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Big Bill Broonzy

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Big Bill Broonzy
Studio portrait of Broonzy
Studio portrait of Broonzy
Background information
Birth nameLee Conley Bradley
Also known asBig Bill Broonzy, Big Bill Broomsley
Born(1893-06-26)June 26, 1893 (disputed)
Lake Dick, Arkansas, United States or Scott, Mississippi, United States
DiedAugust 14, 1958(1958-08-14) (aged 65)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
GenresFolk music, country blues, Chicago blues, spirituals, protest songs
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter, sharecropper, preacher
Instrument(s)Vocals, guitar, fiddle
Years active1927–1958
LabelsParamount, A.R.C., Bluebird, Vocalion, Folkways

Big Bill Broonzy (June 26, 1893 – August 14 or 15, 1958) was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly African-American audiences. Through the 1930s and 1940s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with working class African-American audiences. In the 1950s a return to his traditional folk-blues roots made him one of the leading figures of the emerging American folk music revival and an international star. His long and varied career marks him as one of the key figures in the development of blues music in the 20th century.

Broonzy copyrighted more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including both adaptations of traditional folk songs and original blues songs. As a blues composer, he was unique in that his compositions reflected the many vantage points of his rural-to-urban experiences.[1]

Life and career

Early years

Born Lee Conley Bradley,[2] "Big Bill" was one of Frank Broonzy (Bradley) and Mittie Belcher's 17 children. His birth site and date are disputed. While he claimed birth in Scott, Mississippi, an entire body of emerging research compiled by blues historian Robert Reisman suggests that Broonzy was actually born in Jefferson County, Arkansas. Broonzy claimed he was born in 1893 and many sources report that year, but after his death, family records suggested that the year was actually 1903.[3] Soon after his birth the family moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where Bill spent his youth. He began playing music at an early age. At the age of 10 he made himself a fiddle from a cigar box and learned how to play spirituals and folk songs from his uncle, Jerry Belcher. He and a friend named Louis Carter, who played a homemade guitar, began performing at social and church functions.[4] These early performances included playing at "two-stages": picnics where whites danced on one side of the stage and blacks on the other.[5]

On the understanding that he was born in 1898 rather than earlier or later, sources suggest that in 1915, 17-year-old Broonzy was married and working as a sharecropper. He had decided to give up the fiddle and become a preacher. There is a story that he was offered $50 and a new violin if he would play four days at a local venue. Before he could respond to the offer, his wife took the money and spent it, so he had to play. In 1916 his crop and stock were wiped out by drought. Broonzy went to work locally until he was drafted into the Army in 1917.[6] Broonzy served two years in Europe during the first world war. Then after his discharge from the Army in 1919, Broonzy returned to Pine Bluff, Arkansas where he is reported to have been called a racial epithet and told by a white man he knew before the war that he needed to "hurry up and get his soldier uniform off and put on some overalls." He immediately left Pine Bluff and moved to the Little Rock area but a year later in 1920 moved north to Chicago in search of opportunity.[7]

1920s

After arriving in Chicago, Broonzy made the switch to guitar. He learned guitar from minstrel and medicine show veteran Papa Charlie Jackson, who began recording for Paramount Records in 1924.[8] Through the 1920s Broonzy worked a string of odd jobs, including Pullman porter, cook, foundry worker and custodian, to supplement his income, but his main interest was music. He played regularly at rent parties and social gatherings, steadily improving his guitar playing. During this time he wrote one of his signature tunes, a solo guitar piece called "Saturday Night Rub".[5]

Thanks to his association with Jackson, Broonzy was able to get an audition with Paramount executive J. Mayo Williams. His initial test recordings, made with his friend John Thomas on vocals, were rejected, but Broonzy persisted, and his second try, a few months later, was more successful. His first record, "Big Bill's Blues" backed with "House Rent Stomp", credited to "Big Bill and Thomps" (Paramount 12656), was released in 1927. Although the recording was not well-received, Paramount retained their new talent and the next few years saw more releases by "Big Bill and Thomps". The records continued to sell poorly. Reviewers considered his style immature and derivative.[9]

1930s

In 1930, Paramount for the first time used Broonzy's full name on a recording, "Station Blues" – albeit misspelled as "Big Bill Broomsley". Record sales continued to be poor, and Broonzy was working at a grocery store. Broonzy was picked up by Lester Melrose, who produced acts for various labels including Champion and Gennett Records. He recorded several sides which were released in the spring of 1931 under the name "Big Bill Johnson".[10] In March 1932 he traveled to New York City and began recording for the American Record Corporation on their line of less expensive labels (Melotone, Perfect Records, et al.).[5] These recordings sold better and Broonzy was becoming better known. Back in Chicago he was working regularly in South Side clubs, and even toured with Memphis Minnie.[11]

