Earl Zebedee Hooker (January 15, 1930 – April 21, 1970)
was a
Chicago blues
Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but is performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of African Americans of the fi ...
guitarist known for his
slide guitar
Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...
playing. Considered a "musician's musician", he performed with blues artists such as
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Alex or Aleck Miller (originally Ford, possibly December 5, 1912 – May 24, 1965), known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp s ...
,
Junior Wells
Junior Wells (born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr.; December 9, 1934January 15, 1998) was an American singer, harmonica player, and recording artist. He is best known for his signature song " Messin' with the Kid" and his 1965 album '' Hoodoo Man Blues ...
, and
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...
and fronted his own bands. An early player of the electric guitar, Hooker was influenced by the modern urban styles of
T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''R ...
and
Robert Nighthawk
Robert Lee McCollum (November 30, 1909 – November 5, 1967) was an American blues musician who played and recorded under the pseudonyms Robert Lee McCoy and Robert Nighthawk. He was the father of the blues musician Sam Carr. Nighthawk was ind ...
. He recorded several singles and albums as a bandleader and with other well-known artists. His "Blue Guitar", a slide guitar instrumental single, was popular in the Chicago area and was later overdubbed with vocals by
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of moder ...
as "
You Shook Me".
In the late 1960s, Hooker began performing on the college and concert circuit and had several recording contracts. Just as his career was on an upswing, he died in 1970, at age 40, after a lifelong struggle with tuberculosis. His guitar playing has been acknowledged by many of his peers, including
B.B. King
Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, sh ...
, who commented, "to me he is the best of modern guitarists. Period. With the slide he was the best. It was nobody else like him, he was just one of a kind".
Early life
Hooker was born in rural
Quitman County, Mississippi
Quitman County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,176, making it the third-least populous county in Mississippi. Its county seat is Marks. The county is named after John A. Quitm ...
,
outside of
Clarksdale. In 1930, his parents moved the family to Chicago, during the
Great Migration of blacks out of the rural South in the early 20th century.
His family was musically inclined (
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...
was a cousin), and Earl heard music played at home at an early age. About age ten, he started playing the guitar. He was self-taught and picked up what he could from those around him. He developed proficiency on the guitar but showed no interest in singing. He had pronounced stuttering, which afflicted him all his life. Hooker contracted
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
when he was young. The disease did not become critical until the mid-1950s, but it required periodic hospitalizations, beginning at an early age.
By 1942, when he was 12, Hooker was performing on Chicago street corners with childhood friends, including
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist and singer who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, including Buddy ...
. From the beginning, the blues was Hooker's favorite music. In this period,
country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...
-influenced blues was giving way to
swing-influenced and
jump blues
Jump blues is an uptempo style of blues, jazz, and boogie woogie usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues wa ...
styles, which often featured the
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...
. In 1942, the popular guitarist
T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''R ...
began a three-month stint at the
Rhumboogie Club in Chicago. He had considerable impact on Hooker, with both his playing and his showmanship. Walker's swing-influenced blues guitar, including "the jazzy way he would sometimes run the blues scales" and intricate chording, appealed to Hooker. Walker's stage dynamics, which included playing the guitar behind his neck and with his teeth, influenced Hooker's later stage act.
Around this time, Hooker became friends with
Robert Nighthawk
Robert Lee McCollum (November 30, 1909 – November 5, 1967) was an American blues musician who played and recorded under the pseudonyms Robert Lee McCoy and Robert Nighthawk. He was the father of the blues musician Sam Carr. Nighthawk was ind ...
, one of the first guitarists in Chicago to play the electric guitar. Nighthawk taught Hooker slide guitar techniques, including various tunings and his highly articulated approach, and was a lasting influence on Hooker's playing. Also around this time, Hooker met
Junior Wells
Junior Wells (born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr.; December 9, 1934January 15, 1998) was an American singer, harmonica player, and recording artist. He is best known for his signature song " Messin' with the Kid" and his 1965 album '' Hoodoo Man Blues ...
, another important figure in his career. The two were frequent street performers, and sometimes, to avoid foul weather (or truancy officers), they played in streetcars, riding from one line to another across Chicago.
Early career and recordings
Around 1946, Hooker traveled to
Helena, Arkansas
Helena is the eastern portion of Helena–West Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas, located on the west bank of the Mississippi River. It was founded in 1833 by Nicholas Rightor and is named after the daughter of Sylvanus Phil ...
, where he performed with Robert Nighthawk. When he was not booked with Nighthawk, he performed with
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Alex or Aleck Miller (originally Ford, possibly December 5, 1912 – May 24, 1965), known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp s ...
