John Lee Hooker Junior

John Lee Hooker Junior

John Lee Hooker junior (born January 13, 1952 in Detroit , Michigan ) is an American blues singer the son of blues legend John Lee Hooker .

Compared to his father, who was more of a representative of the Mississippi Delta Blues , the baritone Hooker Jr. tends more towards the urban, electric blues of Detroit and Chicago , combined with other musical styles. He himself describes his style of music as "two parts R&B , one part jazz and the rest is down home blues ". He names his father as the most important influences, but also Johnny Guitar Watson , Big Mama Thornton , Jimmy Reed , Jimi Hendrix , BB King and Albert King .

Youth and early career

Hooker came into contact with the music business at an early age through his father, who even as a child often took him to radio interviews and performances in nightclubs. At the age of eight he made his first musical appearance on Detroit's WJBK radio station, where his father spontaneously let him sing into the microphone. As a teenager, he performed with his father and his backing band, the Coast to Coast Blues Band (e.g. together with Jimmy Reed at Detroit's Fox Theater) and took on some of the recordings for Live at Soledad Prison (1972, ABC Records) Vocal parts. He was featured on his father's tour posters and regularly opened his father's concerts by performing a song.

Life

His own musical future remained uncertain for a long time, however, because Hooker Jr. had to struggle with alcohol and drug addiction as a teenager, which he could not overcome for a long time as an adult. His father dedicated the 1971 song Kick Hit 4 Hit Kix U (Blues for Jimi and Janis) , which is primarily not an homage to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin , because of concern about his condition ; Instead, Hooker Sr. recalls the tragic fate of the two and lets the song, in its almost hypnotic style, lead to an appeal against drug abuse by adolescents. The young Hooker turned away from music for the time being and at times made his way as a bricklayer, gardener and street sweeper, was imprisoned several times for drug possession and was ultimately threatened with homelessness.

Although he also performed sporadically with his father in the 90s, his private problems continued to prevent him from realizing his dream of a successful music career of his own. The decisive impetus for him to change his way of life was a near-death experience caused by substance abuse , which earned him a ten-day hospital stay and another trial. However, the threat of a long prison sentence, his strong belief in God and the support of his family helped him, according to his own admission, to successfully get through an addiction treatment.

Solo career

It was only after decades of fighting his alcohol and drug addiction, divorcing his wife, at the age of 52 and three years after the death of his father, who died in 2001 at the age of 83, that Hooker Jr. released his debut album Blues in 2004 with a Vengeance , which was well received by the public and the critics and awarded various prizes. In addition to a Grammy nomination in 2005 in the category Best Traditional Blues Album , he received the same year the WC Handy Award of the Blues Foundation in the category for the best debut album after a year previously by the Bay Area Blues Society with the comeback Artist of the Year Award and a California Blues Award in the Outstanding Blues Album category.

In addition to eight self-written songs and a version of T-Bone Walker's Stormy Monday, the album contains three cover versions of well-known hits by his father, including Boom Boom and One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer , to which he gives his own special touch. His version of the latter song is ultimately a nod to his own life. While in the original version the protagonist continues his alcohol consumption, in the new version he changes his life, renounces alcohol and replies to the bartender's question whether he should serve the usual: No, give me one Coke, one Sprite and root beer . I don't do the things I used to do.

Hooker, who can look back on appearances with BB King , Luther Allison , Bo Diddley , Charlie Musselwhite , Elvin Bishop and Canned Heat among others , released his second album Cold at the end of June 2006 after a long tour through North America, Europe, Africa and Australia as Ice , which clearly had funk influences. On this album, too, he was musically supported by guest musicians and his band. This includes keyboardist Will "Roc" Griffin, who worked with Herbie Hancock and produced Hooker's debut album, and lead guitarist John Garcia Jr. , who was Hooker's father, and other well-known artists such as Albert King accompanied.

For his third studio album All Odds Against Me from 2008, Hooker received another Grammy nomination in the category Best Traditional Blues Album . Hooker's first live album, Live In Istanbul, Turkey , followed in 2010 , which was recorded at the Efes Pilsen Blues Festival .

Discography

• Live at Soledad Prison (1972, ABC Records), along with his father John Lee Hooker Sr.
• Blues with a Vengeance (2004, Kent Records )
• Cold as Ice (June 27, 2006, Telarc Records)
• All Odd's against me (November 25, 2008, Steppin 'Stone Records / Jazzhaus Records)
• Live In Istanbul, Turkey (2010, Steppin 'Stone Records / Jazzhaus Records)

Web links

• Official website of John Lee Hooker Jr. (English, partly German)

Individual evidence

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