In 1934 Broonzy moved to Bluebird Records and began recording with pianist Bob "Black Bob" Call. His fortunes soon improved. With Call his music was evolving to a stronger R&B sound, and his singing sounded more assured and personal. In 1937, he began playing with pianist Joshua Altheimer, recording and performing using a small instrumental group, including "traps" (drums) and double bass as well as one or more melody instruments (horns and/or harmonica). In March 1938 he began recording for Vocalion Records.[12]

Broonzy's reputation grew and in 1938 he was asked to fill in for the recently deceased Robert Johnson at the John H. Hammond-produced From Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall. He also appeared in the 1939 concert at the same venue.[13] His success led him in this same year to a small role in Swingin' the Dream, Gilbert Seldes's jazz adaptation of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, set in 1890 New Orleans and featuring, among others, Louis Armstrong as Bottom and Maxine Sullivan as Titania, with the Benny Goodman sextet.

Broonzy's own recorded output through the 1930s only partially reflects his importance to the Chicago blues scene. His half-brother, Washboard Sam, and close friends, Jazz Gillum, and Tampa Red, also recorded for Bluebird. Broonzy was credited as composer on many of their most popular recordings of that time. He reportedly played guitar on most of Washboard Sam's tracks. Due to his exclusive arrangements with his own record label, Broonzy was always careful to have his name only appear on these artists' records as "composer".[12]

1940s

Broonzy expanded his work during this period as he honed his song writing skills which showed a knack for appealing to his more sophisticated city audience as well as people that shared his country roots. His work in this period shows he performed across a wider musical spectrum than almost any other bluesman before or since including ragtime, hokum blues, country blues, city blues, jazz tinged songs, folk songs and spirituals. After World War II, Broonzy recorded songs that were the bridge that allowed many younger musicians to cross over to the future of the blues: the electric blues of post war Chicago. His 1945 recordings of "Where the Blues Began" with Big Maceo on piano and Buster Bennett on sax, or "Martha Blues" with Memphis Slim on piano, clearly show the way forward. One of his best-known songs, "Key to the Highway", appeared at this time. When the second American Federation of Musicians strike ended in 1948, Broonzy was picked up by the Mercury label[14]

In 1949, Broonzy became part of a touring folk music revue formed by Win Stracke called I Come for to Sing, which also included Studs Terkel and Lawrence Lane. Terkel called him the key figure in this group. The revue had some success thanks to the emerging folk revival movement. When the revue played Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, Broonzy met a local couple, Prof. Leonard and Lillian Feinberg, who would find him a custodial job at ISU when a doctor ordered Bill to leave the road for his health later in 1949. He remained in Ames until 1951, then resumed touring. [15]

1950s

Big Bill Broonzy EP Cover 1956 (Melodisc EPM7-65). Released in the UK this EP carried an advert for his autobiography Big Bill Blues.

After returning to the road, the exposure from I Come For to Sing made it possible for Broonzy to tour Europe in 1951. Here Bill was greeted with standing ovations and critical praise wherever he played. The tour marked a turning point in his fortunes, and when he returned to the United States he was a featured act with many prominent folk artists such as Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. From 1953 on his financial position became more secure and he was able to live quite well on his music earnings. Broonzy returned to his solo folk-blues roots, and travelled and recorded extensively.[14] Broonzy's numerous performances during the 1950s in the UK, and in particular at folk clubs in London and Edinburgh, were influential in the nascent British folk revival, with many British musicians on the folk scene, such as Bert Jansch, citing him as an important influence.[16]

While in the Netherlands, Broonzy met and fell in love with a Dutch girl, Pim van Isveldt. Together they had a child named Michael who still lives in Amsterdam.[17][18]

In 1953, Dr. Vera (King) Morkovin and Studs Terkel took Broonzy to Circle Pines Center, a cooperative year-round camp in Hastings, Michigan, where he was employed as the summer camp cook. He worked there in the summer from '53–'56. On July 4, 1954, Pete Seeger travelled to Circle Pines and gave a concert with Bill on the farmhouse lawn, which was recorded by Seeger for the new fine arts radio station in Chicago, WFMT-FM.[19]

In 1955, with the assistance of Belgian writer Yannick Bruynoghe, Broonzy published his autobiography, entitled Big Bill Blues.[13] He toured worldwide to Africa, South America, the Pacific region and across Europe into early 1956. In 1957 Broonzy was one of the founding faculty members of the Old Town School of Folk Music. At the school's opening night on December 1, he taught a class "The Glory of Love".[20]