, sometimes on Williamson's popular radio program, ''
King Biscuit Time'', on station
KFFA, in Helena. Hooker toured
the South as a member of Nighthawk's band for the next couple of years. This was his introduction to life as an itinerant blues musician (although he had earlier run away from home and spent time in the
Mississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazo ...
). In 1949, Hooker tried to establish himself in the music scene in
Memphis, Tennessee, but was soon back on the road, fronting his own band. By the early 1950s he had returned to Chicago and was performing regularly in clubs. This set the pattern that he repeated for most of his life: extensive touring with various musicians interspersed with establishing himself in various cities before returning to the Chicago club scene. During this time, he formed a band with the blues drummer and vocalist
Kansas City Red.
In 1952, Hooker began recording for several independent record companies. His early singles were often credited to the vocalist he recorded with, although some
instrumental
An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...
s (and his occasional vocal) were issued in Hooker's name. Songs by Hooker and blues and
R&B artists, including
Johnny O'Neal,
Little Sam Davis,
Boyd Gilmore,
Pinetop Perkins, the
Dells,
Arbee Stidham, Lorenzo Smith, and Harold Tidwell, were recorded for
King
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
, Rockin',
Sun
The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...
,
Argo
In Greek mythology, the ''Argo'' ( ; ) was the ship of Jason and the Argonauts. The ship was built with divine aid, and some ancient sources describe her as the first ship to sail the seas. The ''Argo'' carried the Argonauts on their quest fo ...
,
Vee-Jay
Vee-Jay Records is an American record label founded in the 1950s, located in Chicago and specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll.
The label was founded in Gary, Indiana, in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken, a ...
,
States
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
,
United, and C.J. (several of these recordings, including all of the Sun sessions, were unissued at the time). The harmonica player
Little Arthur Duncan often accompanied Hooker during this period.
Among these early singles was Hooker's first recorded vocal performance, an interpretation of the blues classic "
Black Angel Blues". His vocals were more than adequate but lacked the power usually associated with
blues singers. Hooker's "Sweet Angel" (1953, Rockin' 513) was based on Nighthawk's "Black Angel Blues" (1949) and showed that "Hooker had by now transcended his teacher". (B.B. King later had a hit with his interpretation, "Sweet Little Angel", in 1956.) One of Hooker's most successful singles during this period was "Frog Hop", recorded in 1956 (Argo 5265), an upbeat instrumental in which the influence of T-Bone Walker's swing blues and chording techniques can be heard, but Hooker's own style is also apparent.
Chief, Profile, and Age recordings
Despite a major attack of tuberculosis in 1956, which required hospitalization, Hooker returned to performing in Chicago clubs and touring the South. By late 1959, Junior Wells had brought Hooker to the
Chief–Profile–Age group of labels, with which he began one of the most fruitful periods of his recording career. Their first recording together, "Little by Little" (Profile 4011), was a hit the following year, reaching number 23 on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
''
Hot R&B Sides chart. With this success and his rapport with Chief owner and producer
Mel London, Hooker became Chief's house guitarist. From 1959 to 1963, he appeared on about forty Chief recordings, including singles for Wells, Lillian Offitt,
Magic Sam,
A.C. Reed,
Ricky Allen, Reggie "Guitar" Boyd,
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker, and
Jackie Brenston, as well as singles on which Hooker was the featured artist. He performed for nearly all of Wells's releases, including "Come On in This House", "
Messin' with the Kid", and "
It Hurts Me Too", which remained in Wells's repertoire for the rest of his career. Hooker regularly performed with Wells for the latter part of 1960 and most of 1961.
Hooker released several instrumentals for the Chief labels, including the slow blues "Calling All Blues" (Chief 7020) in 1960, which featured his slide guitar playing, and "Blues in D Natural" (Chief 7016), also in 1960, in which he switched between fretted and slide guitar. A chance taping before a recording session captured perhaps Hooker's best-known composition (although by a different title). During the warm-up preceding a session in May 1961, Hooker and his band played an impromptu slow blues featuring his slide guitar. The tune was played once, and Hooker was apparently not aware that it was being recorded. Producer Mel London saved the tape and, when looking for material to release the following spring, issued it as "Blue Guitar" (Age 29106). "Earl's song sold unusually well for an instrumental blues side", and Chicago-area bluesmen included it in their sets.
