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 most mentioned in older literature and recordings spelling Bukka, which is not a nickname, but goes back to the intonation of his first name in his homeland, was not desired by him and is therefore no longer used in modern literature.
About the year and place of his birth, there are different statements: so are called as date of birth November 12, 1902, 1906 or 1909. The birthplace is given as Houston, Chikasaw or Aberdeen, Mississippi. In addition to Charley Patton, Son House and Robert Johnson, he is one of the most famous musicians of the Delta Blues. A song by Bukka White in 1930 is considered to be named for the Panama Limited Jug Band.
Biography
Booker T. Washington White was born to musical parents. His father was a multi- instrumentalist who plays mandolin, piano, drums and saxophone playing. His mother also had great influence on the musicality of her son. She was the daughter of a preacher, and the singing of hymns was in the household of Whites to the musical standard repertoire.
At age nine, Bukka got his first guitar, a "Stella" gift. His father brought him to the guitar at the first chords. Bukka White met by, nachspielte the songs that he heard on the guitar. An oft-told story says that Bukka gave this guitar to his little cousin Riley Ben King (aka BB King). Later Bukka is almost exclusively seen on image documents with National steel guitar he agreed open and played with a bottleneck.
On May 26, 1930 White made for the label Victor in Memphis his first recordings which were published under his real name Washington White. Until then, he had his musical experiences collected in juke joints and small clubs in St. Louis. The recordings were then commercially not very successful. During the years of economic depression White emigrated to Chicago, where he earned his living as a boxer, among others. In Chicago, he had contact with Memphis Minnie, Tampa Red and Big Bill Broonzy.
In the years 1937 and 1940 Bukka White was taken for his time at Columbia Records owned record label Vocalion under contract. These recordings, the Vocalion and ( after Columbia had in 1940 lost the rights to Vocalion ) Okeh were released on the label, now belong to the classics: Aberdeen Mississippi Blues, Fixin 'to Die, Sic'em Dogs on Me, Bukkas Jitterbug Swing or Parchman Farm.
A large part of the forties White spent after a homicide in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. In the title Parchman Farm Bukka White tells of this prison time. There he met in 1937 at the folklorist Alan Lomax also. Alan Lomax took in the prison camp on the songs of serving prisoners for the Library of Congress, Bukka White was one of them. After his release from the prison camp took him Vocalion, accompanied by Washboard Sam, once again in March 1940, but Bukka White had to find that he therefore could not earn a living because of the country blues was now gone out of fashion. So he took up the profession of Altwarenhändlers.
With the resumption of the title Fixin 'to Die by Bob Dylan on his debut album in 1962, the folk musician John Fahey came - along with his friend Ed Denson - the idea to determine the whereabouts of Bukka White, he had moved to Memphis. The investigations were successful, he met a 53- year-old man, still the it was fun to play the delta blues.
The encounter with Fahey was the new start to a musical career. Bukka White toured both across the USA, as well as part of the American Folk Blues Festival in 1967, 1970 and 1972 to Europe. This success enabled him new recordings with Takoma Records and Sonet.
White died in 1977 in Memphis with cancer. In 1990 it was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.