Bernard Allison (born November 26, 1965) is an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

guitarist, based out of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, France.

Biography

Bernard Allison was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, United States. His father,

Luther Allison Luther Allison (August 17, 1939 – August 12, 1997) was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas, although some accounts suggest his actual place of birth was Mayflower, Arkansas. Allison was intereste ...

, was a

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cent ...

musician. Allison moved back and forth between Illinois and Florida, but remained close to his father's music whether with him or not, listening to his father's albums when they were apart. He accompanied his father to blues

festivals A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival co ...

in the early 1970s. There he was introduced to

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago b ...

Hound Dog Taylor Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor (April 12, 1915 – December 17, 1975) was a Chicago blues guitarist and singer. Life and career Taylor was born in Natchez, Mississippi, in 1915, though some sources say 1917. He first played the piano and ...

and

Albert King Albert Nelson (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), known by his stage name Albert King, 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 b ...

, amongst others. Allison taught himself to play in Florida while his father was touring internationally and displayed his early skills to his father when he was 12. His father brought him a

Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously ...

guitar but required him to remain in school, although he did allow his son to join him on stage at the age of 18 at the 1983

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 ...

. A week after his graduation from high school, he was invited to join

Koko Taylor Koko Taylor (born Cora Anna Walton, September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009) was an American singer whose style encompassed Chicago blues, electric blues, rhythm and blues and soul blues. Sometimes called "The Queen of the Blues", she was known for ...

's touring band. During that time, he furthered his skills under the tutelage of

Johnny Winter John Dawson Winter III (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014) was an American singer and guitarist. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s. He also produced three Grammy Award-win ...

, whom he had met when younger, and

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Although his mainstream career spanned only seven years, ...

whom he met in the first year of his career. From 1985, he also tried out his headline act, Bernard Allison and Back Talk, largely active in Canada, although he remained with Koko Taylor.Tipaldi (2002), p. 21. He became the bandleader for his father's touring band in Europe late in 1989, and with his father's assistance and the loan of his father's musicians recorded his debut album, ''The Next Generation'', in Paris around Christmas that year. Over the next years, Allison and his father continued to collaborate, with Bernard co-writing and arranging material on his father's final three albums and Luther offering ongoing advice to his son's band. Allison released three more albums in Europe, ''Hang On'', ''No Mercy'', and ''Funkifino''. In 1997 — the year of his father's death — his critically acclaimed U.S. debut, ''Keepin' the Blues Alive''. was released. The album was followed by a U.S. tour and further releases. Allison's 2002 album ''Storms of Life'' charted at #5 on the Top Blues Albums chart. In spite of the success of his tours and albums in the U.S., Allison remains based in Paris. In 2010,

Toby Lee Marshall Koch Marshall Trio is a three piece band which formed in 2017 in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. The band consists of a guitar player, a drummer and a B3 organ player. The guitar player is Greg Koch who grew up in the Milwaukee area of Wisconsin. The drumme ...

teamed up with Bernard Allison.

was part of Allison's dynamic rhythm section, that toured Europe extensively.

was featured on Allison's 2011 release, "Live at the Jazzhaus". On 16 January 2015, Bernard Allison released his thirteenth album, ''In The Mix''.

Discography

*1990 – ''The Next Generation'' ( Teldec Recording Service) *1994 – ''No Mercy'' *1995 – ''Funkifino'' (

Ruf Records Ruf Records is a German independent record label, which was founded in 1994 by Luther Allison’s manager, Thomas Ruf, to promote Allison's career. The motto of the blues label is "Where Blues Crosses Over". The company's office is located in ...

) *1997 – ''Born With The Blues'' (Ruf Records) *1997 – ''Keepin the Blues Alive'' *1998 – ''Times Are Changing'' (Ruf Records) *2000 – ''Across the Water'' (Tone-Cool) *2001 – ''Hang On'' (Ruf Records) *2002 – ''Storms of Life'' (Tone-Cool) *2003 – ''Kentucky Fried Blues'' (live album) (Ruf Records) *2005 – ''Higher Power'' (Ruf Records *2005 – ''Triple Fret'' (with

Larry McCray Larry McCray (born April 5, 1960), is an American blues guitarist and singing, singer from Magnolia, Arkansas. Early life McCray, the second youngest of nine siblings, grew up living on a farm.

, Carl Weathersby and

Lucky Peterson Judge Kenneth Peterson (December 13, 1964 – May 17, 2020), known professionally as Lucky Peterson, was an American musician who played contemporary blues, fusing soul, R&B, gospel and rock and roll. He played guitar and keyboards Keyboard ma ...

) *2006 – ''Energized – Live in Europe'' (CD + DVD) (Ruf Records) *2007 – ''Chills & Thrills'' (Jazzhaus Records) *2010 – ''The Otherside'' (Jazzhaus Records) *2011 – ''Live at the Jazzhaus'' (Jazzhaus Records) *2015 – ''In The Mix'' (Jazzhaus Records) *2018 – ''Let It Go'' (Ruf Records) *2020 – ''Songs From The Road'' (Ruf Records) *2022 – ''Highs & Lows'' (Ruf Records)(Ruf Records)

References

External links

Official website

Ruf Records website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allison, Bernard 1965 births Living people Blues musicians from Illinois American blues guitarists American male guitarists Guitarists from Chicago 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American male musicians Ruf Records artists

Biography

Discography

See also

References

External links