world, he has, as a leading proponent of his music, proved of fundamental importance to the development of modern popular music.

Stockholm, May 22, 2004

The week of the Polar Music Prize in May 2004 started off with a concert two days before the Prize Ceremony – with B.B. King and his band in the same concert hall where they played in 1974: Konserthuset Stockholm.

The press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music was a relaxed meeting with lots of laughs and joking. British guitarist Jimmy Page, legendary founder of Polar Music Prize Laureates Led Zeppelin, attended the Prize Ceremony to read the citation.

B.B King performing at Konserthuset Stockholm on May 22, 2004.

With Jimmy Page at the preparty the night before the ceremony.

Press conference at the Royal Academy of Music, Stockholm.

At the ceremony with Louise Duchesneau, receiving the prize on behalf of György Ligeti.

Stockholm, May 24, 2004

The 13th Polar Music Prize Ceremony was held at Konserthuset Stockholm, for the first time. B.B King received the Polar Music Prize together with composer György Ligeti, who unfortunately could not attend the ceremony. His assistant and representative, Dr. Louise Duchesneau, received the prize on his behalf.

The evening continued with a banquet in Vinterträdgården at Stockholm’s Grand Hôtel.

HM King Carl XVI Gustaf presented the Prize to the two Laureates György Ligeti and B.B King.

George W Bush, the President of the Unites States at the time, sent a personal letter to congratulate the Laureates.

An amazing line up of Swedish artists honoured B.B King by performing both at the ceremony and banquet: Mats Ronander, Eric Bibb and Louise Hoffsten to name a few.

B.B King himself played at the banquet at Grand Hôtel.

B.B King performing at the banquet.

The letter form President Bush.

Jimmy Page, who read the citation for B.B. King and Dr Louise Duchesneau at the banquet.

The Citation for B.B. King is read by Jimmy Page, B.B. receives the Prize from H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf.

Swedish singer Louise Hoffsten with Kustbandet celebrates B.B. King with Duke Ellington's and Bob Russell's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore."

American blues singer-songwriter Eric Bibb and Janne Pettersson, accordion, perform Bibb's song “Tell Riley” for laureate Riley B. King.

Swedish guitarist Mats Ronander & Band, featuring Magnus Lindgren Horns pay tribute to B.B. King with their own song "Papa's in the Groove" (after Louise Duschesneau's speech, 2.39).

King of blues

He is not just an ambassador of the blues, which he dreamed of. B.B. King is universally hailed as the reigning king of the blues and the single most important electric guitarist of the last half century. His style of soloing based on fluid string bending and weeping vibrato – together with his staccato picking style – has influenced virtually every blues and rock guitarist that followed. His gritty and confident voice – capable of wringing every nuance from any lyric – provides a worthy match for his passionate playing. He started performing at home in Mississippi in the early 1940s, made his first recordings in Memphis in the late ‘40s and played 250-300 shows a year until his seventies. B.B. King passed away on 14 May 2015 at the age of 89.

B.B. King at Konserthuset Stockholm, May 22, 2004.

Before the Polar Music Prize Ceremony in Stockholm in 2004, B.B. King made an interview with Swedish TV presenter Arne Weise. They talked about the award, the blues, B.B. Kings life and career and what motivates him to keep on performing and playing the blues for audiences around the world. We learn that had he followed his mother’s advice 75 years ago, he wouldn't have become a blues musician...

Cotton plantation workers at Hopson Plantation, Mississippi, 1940. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Childhood

Riley B. King was born in a small cabin on a cotton plantation outside of Berclair, Mississippi on September 16, 1925, son of Albert King and Nora Ella Farr. When he was four, his father abandoned the family. His mother was too poor to raise her son, so Riley was raised by his maternal grandmother in nearby Kilmichael, Mississippi.

He grew up singing in the gospel choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church, got his first guitar at 12 and dreamed of becoming a gospel singer and maybe a preacher. He also started to listen to the Delta blues musicians.

Riley King, 17 years old ca 1943. A postcard photo he took for a sweetheart by storefront photographer James Robinson in Indianola, Mississippi. (Source: © Charles Sawyer - All rights reserved - With kind permission from the photographer)

In Mississippi

In 1943, at seventeen, Riley left his grandmother in Kilmichael to live in Indianola, Mississippi, where he worked as a tractor driver and played guitar with the Famous St. John’s Gospel Singers of Inverness. They performed at area churches and on WGRM in Greenwood, Mississippi. Country and gospel music, along with the styles of the blues greats, T-Bone Walker and Lonnie Johnson, were young Riley’s influences.

In 1946, at 20, he went to see his mother’s first cousin in Memphis, a rough-edged country blues guitarist named Bukka White, who took him in for ten months and taught him how to play the blues.