Sensing greater commercial potential for Hooker's "Blue Guitar",
Leonard Chess
Leonard Samuel Chess (born Lejzor Szmuel Czyż; March 12, 1917 – October 16, 1969) was a Polish-American record company executive and the founder of Chess Records alongside his brother Phil. He was influential in the development of the recor ...
approached London about using it for the next
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of moder ...
record. An agreement was reached, and in July 1962 Waters
overdubbed
Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more a ...
a vocal (with lyrics by
Willie Dixon
William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he ...
) on Hooker's single. The song, renamed "
You Shook Me", was successful, and Chess hired Hooker to record three more instrumentals for Waters to overdub. One of the songs, "You Need Love", again with lyrics by Dixon, was also a success and "sold better than Muddy's early sixties recordings". The rock band
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...
later achieved greater success with their adaptations of Hooker's and Waters's "You Shook Me" and "You Need Love".
During his time with Chief, Hooker recorded singles as a sideman for Bobby Saxton and
Betty Everett
Betty Jean Everett (November 23, 1939 – August 19, 2001) was an American soul singer and pianist, best known for her biggest hit single, the million-selling " Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)", and her duet " Let It Be Me" with Jerry Butl ...
and in his own name for the Bea & Baby, C.J., and
Checker labels. By 1964, the last of the Chief labels went out of business, ending his longest association with a record label. For some, his recordings for the Chief–Profile–Age group are his best work.
Cuca and Arhoolie recordings
Hooker continued touring and began recording for
Cuca Records, Jim-Ko, C.J., Duplex, and Globe. Several songs recorded for Cuca between 1964 and 1967 were released on his first album, ''The Genius of Earl Hooker''. The album was composed of instrumentals, including the slow blues "The End of the Blues" and some tunes incorporating recent popular music trends, such as the early
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...
-influenced "Two Bugs in a Rug" (an allusion to his tuberculosis, or TB). Hooker experienced a major tuberculosis attack in late summer 1967 and was hospitalized for nearly a year.
When Hooker was released from the hospital in 1968, he assembled a new band and began performing in Chicago clubs and touring, against his doctor's advice. The band, with the pianist
Pinetop Perkins, the harmonica player
Carey Bell, the bassist Geno Skaggs, the vocalist
Andrew Odom
Andrew Odom (December 15, 1936 – December 23, 1991) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues singer and songwriter. Born in Denham Springs, Louisiana, United States, he is best known for the close resemblance of his singing style to tha ...
, and the steel guitar player
Freddie Roulette, was "widely acclaimed" and "considered one of the best Earl had ever carried with him". On the basis of a recommendation from
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaug ...
,
Arhoolie Records
Arhoolie Records is an American small independent record label that was run by Chris Strachwitz and is based in El Cerrito, California, United States (it is actually located in Richmond Annex but has an El Cerrito postal address.) The label was ...
recorded an album, ''Two Bugs and a Roach'', by Hooker and his new band. The album, released in the spring of 1969, included a mix of instrumentals and songs with vocals by Odom, Bell, and Hooker. For one of his vocals, Hooker chose "Anna Lee", a song based on Robert Nighthawk's "Annie Lee Blues" (1949). As he had done earlier with "Sweet Angel", Hooker acknowledged his mentor's influence but went beyond Nighthawk's version to create his own interpretation. The "brilliant
bebop
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...
influenced instrumental "Off the Hook" showed his jazz leanings. ''Two Bugs and a Roach'' was "extremely well-received by critics and the public" and "stands today as
art ofHooker's finest musical legacy."
Blue Thumb and Bluesway recordings
The year 1969 was an important one in Hooker's career. He again teamed with Junior Wells, performing at higher-paying college dates and concerts, including Chicago's
Kinetic Playground. This pairing did not last long, and in May 1969, after assembling new players, Hooker recorded material that was later released as ''Funk: Last of the Late Great Earl Hooker''. Also in May, after being recommended by
Ike Turner
Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. (November 5, 1931 – December 12, 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and ...
(with whom he first toured in 1952), Hooker went to Los Angeles to record the album ''
Sweet Black Angel'' for
Blue Thumb Records, with arrangements and piano accompaniment by Turner. The album included Hooker's interpretations of several blues standards, such as "
Sweet Home Chicago" (with Hooker on vocal), "
Drivin' Wheel", "
Cross Cut Saw", "
Catfish Blues", and the title track. While in Los Angeles, Hooker visited clubs and sat in with
Albert Collins
Albert Gene Collins (October 1, 1932 – November 24, 1993)Skeely, Richard. "Albert Collins: Biography" Allmusic.com. was an American electric blues guitarist and singer with a distinctive guitar style. He was noted for his powerful playing ...
at the
Ash Grove several times and jammed with others, including
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
.