By 1958 Broonzy was suffering from the effects of throat cancer. He died on August 14 or 15, 1958 (sources vary on the precise date), and is buried in Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, Illinois.[21]

Style and influence

Broonzy's own influences included the folk music, spirituals, work songs, ragtime music, hokum and country blues he heard growing up, and the styles of his contemporaries, including Jimmie Rodgers, Blind Blake, Son House, and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Broonzy combined all these influences into his own style of the blues that foreshadowed the post-war Chicago blues sound, later refined and popularized by artists such as Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon.[13]

Although he had been a pioneer of the Chicago blues style and had employed electric instruments as early as 1942, his new, white audiences wanted to hear him playing his earliest songs accompanied only by his own acoustic guitar, since this was considered to be more "authentic".

A considerable part of his early ARC/CBS recordings have been reissued in anthology collections by CBS-Sony, and other earlier recordings have been collected on blues reissue labels, as have his later European and Chicago recordings of the 1950s. The Smithsonian's Folkways Records has also released several albums featuring Big Bill Broonzy.

In 1980, he was inducted into the first class of the Blues Hall of Fame along with 20 other of the world's greatest blues legends. In 2007, he was inducted into the first class of the Gennett Records Walk of Fame along with 11 other musical greats including Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Gene Autry, Lawrence Welk and others.

Broonzy as an acoustic guitar player, inspired Muddy Waters, Memphis Slim, Ray Davies, John Renbourn, Rory Gallagher,[22] Ben Taylor,[23] and Steve Howe[24]

In Q Magazine (September 2007) it is reported that Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones claims that Bill Broonzy's track, "Guitar Shuffle", is his favorite guitar music. Wood said, "It was one of the first tracks I learnt to play, but even to this day I can't play it exactly right."

Eric Clapton has cited Bill Broonzy as a major inspiration: Broonzy "became like a role model for me, in terms of how to play the acoustic guitar."[25]

Broonzy's influence on roots rockers The Blasters is apparent. In 2014, The Blasters' founders Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin, as a duo, released the album Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy. Says Dave, "We're brothers, we argue sometimes, but one thing we never argue about is Big Bill Broonzy."[26]

During the benediction at the 2009 inauguration ceremony of President Barack Obama, the civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery paraphrased Broonzy's song "Black, Brown and White Blues".[27]

Good Liquor Gonna Carry Me Down
Big Bill Broonzy playing "Good Liquor Gonna Carry Me Down"
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Discography

Between 1927 and 1942, Broonzy recorded 224 songs, making him the second most prolific blues recording artist during that period.[28] These were released before blues records were tracked by recording industry trade magazines. By the time Billboard instituted the first of its "race music" charts in October 1942, Broonzy's recordings were less popular and none appeared in the charts.[29]

Selected singles

Many of Broonzy's singles were issued by more than one record company, sometimes under different names. Additional versions of some songs were also released. These are marked with a "+".

Date Title Label & Cat. no. Comments
1927 "Big Bill's Blues" Paramount 12656+ as Big Bill and Thomps
"House Rent Stomp" Paramount 12656 as Big Bill and Thomps
1930 "Station Blues" Paramount 13084 as Big Bill Broomsley
"Saturday Night Rub" Perfect 147+ as Famous Hokum Boys
"I Can't Be Satisfied" Perfect 157 as Sammy Sampson
1932 "Mistreatin' Mama" Champion 16396+ as Big Bill Johnson
1934 "At the Break of Day" Bluebird 5571+
"C. C. Rider" Melotone 13311+
1935 "Midnight Special" Vocalion 3004 as State Street Boys
"Bricks In My Pillow" ARC 6–03–62
1936 "Matchbox Blues" ARC 6–05–56+
1937 "Mean Old World" Melotone 7–07–64+
1937 "Louise Louise Blues" Vocalion 3075+
1938 "New Shake 'Em on Down" Vocalion 4149+ electric guitar by George Barnes
"Night Time Is the Right Time No. 2" Vocalion 4149+ electric guitar by George Barnes
1939 "Just a Dream" Vocalion 4706+
"Too Many Drivers" Vocalion 5096
1940 "You Better Cut That Out" Okeh 5919
"Lonesome Road Blues" Okeh 6031
"Rockin' Chair Blues" Okeh 6116+
1941 "All By Myself" Okeh 6427+
"Key to the Highway" Okeh 6242+
"Wee Wee Hours" Okeh 6552
"I Feel So Good" Okeh 6688+
1942 "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town" Okeh 6651 as Big Bill & His Chicago 5
1951 "Hey Hey" Mercury 8271

