Sonny Boy Williamson II *05.12.1899 or 1912
+25.05.1965
Sonny Boy Williamson II. (* 5. Dezember 1899[1] oder 1912[2] in Glendora, Mississippi; † 25. Mai 1965 in Helena, Arkansas, bürgerlicher Name Aleck/Alex „Rice“ Miller) war ein US-amerikanischer Bluesmusiker.
Sonny Boy Williamson II. war ein unehelicher Sohn von Millie Ford. Er übernahm dann den Nachnamen seines Stiefvaters Jim Miller. Um 1920 brachte er sich selbst das Mundharmonikaspielen bei. Später galt er als einer der inspirierendsten Mundharmonikaspieler des Blues. In den 30er Jahren heiratete er Mary Burnett, die Schwester von Chester Burnett, der sich später Howlin' Wolf nannte. In dieser Zeit spielten die beiden ab und zu zusammen. Ansonsten spielte Williamson ein paar Wochen oder Monate mit Musikern wie Elmore James, Willie Love oder Robert Johnson zusammen. Der wichtigste Partner aus dieser Zeit war allerdings Robert Lockwood, genannt Robert Junior. Sie traten das erste Mal 1931 zusammen auf und tourten ab 1938 zusammen durch die Südstaaten der USA.
Am 19. November 1941 hatte das Duo seinen ersten Auftritt im Radio. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt legte sich Sonny Boy Williamson auch seinen Künstlernamen zu. Da es schon einen bekannten Bluesmusiker namens Sonny Boy Williamson gab, ist er als „Sonny Boy Williamson II.“ bekannt. Im Jahre 1951 nahm er das Stück Eyesight to the blind auf, welches er später in Chicago unter dem Namen Born blind nochmals aufnahm. Dieses Stück findet sich auch auf dem Album Tommy von The Who wieder. In den nächsten vier Jahren nahm er weitere neun Alben auf. Ab 1954 lebte seine Frau in Milwaukee, während er in Chicago mit Tampa Red und in Detroit mit Baby Boy Warren Aufnahmen machte. Später kam er, genauer gesagt sein Vertrag, zu Chess Records. Einen großen Hit hatte Sonny Boy im Jahre 1955 mit Don´t start me talkin. Auf dieser Aufnahme sind auch Musiker wie Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Jimmy Rogers und Fred Below zu hören. Bei Chess traf er auch wieder auf Robert Lockwood, mit dem er die nächsten fünf Jahre weitere Aufnahmen machte. Danach legte er eine Schaffenspause ein.
Am 12. Januar 1963 kehrte Sonny Boy nach einer längeren Pause wieder in die Chess-Studios zurück. Dort entstand der Song Help Me. Die B-Seite Bye bye bird wurde von John Mayall und den Bluesbreakers in ihr Programm aufgenommen. Dank dieses Erfolges ging er auf eine ausgedehnte Tournee durch Europa, wo er unter anderem mit Chris Barber, den Yardbirds, den Animals, Jimmy Page und Brian Auger auftrat. Mit den Yardbirds und den Animals nahm er dabei jeweils ein Live-Album auf. Er musste aber, als sein Visum auslief, wieder in die USA zurückkehren. 1965 reiste Sonny Boy Williamson II. nach Helena, um dort aufzutreten. Während dieses Auftrittes beobachtete sein Gitarrist Robbie Robertson, dass er ständig Blut ins Taschentuch spuckte. Am 25. Mai 1965 wurde er tot in seinem Bett aufgefunden und in Tutwiler, Mississippi, beigesetzt.
Er wurde 1980 posthum in die Blues Hall of Fame aufgenommen.
Alex
or Aleck Miller (né Ford, possibly December 5, 1912[2] – May 24,
1965),[4] known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an
American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.[5] He was an
early and influential amplified-blues harp stylist who recorded
successfully in the 1950s and 1960s. Miller used a variety of names,
including Rice Miller and Little Boy Blue, before settling on Sonny Boy
Williamson, which was also the name of a popular Chicago blues singer
and harmonica player. Later, to distinguish the two, Miller became
widely known as Sonny Boy Williamson II.
He first recorded with Elmore James on "Dust My Broom" and some of his popular songs include "Don't Start Me Talkin'", "Help Me", "Checkin' Up on My Baby", and "Bring It On Home". He toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival and recorded with English rock musicians, including the Yardbirds, the Animals, and Jimmy Page. "Help Me" became a blues standard and many blues and rock artists have recorded his songs.
