An 83-year-old BB King can still play a tight, New Orleans goodtime
rhythm and blues.
By Tim Burrows
29 Jun 2009
Blues is a musical genre. 'The blues' has always meant something
different; a kind of club that people mostly men of a certain
generation joined.The Rolling Stones and Clapton came out of the
early-Sixties boom, the former leaving the blues behind for rock stardom.
Yet there were some who stuck with it. One of Britain's most
important ambassadors of the blues was John Mayall in the
mid-Sixties his group the Bluesbreakers provided a platform for Eric
Clapton to dive headfirst into becoming a blues guitarist.
Today, Mayall is a sprightly 75-year-old, with whispy, candy floss
hair. He and his band dressed casually - shirts, jeans and trainers
and affected a hard rock version of the blues. Each player forced the
issue beyond perhaps where it needed to go. At times it felt like
being trapped in a music store with four show-offs, with Mayall
assuming the role encouraging uncle, giving his protégés thumbs up,
while singing, playing keyboards, harmonica, and breaking off for a
skat here and there.
Mississippi bluesman B.B. King trumps Mayall in the seniority stakes
he will turn 84 later this year and in terms of entertainment. In
60 years and over 10,000 concerts he and his band have had ample time
to perfect their routine. Complete with horn section and immaculately
dressed in black tie, his his group played a tight, New Orleans
goodtime rhythm and blues.
Dressed in a glittering purple jacket, he walked slowly to his chair
at the front of the stage as the band played. He is a big guy.
Sitting with his beloved Lucille slung to his side, he looked like a
blues-weeble.
Evoking the Mardi Gras, King threw coins and jewellery into the
audience throughout. Between songs, he meandered through a whole
litany of subjects; his friendship with Eric Clapton; his
indebtedness to bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson: his undimmed appetite
for staying on the road. Yet the subject he kept returning to was his
age. 'I'd like to say to all the young guys over 50...' he quipped.
While he sang Jefferson's See That My Grave is Kept Clean with a low
gravelly tone, you wondered how much of an advance request this was.
Yet his life is so inextricably tied to the blues, the road and
Lucille, that you feel, as long as he keeps playing, he might go on
forever. His voice boomed. His guitar playing was economical and
effortless. After dedicating a rendition of You Are My Sunshine to
'all the ladies in the world', he enquired, 'Should fate allow it
will you have me back one day?'
You would not bet against it.
--
Read a recent interview with BB King
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/5343853/BB-King-interview-the-last-of-the-great-bluesmen.html
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