Big Bill Broonzy also appeared as a sideman on recordings by Lil Green, Sonny Boy Williamson I, Washboard Sam, and Jazz Gillum.[30]

Albums

  • Big Bill Broonzy and Washboard Sam (1953)
  • Big Bill Broonzy and Roosevelt Sykes DVD (1956)
  • "His Story" (Folkways Records) 1957[31]
  • "Blues with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee" (Folkways Records) 1959
  • "Big Bill Broonzy Sings Folk Songs" (Smithsonian Folkways) 1989
  • Best of the Blues Tradition (1991)
  • Do That Guitar Rag (1928–1935) (1991)
  • "Trouble In Mind" (Smithsonian Folkways) 2000
  • Broonzy Volume 2: 1945–1949: The Post War Years (2000)
  • Big Bill Broonzy In Concert (2002)
  • Big Bill Broonzy On Tour In Britain: Live In England & Scotland (2002)
  • Big Bill Blues: His 23 Greatest Songs 1927–42 (2004)
  • Get Back (2004)
  • Big Bill Amsterdam Live Concerts 1953 (2006)
  • Keys to the Blues (2009)

References

  1. ^ Barlow, William. "Looking Up At Down": The Emergence of Blues Culture. Temple University Press (1989), pp. 301–03. ISBN 0-87722-583-4.
  2. ^ Riesman, Robert (2011). I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy. University of Chicago Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-226-71745-6. Retrieved November 18, 2011. His full given name was most likely Lee Conley Bradley.
  3. ^ Stambler, Irwin; Grelun Landon (1983). The Encyclopedia of Folk, Country & Western Music. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 73. ISBN 0-312-24818-0.
  4. ^ Encyclopedia of Arkansas entry
  5. ^ a b c Stambler, p. 74
  6. ^ Charters, Samual B. (1960). The Country Blues. London: Michael Joseph Ltd. p. 117.
  7. ^ Stambler, p. 73
  8. ^ Dahl, Bill; Liner notes to the CD Blues Is My Business, Fuel 2000 records, 2003.
  9. ^ Charters; pp. 117–18
  10. ^ Charters; pg. 118.
  11. ^ center stage.net website
  12. ^ a b Charters; p. 120
  13. ^ a b c Encyclopedia of Arkansas, ibid.
  14. ^ a b Stambler, p. 75
  15. ^ Big Bill Broonzy Redux. Retrieved 21 August 2014
  16. ^ Harper, Colin (2006) Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival, Bloomsbury
  17. ^ Big Bill In Europe
  18. ^ [Liner notes to Amsterdam Live Concerts 1953(2006), Munich Records]
  19. ^ American Folklife Center Tape Collection, AFS 14,172–14,175 Mississippi Folk Music Collection, recorded 1956. Retrieved on June 6, 2008
  20. ^ Old Town School history
  21. ^ Clint Stoutenour, 'Big Bill Broonzy Grave', deadbluesguys.com (August 21, 2006)
  22. ^ "The Official Rory Gallagher Biography". Official Website. United Kingdom: Copyright Strange Music Ltd. 2009. Retrieved December 18, 2009. [dead link]
  23. ^ Taylor, Ben (2001–2008). "Ben Taylor official website". Iris Records videos. "Cow Cow Yicky Yicky" cover of Leadbelly's song: Copyright Ben Taylor Music. Archived from the original on December 8, 2009. Retrieved December 18, 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ Steve Howe (YES) Interview
  25. ^ "Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Ray Davies And Others Discuss How Big Bill Broonzy Sparked The British Blues-Rock Explosion In Bob Riesman's New Bio 'I Feel So Good' (Out 5/1) @ Top40-Charts.com - Songs & Videos from 49 Top 20 & Top 40 Music Charts from 30 Countries". Top40-charts.com. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  26. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Dave-Alvin/e/B000APWA8A/ref=ac_dtp_sa_bio
  27. ^ Daily KOS website
  28. ^ Wald, Elijah (2004). Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. Harper. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-06-052427-2.
  29. ^ Whitburn, Joel (1988). Top R&B Singles 1942–1988. Record Research, Inc. p. 56. ISBN 0-89820-068-7.
  30. ^ Herzhaft, Gerard (1992). Encyclopedia of the Blues. University of Arkansas Press. p. 39. ISBN 1-55728-252-8.
  31. ^ Big Bill Broonzy Discography at Smithsonian Folkways

Further reading

  • Riesman, Bob. I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy (University of Chicago Press; 2011) ISBN 978-0-226-71745-6 See a website for the book.

External links

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