Arthur Blake (1896 – December 1, 1934), known as Blind Blake, was an American
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
and
ragtime
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its Syncopation, syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers ...
singer and guitarist. He is known for recordings he made for
Paramount Records
Paramount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey, Tommy Johnson (guitarist), Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Early years
Paramoun ...
between 1926 and 1932.
Early life
Little is known of Blake's life. Promotional materials from
Paramount Records
Paramount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey, Tommy Johnson (guitarist), Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Early years
Paramoun ...
indicate he was born blind and gave his birthplace as
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...
, and it seems that he lived there during various periods. He may have had relatives in
Patterson, Georgia. Some authors have written that in one recording he slipped into a
Geechee (Gullah) dialect, suggesting a connection with the
Sea Islands
The Sea Islands are a chain of over a hundred tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the Southeastern United States, between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns rivers along South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The la ...
.
Blind Willie McTell
Blind Willie McTell (born William Samuel McTier; May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959) was an American Piedmont blues and ragtime singer, songwriter and guitarist. He played in a fluid, syncopated finger picking guitar style common among many Eas ...
indicated that Blake's real name was Arthur Phelps, but later research has shown this is unlikely to be correct.
[Balfour, Alan. CD liner notes. ''Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order'', vol. 4, ''August 1929 to June 1932''. DOCD–5027. Document Records, 1991.] In 2011, a group of researchers led by Alex van der Tuuk published various documents regarding Blake's life and death in the journal ''Blues & Rhythm''. One of these documents is his 1934 death certificate, which states he was born in 1896 in
Newport News, Virginia
Newport News () is an Independent city (United States), independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the List of c ...
, to Winter and Alice Blake (his mother's name is followed by a question mark).
Nothing else is known of Blake until the 1920s, when he emerged as a recording musician.
Career
Blake recorded about 80 tracks for
Paramount Records
Paramount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey, Tommy Johnson (guitarist), Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Early years
Paramoun ...
from 1926 to 1932.
He was one of the most accomplished guitarists of his genre and played a diverse range of material.
He is best known for his distinctive guitar playing, which was comparable in sound and style to
ragtime
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its Syncopation, syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers ...
piano.
He may have lived in Jacksonville, going to
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
for his recording sessions. According to van der Tuuk et al., he returned to Florida for the winter. In the 1930s he was reported to be playing in front of a Jacksonville hotel.
Music
Blake's first recordings were made in 1926,
and his records sold well. His first solo record was "Early Morning Blues", with "West Coast Blues" on the
B-side. Both are considered excellent examples of his ragtime-based guitar style and were prototypes for the burgeoning
Piedmont blues. Blake made his last recordings in 1932; his career ended with Paramount's bankruptcy.
Stefan Grossman and Gayle Dean Wardlow have suggested it is possible that only one side of Blake's last record is actually by him; Champagne Charlie Is My Name' does not sound like Blake's playing or singing."
His complex and intricate fingerpicking inspired
Reverend Gary Davis,
Jorma Kaukonen,
Ry Cooder,
Arlen Roth,
John Fahey,
Ralph McTell, David Bromberg,
Leon Redbone and many others.
Big Bill Broonzy, hearing Blake in person in the early 1920s, said of his guitar playing "He made it sound like every instrument in the band- saxophone, trombone, clarinets, bass fiddles, pianos- everything. I never had seed then and I haven't to this day yet seed no one that could take his natural fingers and pick as much guitar as Blind Blake."
The track "You Gonna Quit Me" from
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
's 1992 album ''
Good as I Been to You'' is a cover of Blind Blake's "You Gonna Quit Me Blues."
Personal life
Blake married Beatrice McGee around 1931. In the following year he made his final recording at the Paramount headquarters, in
Grafton, Wisconsin, just before the label went out of business.
Death
For decades nothing was known of him after this point, and it was rumored that he met with a violent death.
Reverend Gary Davis heard he had been hit by a
streetcar
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
in 1934 and
Big Bill Broonzy thought that he had frozen to death after falling over drunk during a Chicago blizzard and was too overweight to get back up.
