B.B. King (born Riley King)

Instruments: electric guitar "Lucille", vocals

Lifespan: 1925-

Style synopsis: Style is the word that describes the way that B.B. "makes love to Lucille". He plays a very uncluttered style with liberal use of bends, his signature vibrato and T-Bone Walker influenced jazzy sounding blues runs. Also, as B.B. tells U2, he "don't do no chords". B.B.'s style is best characterized by saying that he knows when to play the right note and he knows when silence is better than a whole string of notes.

Representative Recordings:I've been buying and listening to B.B. for 30 years and here are my faves:
(1) B.B. King Live at the Apollo (1991, GRP) - B.B. is usually his best live
(2) Blues Summit (MCA, 1993) - B.B. and friends, including Buddy Guy, Lohn Lee Hooker, Albert Collins and Katie Webster
(3) B.B. King - King of the Blues (1992, MCA) - Four CD set of the best of B.B., a must have

Contributor: Mike "Mojo" Sutton(msutton@iadfw.net)
Contributor's comments: The "King of the Blues" continues to be my favorite for one burning reason, he has been the one instrumental in bringing blues to the main stream. Because of this he might be better thought of as the ambassodor of the blues. His style is tempered with the main stream audience in mind and therefore many blues afficienados may write him off. I know a lot of people who don't know any blues musicians or heards any blues except B.B. King. Instead of putting down B.B. as "not a real blues man', let's all be glad that he has been the ambassodor for blues music. He continues to be the showman blues music has always needed and will be sorely missed when he is gone.