"King" Solomon Hicks (born February 8, 1995) is an American guitarist, blues, jazz singer, and composer. His style of music ranges from
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
,
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 ...
,
classical,
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
,
R&B,
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 ...
,
Afro-Cuban
Afro-Cubans () or Black Cubans are Cubans of full or partial sub-Saharan African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba associated with this community, and the combining of native African a ...
, and
classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...
. Hicks has been a blues guitarist since he was 13. He plays a Benedetto GA35 guitar. Benedetto jazz guitars are hand crafted by
Robert Benedetto an American luthier of archtop jazz guitars. He teaches beginning and advanced guitar along with music theory.
His first recording was when he was 14 with the Cotton Club All-Star Band. The CD is called ''Embryonic''. He has toured in Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, Japan, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Barbados, and the United States.
Early life
Hicks received his first guitar lessons at the age six. His mother Holly Hicks was his first tutor. She taught him the history of African-American music. He started learning soul music,
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 then
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 ...
. He was playing music before he learned to read music. He attended the Harlem School of Arts and the
azzmobiletraining program. His parents took him to jam sessions where he got to sit in and to clubs in
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
such as the
Lenox Lounge
Lenox Lounge was a long-standing bar in Harlem, New York City. It was located in 288 Lenox Avenue, between 124th and 125th. The bar was founded in 1939 by Ralph Greco and served as a venue for performances by many great jazz artists, including Bi ...
and
St. Nick's Pub. At an early age Hicks sat in on jam sessions with
Charles Earland
Charles Earland (May 24, 1941 – December 11, 1999) was an American jazz organist.
Biography
Earland was born in Philadelphia and learned to play the saxophone in high school. He played tenor with Jimmy McGriff at the age of 17 and in 1960 fo ...
, and
Jimmy McGriff
James Harrell McGriff (April 3, 1936 – May 24, 2008) was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist and organ trio bandleader.
Biography Early years and influences
Born in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, McGriff started playing pia ...
. At the age of 13 he started playing with the
Cotton Club
The Cotton Club was a 20th-century nightclub in New York City. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue from 1923 to 1936, then briefly in the midtown Theater District until 1940. The club operated during the United States' era of P ...
in New York City's 17-piece band as a lead guitarist. At Harlem's School of the Arts and at Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts he studied jazz, classical, and Afro-Cuban guitar. He attended
azzmobileworkshops where he studied
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 ...
with
Barry Harris
Barry Doyle Harris (December 15, 1929 – December 8, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. He was an exponent of the bebop style. Influenced by Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, Harris in turn influenc ...
. Hicks says that his first mentor was
Melvin Sparks
Melvin Sparks (March 22, 1946 – March 15, 2011) was an American soul jazz, hard bop and jazz blues guitarist. He recorded a number of albums for Prestige Records, later recording for Savant Records. He appeared on several recordings with mu ...
. At an early age he started performing at the
New Amsterdam Musical Association in Harlem and at Amateur Night at the
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater (formerly the Hurtig & Seamon's New Theatre; also Apollo Theatre or 125th Street Apollo Theatre) is a multi-use Theater (structure), theater at 253 125th Street (Manhattan), West 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of U ...
, and performed three Christmas show specials. He also appeared at B.B. Kings Club for five years, Minton's Playhouse (four years), Ashford and Simpson's 'Sugar Bar' (four years) plus Red Rooster & Ginny's in Harlem (seven years) and at Terra Blues (eight years). He graduated from Talent Unlimited High School as a music major in 2012.
Career
In 2010, Hicks performed during the New York Knicks game. He has performed at the United Nations in New York City. He has performed for former Mayor of New York City,
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman and politician. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., and was its CEO from 1981 to 2001 and again from 2014 to 2023. He served as the 108th mayo ...
, as well as performing for former Governor of New York
David Paterson
David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer, who resigned, and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to ...
and former Congressman
Charlie Rangel
Charles Bernard Rangel ( ; June 11, 1930 – May 26, 2025) was an American politician who served as United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for districts in New York City for 46 years. A member of the Democratic Party (Unite ...
.
Hicks has performed at the KISS Kruise V, the
Joe Bonamassa
Joseph Leonard Bonamassa ( ; born May 8, 1977) is an American blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. He started his career at age twelve, when he opened for B.B. King. Since 2000, Bonamassa has released fifteen solo albums through his inde ...
