Bukka White
Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White , (born November 12, 1906 in Aberdeen , Mississippi , † February 26, 1977 in Memphis , Tennessee ), was an American blues musician .
The spelling Bukka , which is mostly used in older literature and on sound carriers , is not a nickname but rather goes back to the intonation of his first name in his homeland, and was not requested by him and is therefore no longer used in modern specialist literature.
There are different statements about the year and place of his birth: The date of birth is November 12, 1902, 1906 or 1909. The place of birth is given as Houston, Chikasaw or Aberdeen in the state of Mississippi. Along with Charley Patton , Son House and Robert Johnson , he is one of the most famous musicians of the Delta Blues . A song by Bukka White from 1930 is considered to be the namesake for the Panama Limited Jug Band .
biography
Booker T. Washington White was born to musical parents. His father was a multi-instrumentalist who played the mandolin, piano, drums and saxophone. His mother also had a great influence on her son's musicality. She was the daughter of a preacher, and singing hymns was a standard musical repertoire in the Whites' household.
When he was nine years old, Bukka got his first guitar, a "Stella". His father taught him the first fingerings on the guitar. Bukka White learned by playing the songs he heard on the guitar. An oft-told story goes that Bukka gave this guitar to his little cousin Riley Ben King (aka BB King ). Later on, Bukka can be seen almost exclusively on image documents with National Steel Guitars , which he openly tuned and played with a bottleneck .
On May 26, 1930, White made his first recordings for the Victor label in Memphis, which were still released under his real name Washington White. By then he had gained his musical experience in juke joints and small clubs in St. Louis . The recordings were not very successful commercially at the time. In the years of the economic depression, White migrated to Chicago , where he earned his living as a boxer, among other things. In Chicago he had contact with Memphis Minnie , Tampa Red and Big Bill Broonzy .
In 1937 and 1940, Bukka White was signed to the Columbia Records record label Vocalion. These recordings, which were released on the labels Vocalion and (after Columbia lost the rights to Vocalion in 1940) Okeh , are now classics: Aberdeen Mississippi Blues , Fixin 'to Die , Sic'em Dogs on Me , Bukkas Jitterburg Swing or Parchman Farm Blues .
White spent the period from 1937 to 1940 after a homicide in the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. In the title Parchman Farm Blues , Bukka White tells of this imprisonment. The folklorist Alan Lomax met him there in 1937 . Alan Lomax recorded the prisoners' songs for the Library of Congress in the prison camp , Bukka White was one of them. After his release from prison, Vocalion, accompanied by Washboard Sam , took him in again in March 1940, but Bukka White found that he could not make a living from it as the country blues was now out of fashion. So he took up the job of a junk dealer.
By resuming the title Fixin 'to Die by Bob Dylan on his debut album in 1962, the folk musician John Fahey - together with his friend ED Denson - came up with the idea of finding the whereabouts of Bukka White, who had since moved to Memphis. The research was successful and he met a 53-year-old man who was still enjoying playing the Delta Blues .
The encounter with Fahey was the new start to a musical career. Bukka White toured across the United States and to Europe as part of the American Folk Blues Festival in 1967, 1970 and 1972. This success enabled him to make new recordings with Takoma Records and Sonet.
White died of cancer in Memphis in 1977. In 1990 he was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame .
Web links
- Illustrated Bukka White Discography
- Bukka White Biography & Discography (English)
- Bukka White at Allmusic (English)
credentials
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | White, Bukka |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | White, Booker T. Washington (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American blues musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 12, 1902 or November 12, 1906 or November 12, 1909 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Aberdeen , Mississippi |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 26, 1977 |
| Place of death | Memphis , Tennessee |