BB King "The King of the Blues" 1925-2015
BB King 1925-2015 - A performer of considerable stamina King was above all a showman, and his willingness in later life to temper his music to suit the tastes of a white audience attracted criticism from blues' purists; but such carping overlooked the fact that King was also the articulate guardian of much of the blues' heritage, and that he had raised the form almost single-handedly from its backwater status into the musical mainstream. His own playing, a majestic fusion of blues and jazz styles that brought him the nickname "King of the Blues", also had a profound effect on the development of modern rock music. Great performer:BB King The son of a sharecropper, he was born Riley King on a plantation near Indianola, Mississippi, on September 16, 1925. His parents separated when he was four, and his mother married twice more before dying when Riley was nine, leaving ...