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In terms of his musical skill, the sheer size of his repertoire, the length and variety of his career and his influence on contemporaries and musicians who would follow, Big Bill Broonzy is among a select few of the most important figures in recorded blues history. Among his hundreds of titles are standards like "All by Myself" and "Key to the Highway." In this country he was instrumental in the growth of the Chicago Blues sound, and his travels abroad rank him as one of the leading blues ambassadors.
Literally born on the banks of the Mississippi, he was one of a family of 17 who learned to fiddle on a homemade instrument. Taught by his uncle, he was performing by age ten at social functions and in church. After brief stints on the pulpit and in the Army, he moved to Chicago where he switched his attention from violin to guitar, playing with elders like Papa Charlie Jackson. Broonzy began his recording career with Paramount in 1927. In the early '30s he waxed some brilliant blues and hokum and worked Chicago and the road with great players like pianist Black Bob, guitarist Will Weldon and Memphis Minnie.
During the Depression years Big Bill Broonzy continued full steam ahead, doing some acrobatic label-hopping (Paramount to Bluebird to Columbia to Okeh!). In addition to solo efforts, he contributed his muscular guitar licks to recordings by Bumble Bee Slim, John Lee (Sonny Boy) Williamson and others who were forging a powerful new Chicago sound.
In 1938, Broonzy was at Carnegie Hall (ostensibly filling in for the fallen Robert Johnson) for John Hammond's revolutionary Sprirtuals to Swing Series. The following year he appeared with Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong in George Seldes's film production Swingin' the Dream. After his initial brush with the East Coast cognoscenti, however, Broonzy spent a good part of the early '40s barnstorming the South with Lil Green's road show or kicking back in Chicago with Memphis Slim.
He continued alternating stints in Chicago and New York with coast-to-coast road work until 1951 when live performances and recording dates overseas earned him considerable notoriety in Europe and led to worldwide touring. Back in the States he recorded for Chess, Columbia and Folkways, working with a spectrum of artists from Blind John Davis to Pete Seeger. In 1955, Big Bill Blues, his life as told to Danish writer Yannick Bruynoghe, was published.
In 1957, after one more British tour, the pace began to catch up with Broonzy. He spent the last year of his life in and out of hospitals and succumbed to cancer in 1958. He survives though; not only in his music, but in the remembrances of people who knew him...from Muddy Waters to Studs Terkel. A gentle giant they say...tough enough to survive the blues world...but not so tough he wouldn't give a struggling young musician the shirt off his back. His music, of course, is absolutely basic to the blues experience, and was celebrated in 1999 with the release of the three-disc retrospective The Bill Broonzy Story.
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Discography:
195? Trouble in Mind [Spotlite]
1951 In Concert [live]
1952 Blues Scepter
1953 Big Bill Broonzy & Washboard Sam
1954 Folk Blues EmArcy
1955 Big Bill Broonzy Sings
1956 In Paris Vogue
1956 Big Bill Broonzy Sings Folk Songs
1957 Country Blues Smithsonian
1957 Historic Concert Recordings [live]
1958 Blues by Broonzy EmArcy
1959 Blues with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee [live]
1961 Last Session, Pt. 2
1961 Last Session, Pt. 3
1964 Remembering Big Bill Broonzy
1967 Big Bill Broonzy
1973 Feelin' Low Down
1986 Lonesome Road Blues
1992 Unissued Test Pressings
1995 Just a Dream Drive
1995 Black, Brown and White
1996 Treat Me Right
2001 I Can't Be Satisfied
2002 Big Bill Broonzy in Concert [live]
2002 On Tour in Britain, 1952: Live in England and Scotland
2003 Remembering...the Greatest Minstrel of the Authentic Blues
2003 Tribute To Big Bill
2003 Blues Is My Business
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