[Lomax, Alan. ''The Land Where The Blues Began'', Minerva, 1993] The research of van der Tuuk et al. suggests that Blake stayed in Wisconsin, living in
Milwaukee
Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...
's
Brewer's Hill neighborhood, where Paramount boarded many of its artists. He seems not to have found work as a musician. In April 1933, he was hospitalized with
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
and never fully recovered. On December 1, 1934, after three weeks of decline, Beatrice Blake summoned an ambulance. He had a
pulmonary hemorrhage and died on the way to the hospital. The cause of death was listed as
pulmonary tuberculosis. He was buried in Glen Oaks Cemetery, in
Glendale, Wisconsin in a previously unmarked grave.
Compilations
* ''The Legendary Blind Blake'' (Ristic, 1958)
* ''Blues in Chicago'' (
Riverside, 1964)
* ''Guitar and Vocal'' (Jazz Collector, 1968)
* ''Bootleg Rum Dum Blues 1926–1930'' (
Biograph, 1968)
* ''Search Warrant Blues 1926–32'' (Biograph, 1970)
* ''No Dough Blues 1926–29'' (Biograph, 1971)
* ''That Lovin' I Crave'' (Biograph, 1974)
* ''Ragtime Guitar's Foremost Fingerpicker'' (DLP, 1984)
* ''Blind Blake 1926–29'' (Matchbox, 1986)
* ''The Accompanist (1926–1931)'' (Wolf, 1989)
* ''Complete Recorded Works'', vols. 1–4 (
Document
A document is a writing, written, drawing, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of nonfiction, non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ', which denotes ...
, 1991)
* ''The Master of Ragtime Guitar, The Essential Recordings'' (Indigo, 1996)
* ''Georgie Bound'' (Catfish, 1999)
* ''The Best of Blind Blake'' (
Yazoo, 2000)
* ''The Essential Blind Blake'' (Document, 2002)
* ''All the Published Sides'' (
JSP, 2003)
* ''Blind Blake'' (
Black Swan
The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large Anatidae, waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent ...
, 2004)
* ''The Best of Blind Blake'' (
Collectables, 2006)
* ''Southern Rag'' (Snapper, 2008)
* ''The Complete Recordings'' (
P-Vine, 2008)
* ''The Best of Blind Blake'' (P-Vine, 2008)
* ''No Dough Blues'' (Pristine, 2009)
* ''Back Biting Bee Blues'' (Monk, 2009)
* ''True Revolution'' (KRG, 2011)
* ''The Rough Guide to Blues Legends: Blind Blake'' (
World Music Network, 2013)
In literature
Blake figures in the plot of
Lee Child's first
Jack Reacher novel, ''
Killing Floor'' (1997), and there are references to him in Child's 2011
prequel, ''
The Affair''. Reference to Blake is made again in ''
The Sentinel'' (2020), written by Lee Child and his brother
Andrew Child, when Jack Reacher is on the lookout for venues in Nashville, 'where Blind Blake could have played'.
Blake's original recording of "Diddy Wah Diddy" is referenced on the cover of
Robert Crumb's ''
Zap Comix
''Zap Comix'' is an underground comix series which was originally part of the Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the late 1960s. While a few small-circulation self-published satirical comic books had been printed prior to this, ''Zap' ...
'' #1.
In television
"Blind Blake" and his song "Police Dog Blues" appear in ''
Reacher'', Season 1, the TV series based on Lee Child's novel, ''Killing Floor''. The main character Jack Reacher (a blues lover) arrives at the fictional town of Margrave, Georgia looking for some trace of Blake.
References
External links
Illustrated Blind Blake discography*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Blind
1896 births
1934 deaths
20th-century African-American male singers
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Piedmont blues musicians
Country blues musicians
Chicago blues musicians
American ragtime musicians
Songster musicians
Country blues singers
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
Tuberculosis deaths in Wisconsin
Blind musicians
Paramount Records artists
Musicians from Jacksonville, Florida
Guitarists from Florida
Guitarists from Illinois
African-American guitarists
American blind people
American musicians with disabilities