Riley returned to Mississippi for a period of hard plantation work, preparing to go back to the city and become a musician. In 1948 he came to West Memphis, Arkansas. He performed on Sonny Boy Williamson’s radio program on KWEM in West Memphis, where he developed a local audience for his sound. It led to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill. Then, he got a ten-minute spot on WDIA in Memphis, Tennessee, that recently had switched over to a pioneering all-black format. He was a singer and a DJ. "King’s spot" became popular and was expanded. He became the “Beale Street Blues Boy”, later shortened to “Blues Boy” and then just B.B.

Bukka White, the country blues guitarist from Mississippi and Riley’s mother’s first cousin.

Breakthrough

1949 was a breakthrough year. He started recording songs, first for Bullet Records and then for Los Angeles based RPM Records.

Many of his early singles were produced by a relative newcomer named Sam Phillips, who later would start Sun Records and Studio. He assembled his own band, The B.B. King Review, and started to make tours across the U.S.A. His first national R&B hit was “3 O’Clock Blues” in 1951. A string of R&B hits followed.

23 year-old Riley B. King advertising his radio show on Memphis AM station WDIA, 1948 (Source: The Hooks Brothers, Memphis)

B.B. Kings first album Singin' the Blues, 1956 (Source: Crown/Modern Records/Ace Records)

Early B.B. King recordings 1949-1959

B.B. King's first single, "Miss Martha King", 1949 (Source: (© Bullet Records))

Fifties & Sixties

During the ‘50s, B.B. King was a consistent record seller and concert attraction. 1956 was a record-breaking year with 342 concerts booked. His guitar attack grew more aggressive as the decade progressed. In 1960 his revival of Joe Turner’s “Sweet Sixteen” was a huge success. In 1962 he switched to ABC-Paramount Records and in 1964 he recorded what is considered one of the definitive blues albums: Live at the Regal at the Regal Theater in Chicago.

The mid ‘60s blues revival introduced B.B. King to white audiences, and by 1966 he was appearing regularly on rock concert circuits and receiving airplay on progressive rock radio.

Tracks from Live at the Regal (recorded at the Regal Theater in Chicago, November 21, 1964) and other '60's tracks with B.B. King

B.B. Kings successful studio album of 1969 Completely Well featuring his single “The Thrill is Gone”

A marker in Twist, Arkansas, telling the story why all B.B. King’s guitars are named “Lucille.” (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Seventies

Crossover stardom arrived for B.B. King in 1970 with a stately, violin-drenched minor-key treatment of Roy Hawkins “The Thrill is Gone”, recorded in 1969. It was a departure from the concise horn-powered backing he had customarily employed, and the song hit both the pop and R&B charts, which was rare during that time for an R&B artist. It earned him his first Grammy – for Best R&B Vocal Performance.

In the ‘70s King recorded albums with longtime friend and onetime chauffeur Bobby Bland. He made concerts in prisons in the U.S, of which some became records and films.

In 1978, King joined forces with jazzy Crusaders to make the smooth and funky album Midnight Believer. He was not afraid to experiment with the idiom. Mostly it turned out successful, B.B. King was one of a few bluesmen to score hits consistently during the 1970s.

B.B. King Live at Audimax der Uni Hamburg, November 1971 (Source: Heinrich Klaffs)

A few '70s recordings by B.B. King

Live from a benefit concert for the prisoners of Ossining Correctional Facility (a.k.a. Sing Sing) on Thanksgiving, 1972

Live

Many of B.B. King's greatest live performances on film are from the '70s. In 1974 he performed in Kinshasa, Zaire, Africa, in connection with the legendary boxing game between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman.

A 40 minute concert from 1974 at Konserthuset Stockholm, recorded by Swedish Television. (Source: SVT/Polar Music Prize)

Blues hall of fame

B.B. King was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. That year he also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He tempered his studio activities somewhat in the ‘80s but was still highly visible. He appeared on numerous television shows and performed almost 300 nights a year through the decade.

He reached a new generation when he collaborated with U2 on their album Rattle and Hum in 1987. In 1993 he returned to form with the duet album Blues Summit featuring friends and guests like John Lee Hooker, Etta James and Fulson. In 2000 he teamed up with guitarist Eric Clapton and recorded "Riding with the King", which is his most commercially successful album ever. He kept performing around 100 shows a year even in his older age.

Sign for B.B. King's Blues Club on Beale Street in Memphis. Opened in 1991. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

B.B. King on record, 1993–2012

"Riding with the King," official video with B.B King & Eric Clapton, 2000

Content of biography is presented here as it was published in 2012.

In memoriam B.B King 1925–2015.