After the Blue Thumb recording session, Hooker and his band backed his cousin John Lee Hooker on a series of club dates in California, after which John Lee used them for a recording session for
Bluesway Records
BluesWay Records was an American subsidiary label of ABC-Paramount Records, begun by Bob Thiele in 1966. Artists such as John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Rushing, Otis Spann, and T-Bone Walker were among those who signed for the label. BluesW ...
. The resulting album, ''John Lee Hooker Featuring Earl Hooker – If You Miss 'Im ... I Got 'Im'', was Earl Hooker's introduction to the Bluesway label, a subsidiary of
ABC and home to B.B. King. He recorded six more albums for Bluesway in 1969: his own ''Don't Have to Worry'' and albums by
Andrew Odom
Andrew Odom (December 15, 1936 – December 23, 1991) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues singer and songwriter. Born in Denham Springs, Louisiana, United States, he is best known for the close resemblance of his singing style to tha ...
, Johnny "Big Moose" Walker,
Charles Brown,
Jimmy Witherspoon
James Witherspoon (August 8, 1920 – September 18, 1997) was an American jump blues and jazz singer.
Early life, family and education
Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. His father was a railroad worker who sang in local choirs, an ...
, and
Brownie McGhee
Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.
Life and career
McGhee was bor ...
and
Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986), known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and occas ...
.
Hooker's ''Don't Have to Worry'' included vocal performances by him and by Walker and Odom, along with instrumental selections. The session had a "coherence and consistency" that helped to make the album another part of Hooker's "finest musical legacy". Touring with his band in California took Hooker to the San Francisco Bay area in July 1969, where he played club and college dates and rock venues, such as
The Matrix
''The Matrix'' is a 1999 science fiction film, science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in the The Matrix (franchise), ''Matrix'' film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ca ...
and the
Fillmore West
The Fillmore West was a historic rock and roll music venue in San Francisco, California, US which became famous under the direction of concert promoter Bill Graham from 1968 to 1971. Named after The Fillmore at the intersection of Fillmore ...
. In Berkeley, he and his band, billed as Earl Hooker and His Chicago Blues Band, performed at a club, Mandrake's, for two weeks as he recorded a second album for Arhoolie. The album, ''Hooker and Steve'', was recorded with Louis Myers on harmonica, Steve Miller on keyboards, Geno Skaggs on bass, and Bobby Robinson on drums. Hooker shared the vocals with Miller and Skaggs.
Last performances
After his California sojourn, Hooker returned to Chicago and performed regularly around the city. He appeared at the first
Chicago Blues Festival
The Chicago Blues Festival is an annual event held in June,
that features three days of performances by top-tier blues musicians, both old favorites and the up-and-coming. It is hosted by the Chicago, Illinois, City of Chicago Department of Cu ...
on August 30, 1969, which attracted about 10,000 people. In October 1969, Hooker toured Europe as part of the
American Folk Blues Festival, playing twenty concerts in twenty-three days in nine countries. His sets were well received and garnered favorable reviews. "The journey overseas was a sort of apotheosis for Hooker, who regarded it, along with his recording trips to California, as the climax of his career." The tour exhausted him, and "his friends noticed a severe deterioration of his health upon his return." Hooker played a few dates around Chicago (including some with Junior Wells) from November to early December 1969, after which he was hospitalized.
Hooker died on April 21, 1970, at age 40, of complications due to tuberculosis. He is interred in
Restvale Cemetery, in the Chicago suburb of
Alsip.
''Earl Hooker, Blues Master''
/ref>
Playing style and recognition
Unlike his contemporaries Elmore James
Elmore James ( Brooks; January 27, 1918 – May 24, 1963) was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader. Noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice, James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ...
and Muddy Waters, Hooker used standard tuning
In music, standard tuning refers to the typical tuning of a string instrument. This notion is contrary to that of scordatura, i.e. an alternate tuning designated to modify either the timbre or technical capabilities of the desired instrument.
Vio ...
on his guitar for slide playing. He used a short steel slide, which allowed him to switch between slide and fretted playing during a song with greater ease. Part of his slide sound has been attributed to his light touch, a technique he learned from Robert Nighthawk. "Instead of using full-chord glissando
In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a wikt:glide, glide from one pitch (music), pitch to another (). It is an Italianized Musical terminology, musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In ...
effects, he preferred the more subtle single-note runs inherited from others who played slide in standard tuning, uch as
Uch (;
), frequently referred to as Uch Sharīf (;
; ''"Noble Uch"''), is a historic city in the Pakistan's Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province. Uch may have been founded as Alexandria on the Indus, a town founded by Alexander the Great during I ...