Blues Cruise in 2017, the Festival De Blues De Bejar-Blues Cazorla-San Javier in Spain, in France at the Jazz Marciac, and the Cotton Club in Tokyo. He has performed at music festivals in Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Tokyo, Japan, Denmark, Coppenhagen, Curacao, Jamaica, Mexico, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Barbados, and United States.
He has performed with
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ...
,
Jon Hendricks
John Carl Hendricks (September 16, 1921 – November 22, 2017), known professionally as Jon Hendricks, was an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and re ...
,
Antoinette Montague,
Jay Hoggard
Jay Hoggard (born September 24, 1954) is an American jazz vibraphonist.
Biography
Jay Hoggard was raised in a religious family. He was born in Washington, D.C., but grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. His mother taught him how to play piano at a ...
,
Alvester Garnett,
Mike Stern
Mike Stern (born January 10, 1953) is an American jazz guitarist. After playing with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he worked with drummer Billy Cobham, then with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1985. He then began a solo career, re ...
,
Lee Ritenour
Lee Mack Ritenour ( ; born January 11, 1952) is an American jazz guitarist who has been active since the late 1960s.
Biography
Ritenour was born in 1952, in Los Angeles, California. At the age of eight he started playing guitar and four years l ...
,
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
,
Neal Evans Soulive
Soulive is a funk/jazz trio that originated in Woodstock, New York. The band consists of Eric Krasno (guitar), Alan Evans (drums) and Neal Evans (Hammond B3 organ, bass keys, clavinet). Although they originated as a trio, the band has worked ext ...
,
George Thorogood
George Lawrence Thorogood (born February 24, 1950) is an American musician, singer and songwriter.
His "high-energy boogie-blues" sound became a staple of 1980s US rock radio, with hits like his original songs "Bad to the Bone" and "I Drink Al ...
,
The Marcus King Band
The Marcus King Band is a southern rock/blues band from South Carolina formed in 2013.
History
The band is led by guitarist Marcus King. Raised in Greenville, South Carolina, King was brought up on the blues, playing shows as a pre-teen sidem ...
,
Jimmy Vivino
Jimmy Vivino (born January 10, 1955) is an American guitarist, keyboard player, singer, producer, and music director. He is best known as the leader of Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band, the house band for the TBS late night program '' C ...
,
Danny Mixon
Daniel Asbury Mixon (born August 19, 1949) is an American jazz pianist.
Mixon was born in Harlem, New York City. He gained some attention in the 1970s and continues to record and play in New York and abroad. He started off as a tap dancer, attend ...
,
Sam Moore
Samuel David Moore (October 12, 1935 – January 10, 2025) was an American singer who was best known as a member of the soul and R&B duo Sam & Dave from 1961 to 1981. He was a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame (f ...
,
William Bell,
Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton,
John Németh
John Németh (born March 10, 1975) is an American electric blues and soul harmonicist, singer, and songwriter. He has received five Blues Music Awards for Soul Blues Male Artist, Soul Blues Album, Traditional Blues Album of the Year, Instrumental ...
,
Roger Earl
Roger Earl (born 16 May 1946) is an English drummer best known as a member of the rock band Foghat. A founding member, along with guitarist and vocalist "Lonesome" Dave Peverett, guitarist Rod Price, and bassist Tony Stevens, Earl is the only ...
,
Ne-Yo
Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18, 1979), known professionally as Ne-Yo ( ), is an American singer and songwriter. Regarded as a leading figure of Contemporary R&B#2000s, 2000s R&B music, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, includi ...
,
Davy Knowles
Davy Knowles (born 30 April 1987) is a Manx blues guitarist and singer. Knowles currently tours as a solo artist, but is formerly of the blues-rock band Back Door Slam, as well as working under the name Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam for a ...
,
Kim Simmonds
Kim Maiden Simmonds (5 December 1947 – 13 December 2022) was a Welsh musician. He was the founder, guitarist, primary songwriter and sole constant member of the blues rock band Savoy Brown, which he formed in 1965. Simmonds had led Savoy Br ...
,
Savoy Brown
Savoy Brown (originally Savoy Brown Blues Band) were a British blues rock band formed in Battersea, southwest London, in 1965. Part of the late 1960s blues rock movement, Savoy Brown primarily achieved success in the United States, where they p ...
,
Gregg Allman
Gregory LeNoir Allman (December 8, 1947 – May 27, 2017) was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He was known for performing in the Allman Brothers Band. Allman grew up with an interest in rhythm and blues music, and the Allman B ...