Biography
Year of birth
Born Alex Ford (pronounced "Aleck") on the Sara Jones Plantation in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, his date and year of birth are a matter of uncertainty. He claimed to have been born on December 5, 1899, but Dr. David Evans, professor of music and an ethnomusicologist at the University of Memphis,[6] claims to have found census record evidence that he was born around 1912, being seven years old on February 2, 1920, the day of the census.[7][8] His gravestone in or near Tutwiler, Mississippi, set up by record company owner Lillian McMurry twelve years after his death, gives his date of birth as March 11, 1908, but has no basis to be recognized as accurate.[9][4]
Early years
He lived and worked with his sharecropper stepfather, Jim Miller, whose last name he soon adopted, and mother, Millie Ford, until the early 1930s. Beginning in the 1930s, he traveled around Mississippi and Arkansas and encountered Big Joe Williams, Elmore James and Robert Lockwood, Jr., also known as Robert Junior Lockwood, who would play guitar on his later Checker Records sides. He was also associated with Robert Johnson during this period. Miller developed his style and raffish stage persona during these years. Willie Dixon recalled seeing Lockwood and Miller playing for tips in Greenville, Mississippi in the 1930s. He entertained audiences with novelties such as inserting one end of the harmonica into his mouth and playing with no hands. At this time he was often known as "Rice" Miller — a childhood nickname stemming from his love of rice and milk[10] — or as Little Boy Blue.[11]
In 1941 Miller was hired to play the King Biscuit Time show, advertising the King Biscuit brand of baking flour on radio station KFFA in Helena, Arkansas with Lockwood. It was at this point that the radio program's sponsor, Max Moore, began billing Miller as Sonny Boy Williamson, apparently in an attempt to capitalize on the fame of the well-known Chicago-based harmonica player and singer Sonny Boy Williamson (birth name John Lee Curtis Williamson, died 1948). Although John Lee Williamson was a major blues star who had already released dozens of successful and widely influential records under the name "Sonny Boy Williamson" from 1937 onward, Aleck Miller would later claim to have been the first to use the name, and some blues scholars believe that Miller's assertion he was born in 1899 was a ruse to convince audiences he was old enough to have used the name before John Lee Williamson, who was born in 1914.
Radio show in Memphis
In 1949, Williamson relocated to West Memphis, Arkansas and lived with his sister and her husband, Howlin' Wolf. (Later, for Checker Records, he did a parody of Howlin' Wolf entitled "Like Wolf".) He started his own KWEM radio show from 1948 to 1950 selling the elixir Hadacol. He brought his King Biscuit musician friends to West Memphis, Elmore James, Houston Stackhouse, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Robert Nighthawk and others to perform on KWEM Radio. In the 1940s Williamson married Mattie Gordon, who remained his wife until his death.[citation needed]
Recording career
Trumpet Records
Williamson's first recording session took place in 1951 for Lillian McMurry of Jackson, Mississippi's Trumpet Records, three years after the death of John Lee Williamson, which for the first time allowed some legitimacy to Miller's carefully worded claim to being "the one and only Sonny Boy Williamson". McMurry later erected Williamson's headstone, near Tutwiler, Mississippi, in 1977.[citation needed]
Checker Records
When Trumpet went bankrupt in 1955, Sonny Boy's recording contract was yielded to its creditors, who sold it to Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. Sonny Boy had begun developing a following in Chicago beginning in 1953, when he appeared there as a member of Elmore James's band. It was during his Chess years that he enjoyed his greatest success and acclaim, recording about 70 songs for Chess subsidiary Checker Records from 1955 to 1964. Sonny Boy's first LP record was titled Down and Out Blues and was released by Checker Records in 1959.