Tampa Red
Hudson Whittaker (born Hudson Woodbridge; January 8, 1903March 19, 1981), known as Tampa Red, was an American Chicago blues musician.
His distinctive single-string slide guitar style, songwriting and bottleneck technique influenced other Chicago ...
, Houston Stackhouse, and his mentor Robert Nighthawk." In addition to his mastery of slide guitar, Hooker was also a highly developed standard-guitar soloist and rhythm player. At a time when many blues guitarists were emulating B.B. King
Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, sh ...
, Hooker maintained his own course. Although he was a bluesman at heart, he was adept at several musical styles, which he incorporated into his playing as it suited him. Depending on his mood and audience reaction, a Hooker performance could include blues, boogie-woogie, R&B, soul, be-bop, pop, and even a country-western favorite.
Hooker was a flamboyant showman in the style of T-Bone Walker and predated others with a similar approach, such as Guitar Slim and Johnny "Guitar" Watson
John Watson Jr. (February 3, 1935 – May 17, 1996), often known professionally as Johnny "Guitar" Watson, was an American musician. A flamboyant showman and electric guitarist in the style of T-Bone Walker, his recording career spanned 40 year ...
. He wore flashy clothes and picked the guitar with his teeth or his feet or played it behind his neck or between his legs. He also played a double-neck guitar, at first a six-string guitar and four-string bass combination and later a twelve- and six-string combination. After his 1967 tuberculosis attack left him weakened, he sometimes played while seated and used a lighter single-neck guitar. In a genre that typically shunned gadgetry, Hooker was an exception. He experimented with amplification and used echo and tape delay, including "double-tracking his playing during a song, ohe could pick simultaneously two solos in harmony". He began using a wah-wah pedal
A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of effects pedal designed for electric guitar that alters the timbre of the input signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The peda ...
in 1968 to add a vocal-like quality to some of his solos.
Hooker did not receive as much public recognition as some of his contemporaries, but he was highly regarded by musicians. Many consider him among the greatest modern blues guitarists, including Wayne Bennett, Bobby "Blue" Bland
Robert Calvin Bland (born Robert Calvin Brooks; January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer. Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was describ ...
, Albert Collins
Albert Gene Collins (October 1, 1932 – November 24, 1993)Skeely, Richard. "Albert Collins: Biography" Allmusic.com. was an American electric blues guitarist and singer with a distinctive guitar style. He was noted for his powerful playing ...
, Willie Dixon
William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he ...
, Ronnie Earl, Tinsley Ellis, Guitar Shorty, Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaug ...
, John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...
, Albert King
Albert King ( Nelson; April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps best known for his popular and ...
, B.B. King
Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, sh ...
, Little Milton
James Milton Campbell Jr. (September 7, 1934 – August 4, 2005), better known as Little Milton, was an American blues singer and guitarist, best known for his List of number-one R&B singles of 1965 (U.S.), number-one R&B single "We're Gonna Ma ...
, Louis Myers, Lucky Peterson
Judge Kenneth "Lucky" Peterson (December 13, 1964 – May 17, 2020) was an American musician who played contemporary Blues music, blues, fusing soul music, soul, Rhythm and blues, R&B, gospel music, gospel and rock and roll. He was a vocalist, g ...
, Otis Rush, Joe Louis Walker, and Junior Wells
Junior Wells (born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr.; December 9, 1934January 15, 1998) was an American singer, harmonica player, and recording artist. He is best known for his signature song " Messin' with the Kid" and his 1965 album '' Hoodoo Man Blues ...
. In 2013, Hooker was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame
The Blues Hall of Fame is a music museum operated by the Blues Foundation at 421 S. Main Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Initially, the "Blues Hall of Fame" was not a physical building, but a listing of people who have significantly contributed to b ...
, which noted that "Earl Hooker was the 'blues guitarists' guitarist,' the most respected six-string wizard in Chicago blues musicians' circles during the 1950s and '60s."
Partial album discography
The following lists the albums Hooker released during his career and currently available compilations.
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hooker, Earl
1930 births
1970 deaths
African-American guitarists
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
American slide guitarists
Blues musicians from Mississippi
Chicago blues musicians
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
People from Quitman County, Mississippi
20th-century American guitarists
Guitarists from Mississippi
20th-century American male musicians
Arhoolie Records artists
Blue Thumb Records artists
Tuberculosis deaths in Illinois
20th-century African-American musicians