170315, R.I.P. Posted by MME, Fri May-15-15 06:27 AM
>LAS VEGAS (AP) — B.B. King, whose scorching guitar licks >and heartfelt vocals made him the idol of generations of >musicians and fans while earning him the nickname King of the >Blues, died late Thursday at home in Las Vegas. He as 89. > >His attorney, Brent Bryson, told The Associated Press that >King died peacefully in his sleep at 9:40 p.m. PDT. > >Bryson said funeral arrangements were being made. > >Although he had continued to perform well into his 80s, the >15-time Grammy winner suffered from diabetes and had been in >declining health during the past year. He collapsed during a >concert in Chicago last October, later blaming dehydration and >exhaustion. He had been in hospice care at his Las Vegas >home. > >For most of a career spanning nearly 70 years, Riley B. King >was not only the undisputed king of the blues but a mentor to >scores of guitarists, who included Eric Clapton, Otis Rush, >Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, John Mayall and Keith Richards. He >recorded more than 50 albums and toured the world well into >his 80s, often performing 250 or more concerts a year. > >King played a Gibson guitar he affectionately called Lucille >with a style that included beautifully crafted single-string >runs punctuated by loud chords, subtle vibratos and bent >notes. > >The result could bring chills to an audience, no more so than >when King used it to full effect on his signature song, "The >Thrill is Gone." He would make his guitar shout and cry in >anguish as he told the tale of forsaken love, then end with a >guttural shouting of the final lines: "Now that it's all over, >all I can do is wish you well." >His style was unusual. King didn't like to sing and play at >the same time, so he developed a call-and-response between him >and Lucille. >"Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said, >to make the audience understand what I'm trying to do more," >King told The Associated Press in 2006. "When I'm singing, I >don't want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive >the story, because most of the songs have pretty good >storytelling." > >A preacher uncle taught him to play, and he honed his >technique in abject poverty in the Mississippi Delta, the >birthplace of the blues. >"I've always tried to defend the idea that the blues doesn't >have to be sung by a person who comes from Mississippi, as I >did," he said in the 1988 book "Off the Record: An Oral >History of Popular Music." >"People all over the world have problems," he said. "And as >long as people have problems, the blues can never die." > >Fellow travelers who took King up on that theory included >Clapton, the British-born blues-rocker who collaborated with >him on "Riding With the King," a best-seller that won a Grammy >in 2000 for best traditional blues album. > >Still, the Delta's influence was undeniable. King began >picking cotton on tenant farms around Indianola, Mississippi, >before he was a teenager, being paid as little as 35 cents for >every 100 pounds, and was still working off sharecropping >debts after he got out of the Army during World War Two. > >"He goes back far enough to remember the sound of field >hollers and the cornerstone blues figures, like Charley Patton >and Robert Johnson," ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons once told >Rolling Stone magazine. > >King got his start in radio with a gospel quartet in >Mississippi, but soon moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where a job >as a disc jockey at WDIA gave him access to a wide range of >recordings. He studied the great blues and jazz guitarists, >including Django Reinhardt and T-Bone Walker, and played live >music a few minutes each day as the "Beale Street Blues Boy," >later shortened to B.B. > >Through his broadcasts and live performances, he quickly built >up a following in the black community, and recorded his first >R&B hit, "Three O'Clock Blues," in 1951. > >He began to break through to white audiences, particularly >young rock fans, in the 1960s with albums like "Live at the >Regal," which would later be declared a historic sound >recording worthy of preservation by the Library of Congress' >National Recording Registry. > >He further expanded his audience with a 1968 appearance at the >Newport Folk Festival and when he opened shows for the Rolling >Stones in 1969. > >King was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in >1984, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and received the >Songwriters Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990. >He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President >George W. Bush, gave a guitar to Pope John Paul II and had >President Barack Obama sing along to his "Sweet Home >Chicago." > >Other Grammys included best male rhythm 'n' blues performance >in 1971 for "The Thrill Is Gone," best ethnic or traditional >recording in 1982 for "There Must Be a Better World Somewhere" >and best traditional blues recording or album several times. >His final Grammy came in 2009 for best blues album for "One >Kind Favor." >Through it all, King modestly insisted he was simply >maintaining a tradition. > >"I'm just one who carried the baton because it was started >long before me," he told the AP in 2008. > >Born Riley B. King on Sept. 16, 1925, on a tenant farm near >Itta Bena, Mississippi, King was raised by his grandmother >after his parents separated and his mother died. He worked as >a sharecropper for five years in Kilmichael, an even smaller >town, until his father found him and took him back to >Indianola. > >"I was a regular hand when I was 7. I picked cotton. I drove >tractors. Children grew up not thinking that this is what they >must do. We thought this was the thing to do to help your >family," he said. >When the weather was bad and he couldn't work in the cotton >fields, he walked 10 miles to a one-room school before >dropping out in the 10th grade. > >After he broke through as a musician, it appeared King might >never stop performing. When he wasn't recording, he toured the >world relentlessly, playing 342 one-nighters in 1956. In 1989, >he spent 300 days on the road. After he turned 80, he vowed he >would cut back, and he did, somewhat, to about 100 shows a >year. > >He had 15 biological and adopted children. Family members say >11 survive. >___ >Associated Press writer John Rogers in Los Angeles contributed >to this report.
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