Ace Records
One single, "Boppin' With Sonny" b/w "No Nights By Myself" was released with Ace Records in 1955.[12]
1960s European tours
In the early 1960s he toured Europe several times during the height of the British blues craze backed on a number of occasions by The Authentics (see American Folk Blues Festival), recording with The Yardbirds (see album: Sonny Boy Williamson and The Yardbirds) and The Animals, and appearing on several TV broadcasts throughout Europe. During this time Sonny was quoted as saying of the backing bands who accompanied him, "those British boys want to play the blues real bad, and they do". According to the Led Zeppelin biography Hammer of the Gods, while in England Sonny Boy set his hotel room on fire while trying to cook a rabbit in a coffee percolator. The book also maintains that future Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant purloined one of the bluesman's harmonicas at one of these shows as well. Robert Palmer's "Deep Blues" mentions that during this tour he allegedly stabbed a man during a street fight and left the country abruptly.[citation needed]
Sonny Boy took a liking to the European fans, and while there had a custom-made, two-tone suit tailored personally for him, along with a bowler hat, matching umbrella, and an attaché case for his harmonicas. He appears credited as "Big Skol" on Roland Kirk's live album Kirk in Copenhagen (1963).[13] One of his final recordings from England, in 1964, featured him singing "I'm Trying To Make London My Home" with Hubert Sumlin providing the guitar.
Death
Upon his return to the U.S., he resumed playing the King Biscuit Time show on KFFA, and performed in the Helena, Arkansas area. As fellow musicians Houston Stackhouse and Peck Curtis waited at the KFFA studios for Williamson on May 25, 1965, the 12:15 broadcast time was closing in and Sonny Boy was nowhere in sight. Peck left the radio station to locate Williamson, and discovered his body in bed at the rooming house where he had been staying, dead of an apparent heart attack suffered in his sleep the night before. Williamson is buried on New Africa Road, just outside Tutwiler, Mississippi at the site of the former Whitman Chapel cemetery. His headstone was provided by Mrs. Lillian McMurry, owner of Trumpet Records; the death date shown on the stone is incorrect.[4]
Name issues
The recordings made by John Lee Williamson between 1937 and his death in 1948, and those made later by "Rice" Miller, were all originally issued under the name Sonny Boy Williamson. It is believed that Miller adopted the name to suggest to audiences, and his first record label, that he was the "original" Sonny Boy.[14] In order to differentiate between the two musicians, many later scholars and biographers now refer to Williamson (1914-1948) as "Sonny Boy Williamson I", and Miller (c.1912-1965) as "Sonny Boy Williamson II".
He first recorded with Elmore James on "Dust My Broom" and some of his popular songs include "Don't Start Me Talkin'", "Help Me", "Checkin' Up on My Baby", and "Bring It On Home". He toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival and recorded with English rock musicians, including the Yardbirds, the Animals, and Jimmy Page. "Help Me" became a blues standard and many blues and rock artists have recorded his songs.
Biography
Year of birth
Born Alex Ford (pronounced "Aleck") on the Sara Jones Plantation in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, his date and year of birth are a matter of uncertainty. He claimed to have been born on December 5, 1899, but Dr. David Evans, professor of music and an ethnomusicologist at the University of Memphis,[6] claims to have found census record evidence that he was born around 1912, being seven years old on February 2, 1920, the day of the census.[7][8] His gravestone in or near Tutwiler, Mississippi, set up by record company owner Lillian McMurry twelve years after his death, gives his date of birth as March 11, 1908, but has no basis to be recognized as accurate.[9][4]
Early years
He lived and worked with his sharecropper stepfather, Jim Miller, whose last name he soon adopted, and mother, Millie Ford, until the early 1930s. Beginning in the 1930s, he traveled around Mississippi and Arkansas and encountered Big Joe Williams, Elmore James and Robert Lockwood, Jr., also known as Robert Junior Lockwood, who would play guitar on his later Checker Records sides. He was also associated with Robert Johnson during this period. Miller developed his style and raffish stage persona during these years. Willie Dixon recalled seeing Lockwood and Miller playing for tips in Greenville, Mississippi in the 1930s. He entertained audiences with novelties such as inserting one end of the harmonica into his mouth and playing with no hands. At this time he was often known as "Rice" Miller — a childhood nickname stemming from his love of rice and milk[10] — or as Little Boy Blue.[11]
In 1941 Miller was hired to play the King Biscuit Time show, advertising the King Biscuit brand of baking flour on radio station KFFA in Helena, Arkansas with Lockwood. It was at this point that the radio program's sponsor, Max Moore, began billing Miller as Sonny Boy Williamson, apparently in an attempt to capitalize on the fame of the well-known Chicago-based harmonica player and singer Sonny Boy Williamson (birth name John Lee Curtis Williamson, died 1948). Although John Lee Williamson was a major blues star who had already released dozens of successful and widely influential records under the name "Sonny Boy Williamson" from 1937 onward, Aleck Miller would later claim to have been the first to use the name, and some blues scholars believe that Miller's assertion he was born in 1899 was a ruse to convince audiences he was old enough to have used the name before John Lee Williamson, who was born in 1914.