,
Eric Gales
Eric Gales (born October 29, 1974), also known as Raw Dawg, is an American blues rock guitarist, originally hailed as a child prodigy. Gales has recorded 19 albums for major record labels and has done session and tribute work. He has also co ...
,
Russell Malone
Russell Lamar Malone (November 8, 1963 – August 23, 2024) was an American jazz guitarist. He began working with Jimmy Smith in 1988 and went on to work with Harry Connick Jr. and Diana Krall throughout the 1990s.
Biography
Malone was born in ...
,
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 ...
,
Kermit Ruffins
Kermit Ruffins (born December 19, 1964) is an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer from New Orleans. He has been influenced by Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan and says that the highest note he can hit on trumpet is a high C. He often a ...
,
Lonnie Youngblood
Lonnie Thomas (born August 3, 1941 in Augusta, Georgia), known as Lonnie Youngblood, is an American saxophonist and bandleader best remembered for playing with Jimi Hendrix.
Biography
Youngblood's main influence is King Curtis, although his earli ...
,
Southside Johnny
John Lyon (born December 4, 1948), known professionally as Southside Johnny, is an American retired singer-songwriter who fronted the band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.
Southside Johnny has long been considered the Grandfather of "t ...
,
Elvin Bishop
Elvin Richard Bishop (born October 21, 1942) is an American blues and rock music singer, guitarist, bandleader, and songwriter. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 2015, and in ...
,
Belden Bullock,
,
Danny Mixon
Daniel Asbury Mixon (born August 19, 1949) is an American jazz pianist.
Mixon was born in Harlem, New York City. He gained some attention in the 1970s and continues to record and play in New York and abroad. He started off as a tap dancer, attend ...
, Samantha Fish and
Winard Harper
Hiram Winard Harper (born June 4, 1962) is an American jazz drummer.
Career
Harper played in the 1980s with Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, and with Betty Carter for four years. While working with Carter he met Wycliffe Gordon, with whom Harper w ...
.
Hicks has taught music at the Children's Aid Society in New York City. Hicks is a member of the Harlem Arts Alliance. He supports Jazzmobile and is a member of the
Blues Foundation
The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 blues organizations from various parts of the world.
Founded in 1980, a 25-person board of directors governs t ...
in
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...
.
Hicks opened for
Ringo Starr
Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, us ...
and
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold Beck (24 June 1944 – 10 January 2023) was an English musician. He rose to prominence as the guitarist of the rock band the Yardbirds, and afterwards founded and fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, ...
at the Holland International Blues Festival in June 2018 in Blues Village
Grolloo
Grolloo is a village in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is a part of the municipality of Aa en Hunze, and lies about 11 km southeast of Assen.
History
The village was probably first mentioned in the 12th century as Grunlo, and means "gre ...
, the Netherlands. In 2018 he toured with
Beth Hart
Beth Hart (born January 24, 1972) is an American musician from Los Angeles, California. She rose to fame with the release of her 1999 single "LA Song (Out of This Town)" from her second album ''Screamin' for My Supper''. The single was a number ...
, performing in Las Vegas and New Orleans.
Awards and honors
* 2008 – Jazz Excellence Award and scholarship, Friendly 50 Club organization
* 2009–2010 – AUDELCO Rising Star honoree
* 2012 – Named one of the Innovators of Change by J. Walter Thompson's Differenter Committee. He was one of the subjects for the film documentary about New York's accomplished and creative African-American citizens.
* 2017 – ''Hot House'' magazine award for Rising Star
* 2021 –
Blues Music Award
The Blues Music Awards, formerly known as the W. C. Handy Awards (or "The Handys"), are awards presented by the Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to foster blues heritage. The awards were originally named in honor of W. C. Handy, " ...
for Best Emerging Artist Album, ''Harlem''
Discography
* ''Embryonic'' (Cotton Club, 2010)
* ''Carrying On the Torch of the Blues'' (2016)
* ''Alive and Electrified'' at the Iridium, New York City (2018)
* ''Harlem'', Provogue Records (2020)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hicks, Solomon
1995 births
Living people
21st-century American guitarists
African-American jazz guitarists
American jazz guitarists
American male jazz musicians
21st-century African-American male singers
21st-century American male singers
African-American male singer-songwriters
American male singer-songwriters
American blues guitarists
American blues singers
American male guitarists
American lead guitarists