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John Lee Hooker
The Boogie Man
Born near Clarksdale, Mississippi to a sharecropping family, John Lee Hooker's earliest musical influence came from his stepfather, Will Moore. By the early 1940's Hooker had moved north to Detroit by way of Memphis and Cincinnati. Hooker found work as a janitor in the auto factories, and at night, like many other transplants from the rural Delta, he entertained friends and neighbors by playing at "house parties". He was "discovered" by record storeowner Elmer Barbee who took him to Bernard Besman, who was a producer, record distributor and owner of Sensation Records, Besman leased some of his early Hooker recordings to Modern Records. Among Hooker's first recordings in 1948, "Boogie Chillen" became a number one jukebox hit for Modern and his first million seller. This was soon followed by an even bigger hit with "I'm In The Mood" and other classic recordings including "Crawling Kingsnake" and "Hobo Blues." Another surge in his career took place with the release of more than 100 songs on Vee Jay Records during the 1950's and 1960's.
When the young bohemian audiences of the 1960's "discovered" Hooker along with other blues originators, he and various he and others made a brief return to folk blues. Young British artist such as the Animals, John Mayall, and the Yardbirds introduced Hooker's sound to the new and eager audiences whose admiration and influence helped build Hooker to superstar status in the mid - 60's England. By 1970 he had moved to California and worked on several projects with rock musicians, notably Van Morrison and Canned Heat. Canned Heat modeled their sound after Hooker's boggie and collaborated with him on several albums and tours.
During the late 1970's and much of the 1980's, Hooker toured the U.S. and Europe steadily but grew disenchanted with recording, through his appearance in the Blues Brothers movie resulted in a heightened profile. Then, in 1989, The Healer was released to critical acclaim and sales in excess of a million copies. Today the "The King Of The Boggie" is enjoying the most successful period of his extensive career. In the past ten years Hooker's influence has contributed to a booming interest in the blues and, notably, its acceptance by the music industry as a commercially viable entity.
Hooker's career has been a series a highlights and special events since the release of The Healer. In addition to recording his on albums Mr. Lucky, Boom Boom, Chill Out, and Don't Look Back for Pointblank / Virgin, he contributed to recordings by B.B. King, Branford Marsalis, Van Morrison, and Big Head Todd and the Monsters and portrayed the title role in Pete Townshend's 1989 epic, The Iron Man.
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John Lee Hooker: John Lee Hooker: Documenting the Sensation Recordings 1949-1952
by Jakob Baekgaard
Sam Phillips of Sun Records fame had an ear for musicians who stood out. He liked artists who were different, and he recognized the earth-shaking potential of John Lee Hooker's “Boogie Chillen,'" an early blueprint, it could be argued, for the rock 'n' roll sound pioneered by Sun. Phillips didn't get the chance to bring Hooker to Sun, but instead he found another unique blues personality to record, Howlin' Wolf, and the rest is history. Blues history ...
read moreJohn Lee Hooker: The Modern, Chess & Vee-Jay Singles And Collection 1949-1962
by Maurizio Comandini
Questo cofanetto contiene 4 CD e un bel libretto con un saggio di Paul Watts e informazioni molto dettagliate sui 101 brani contenuti nei dischetti argentati. Sono i pezzi registrati in quel decennio abbondante che va dal 1949 al 1962 dal mitico bluesman John Lee Hooker e pubblicati dalle etichette Modern, Chess e Vee-Jay. Una collezione imperdibile per apprezzare al meglio le radici di un blues viscerale e puro che poi avrà enorme influenza nello sviluppo della musica giovanile delle ...
read moreJohn Lee Hooker: Live at Sugar Hill, Volume 2
by Derek Taylor
What gives a man justification to sing the blues? There have never been a staid set of credentials for such a pursuit, but if any one man had the proper pedigree custom plugged into his persona, it was John Lee Hooker. His voice could sway from gravel-grained bark to plaintive croon amidst lyrics of the most hard-bitten sort; and his fretwork often took flight on the simplest of one-chord wingspans that were among the most non-idiomatic in field. He was ...
read moreJohn Lee Hooker: Live At Newport
by Derek W. Brown
From his first R & B hit, 1948's “Boogie Chillun," a hypnotic one-chord ostinato, John Lee Hooker would forever be known as King Of The Boogie. Although he was accompanied in the studio by an occasional piano, harmonica or Eddie Kirkland's empathetic second guitar, John Lee Hooker's improvisatory style and lack of apparent structural sense marked him as a solo artist in the most literal sense (unlike Muddy Waters, another native of the Mississippi Delta).
Live At ...
read moreBlues Legend John Lee Hooker Jr. Plays at the Iron Horse in Northampton on August 24
Source:
MassJazz: Jazz in Massachusetts
John Lee Hooker Jr, Detroit's legendary bluesman, is performing at the Iron Horse in Northampton on Tuesday, August 24 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $12.50 in advance and can be purchased online, or $15 at the door. As a child in the 1970s, Hooker learned the blues from Delta blues masters, including his father John Lee Hooker and blues harp legend Jimmy Reed. His 2004 album, Blues with A Vengence received a Grammy nominiation and marked his transition as a ...
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John Lee Hooker Jr Interview
Source:
All About Jazz
This interview is part of the book project “under your skin" which includes Interviews with: Anthony Braxton, Ornette Coleman, Chuck D - Public Enemy, Taj Mahal, Yusef Lateef, Melvin Gibbs, Bob James, Skip Mcdonald, Erika Stucky, Living Colour, Rhonda Smith, Dj Rob Swift, Marilyn Crispell, Dick Griffin, Billy Bang, Kahil El Zabar, Michael Ricci - All About Jazz, Val-Inc, Chico Freeman, Esperanza Spalding, Eddie Henderson, J. Mascis - Dinosaur ...
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John Lee Hooker Jr. Interviewed at AAJ
Source:
All About Jazz
For many, growing up in someone else's shadow is daunting, particularly when that someone is a looming, legendary figure known worldwide. Eclipsed by that someone, a musician may constantly hear comparisons drawn as they try to establish themselves and their career. This is not the case for John Lee Hooker Jr. Born the son of blues great John Lee Hooker, he acknowledges the significant contribution his father made to music, and knows he was never overshadowed by his father. Rather, ...
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Shout! Factory Honors Master Bluesman John Lee Hooker with First-Ever Career Box Set: 'Hooker'
Source:
All About Jazz
Deluxe 4-CD Set Represents A Half Century Of Blues And Boogie
Includes Performances with Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Van Morrison, Ry Cooder, Jimmie Vaughan, Charles Brown and Los Lobos
In Stores October 31
LOS ANGELES - John Lee Hooker, master bluesman and undisputed father of boogie, recorded for more than 30 labels over a span of nearly 50 years. Amazingly, he has never had a definitive career box set - until now. On October 31, 2006, ...
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John Lee Hooker: Eight Decades of the Hook
Source:
All About Jazz
In 1989, blues singer/guitarist John Lee Hooker exploded, again, onto the music scene with an extraordinary recording. The Healer, which might have easily been a denouement in a luminous career, served as a new beginning, marked with a Grammy award for “I'm in the Mood," a re-sculptured duet with singer/slide guitarist Bonnie Raitt. While the record was well received for its all star cast, including Raitt, Carlos Santana, Keith Richards and Canned Heat, critics accused the bluesman of spreading himself ...
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John Lee Hooker
Instrument: Guitar
Born: August 22, 1917
Died: June 21, 2001