Radio show in Memphis
In 1949, Williamson relocated to West Memphis, Arkansas and lived with his sister and her husband, Howlin' Wolf. (Later, for Checker Records, he did a parody of Howlin' Wolf entitled "Like Wolf".) He started his own KWEM radio show from 1948 to 1950 selling the elixir Hadacol. He brought his King Biscuit musician friends to West Memphis, Elmore James, Houston Stackhouse, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Robert Nighthawk and others to perform on KWEM Radio. In the 1940s Williamson married Mattie Gordon, who remained his wife until his death.[citation needed]
Recording career
Trumpet Records
Williamson's first recording session took place in 1951 for Lillian McMurry of Jackson, Mississippi's Trumpet Records, three years after the death of John Lee Williamson, which for the first time allowed some legitimacy to Miller's carefully worded claim to being "the one and only Sonny Boy Williamson". McMurry later erected Williamson's headstone, near Tutwiler, Mississippi, in 1977.[citation needed]
Checker Records
When Trumpet went bankrupt in 1955, Sonny Boy's recording contract was yielded to its creditors, who sold it to Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. Sonny Boy had begun developing a following in Chicago beginning in 1953, when he appeared there as a member of Elmore James's band. It was during his Chess years that he enjoyed his greatest success and acclaim, recording about 70 songs for Chess subsidiary Checker Records from 1955 to 1964. Sonny Boy's first LP record was titled Down and Out Blues and was released by Checker Records in 1959.
Ace Records
One single, "Boppin' With Sonny" b/w "No Nights By Myself" was released with Ace Records in 1955.[12]
1960s European tours
In the early 1960s he toured Europe several times during the height of the British blues craze backed on a number of occasions by The Authentics (see American Folk Blues Festival), recording with The Yardbirds (see album: Sonny Boy Williamson and The Yardbirds) and The Animals, and appearing on several TV broadcasts throughout Europe. During this time Sonny was quoted as saying of the backing bands who accompanied him, "those British boys want to play the blues real bad, and they do". According to the Led Zeppelin biography Hammer of the Gods, while in England Sonny Boy set his hotel room on fire while trying to cook a rabbit in a coffee percolator. The book also maintains that future Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant purloined one of the bluesman's harmonicas at one of these shows as well. Robert Palmer's "Deep Blues" mentions that during this tour he allegedly stabbed a man during a street fight and left the country abruptly.[citation needed]
Sonny Boy took a liking to the European fans, and while there had a custom-made, two-tone suit tailored personally for him, along with a bowler hat, matching umbrella, and an attaché case for his harmonicas. He appears credited as "Big Skol" on Roland Kirk's live album Kirk in Copenhagen (1963).[13] One of his final recordings from England, in 1964, featured him singing "I'm Trying To Make London My Home" with Hubert Sumlin providing the guitar.
Death
Upon his return to the U.S., he resumed playing the King Biscuit Time show on KFFA, and performed in the Helena, Arkansas area. As fellow musicians Houston Stackhouse and Peck Curtis waited at the KFFA studios for Williamson on May 25, 1965, the 12:15 broadcast time was closing in and Sonny Boy was nowhere in sight. Peck left the radio station to locate Williamson, and discovered his body in bed at the rooming house where he had been staying, dead of an apparent heart attack suffered in his sleep the night before. Williamson is buried on New Africa Road, just outside Tutwiler, Mississippi at the site of the former Whitman Chapel cemetery. His headstone was provided by Mrs. Lillian McMurry, owner of Trumpet Records; the death date shown on the stone is incorrect.[4]
Name issues
The recordings made by John Lee Williamson between 1937 and his death in 1948, and those made later by "Rice" Miller, were all originally issued under the name Sonny Boy Williamson. It is believed that Miller adopted the name to suggest to audiences, and his first record label, that he was the "original" Sonny Boy.[14] In order to differentiate between the two musicians, many later scholars and biographers now refer to Williamson (1914-1948) as "Sonny Boy Williamson I", and Miller (c.1912-1965) as "Sonny Boy Williamson II".
Sonny Boy Williamson - Nine below zero
Sonny Boy Williamson II - Bye Bye Bird
Sonny Boy Williamson Im A Lonely Man
Sonny Boy Williamson- "Bye Bye Bird" 1963 (Reelin' In The Years Archives)
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