King B.B., born Riley B. King, *16 September 1925 Itta Bena (Mississippi), †14 May 2015 Las Vegas, American blues guitarist and singer. He started playing guitar at the age of 14; in 1947, he moved to Memphis, where he led his own trio and soon took up a job as a presenter at a local radio station, earning the nickname “The Beale Street Blues Boy,” later shortened to “B.B.” He rose to popularity with his recording Three O’Clock in the Morning (1950). From then on, he regularly recorded albums and travelled around the world with his own band. He performed in Poland in 1987 during the Jazz Jamboree.
King’s guitar style was influenced by jazz musicians, especially C. Christian and D. Reinhardt, as well as bluesmen such as B. White, M. Waters and T.-B. Walker. He used a Gibson electric guitar (which he named “Lucille”) and a Fender amplifier, achieving a characteristic warm sound. As a vocalist, King was distinguished by his high, powerful voice, whose timbre, combined with rich melisma, reflected the influence of gospel music. King belongs to the select group of the greatest blues performers in the history of the genre. He had a major influence on other bluesmen, as well as on rock musicians of the 1960s, including E. Clapton and M. Bloomfield.
Literature: Ch. Keil Urban Blues, Chicago 1966; Ch. Sawyer B.B. King, “Jazz Forum” 1980 no. 67.
