Leon Blue (September 19, 1931) is an American pianist. He has played with

Ike & Tina Turner Ike & Tina Turner was an American musical duo consisting of husband-and-wife Ike Turner and Tina Turner. From 1960 to 1976, they performed live as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, supported by the Kings of Rhythm and backing vocalists, the Ikettes. ...

Lowell Fulson Lowell Fulson (March 31, 1921March 7, 1999) was an American blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. He also recorded for contractual reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom. After T-Bone Walker, he was the most i ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Roy Milton Roy Bunny Milton (July 31, 1907 – September 18, 1983) was an American R&B and jump blues singer, drummer and bandleader. Career Milton's grandmother was Chickasaw. He was born in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, and grew up on an Indian reservation bef ...

, Little Joe Blue, and many others. Blue also recorded as a member of the Manish Boys.

Life and career

Leon Blue was born the second of four children in

Wichita Falls, Texas Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls metropolitan area, Wichita Falls metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Archer County, Tex ...

on September 19, 1931. At the age of 11, Blue began taking piano lessons with the local piano instructor Miss grimes. After hearing the song "

Honky Tonk Train Blues "Honky Tonk Train Blues" is a song written by Meade Lux Lewis, and first recorded in 1927. A proto boogie-woogie song, it has many of the traits that would come to be identified with rock and roll. It is also the first recorded use of the term ...

" by

Meade Lux Lewis Anderson Meade "Lux" Lewis (September 4, 1905 – June 7, 1964) was an American pianist and composer, remembered for his playing in the boogie-woogie style. His best-known work, " Honky Tonk Train Blues", has been recorded by many artists. Biog ...

, Blues was inspired to play

boogie-woogie Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, but already developed in African-American communities since the 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually ex ...

, which he learned by ear. By the age of 15, Blue was playing gigs with local blues musicians "Big Daddy" Pat and Charles Buck. While still in high school, Blue operated a shoeshine stand at the Trailways bus station. The bus station was across from the Miller Brothers Ballroom, where Blue met

Western swing Western swing, country jazz or smooth country is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which att ...

musician

Bob Wills James Robert "Bob" Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although Spade C ...

. They formed a friendship and Blue played with him every time he came into town. After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School in 1949, Blue attended

Bishop College Bishop College was a historically black college, founded in Marshall, Texas, United States, in 1881 by the Baptist Home Mission Society. It was intended to serve students in east Texas, where the majority of the black population lived at the ...

for two years on a football and baseball scholarship, before he was drafted by the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. He played alongside

Ernie Banks Ernest Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015), nicknamed "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine", was an American professional baseball player who starred in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between ...

with the black baseball team Black Spudders in Wichita Falls. Due to his athletics abilities and musicianship, he was a member of the Special Services. After Blue was discharged from the army, he moved to Los Angeles to live with his sister and played local gigs. His first road gig was with Lowell Fulson, and he spent the next few years working on and off with Roy Milton, Big Jim Wynn, and the

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 ...

Band. Blue's big break came when bandleader Ike Turner saw him around Los Angeles and asked him to join his band, the

Kings of Rhythm Kings of Rhythm are an American music group formed in the late 1940s in Clarksdale, Mississippi and led by Ike Turner through to his death in 2007. Turner would retain the name of the band throughout his career, although the group has undergone c ...

. After Blue did a month-long gig in Alaska, he joined Turner in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

and played his first gig with him in

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, 3rd most populous city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,026 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the most populous city and the county seat of Clevel ...

. Blue played with Turner from 1965 to 1978. "He was the greatest. If you didn't make rehearsal, you didn't make the gig. He had a dress code...It was a professional show all the way," said Blue. Turner also paid well. "He'd pay you $250 per show. If you played more than one show a night, you got paid double." As a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, Blue travelled all over the world. While the revue had a residency in Las Vegas, he met

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

who was performing at the same hotel. Blue tried cocaine once, but it affected his sexual performance and so he decided not to do drugs, which led to his nickname "Country Bumpkin." After his tenure with Turner, Blue worked with Albert King and

. He played with Collins until his death in 1993. Blue played with B.B. King on the road and in the studio, particularly in 2004. He stated that King was his favorite guy to work with. "B.B. was a good guy and started you off at $3,500 a week. if you were off, he paid $1,750 week." In 2004, Blue was featured on the album ''That Represent Man'' as a member of the Mannish Boys. He played with the group for a few years. In the last twenty years, Blue has played blues festivals and performed on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise. In 2012, Blue was inducted into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame. In 2015, Blue appeared in TV One's '' Unsung'' documentary, " The Story of Ike Turner". Blue lives and works in Las Vegas. In 2019, Blue turned down an offer to play with

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...

because he was too cheap.

Discography

Singles

* 1966: Lowell Fulsom, Leon Blue & Band – "Stop And Think" (Movin' Records MR 128)

Album credits

* 1991:

Harmonica Fats Harmonica Fats (born Harvey Blackston, September 8, 1927 – January 3, 2000) was an American blues harmonica player who was active in the 1950s through to the 1990s. Fats first achieved success with his cover version of the Hank Ballard song "T ...

& The Bernie Pearl Blues Band – ''I Had To Get Nasty'' (Bee Bump Records) * 1993: Albert King – ''Rainin' In California'' (Wolf Records) * 2003: Phillip Walker – ''Live In Paris'' (Gilkey Records) * 2004: The Mannish Boys – ''That Represent Man'' (Delta Groove Productions, Inc.) * 2005: The Mannish Boys – ''Live & In Demand'' (Delta Groove Productions, Inc.) * 2007: The Mannish Boys – ''Big Plans'' (Delta Groove Productions, Inc.)

References

External links

*
Leon Blue
on AllMusic {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue, Leon 1931 births People from Wichita Falls, Texas Kings of Rhythm members Ike & Tina Turner members African-American pianists United States Army personnel of the Korean War American blues pianists Musicians from Las Vegas Living people