Calep H. Emphrey Jr. (May 1, 1949 – April 25, 2017) was an American

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 ...

drummer and bandleader, best known as a member of

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 ...

's band. Born in

Greenville, Mississippi Greenville is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, ninth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, and the largest city by population in the Mississippi Delta region. It is the county seat of Washington County, Mississippi, Was ...

, he played

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

and

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

in the school band at Coleman High School, before attending

Mississippi Valley State College Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU, The Valley or Valley) is a public historically black university in Mississippi Valley State, Mississippi, adjacent to Itta Bena, Mississippi.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 ...

's band, before joining first

Freddie King Freddie King (born Fred Christian; September 3, 1934December 28, 1976), also billed as Freddy King, was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King a ...

and then

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 ...

. In 1977, he joined B.B. King's band, remaining a member of King's band until around 2009. He formed his own Calep Emphrey Blues Band, and issued an album, ''Handcuffed to the Blues'', in 2010. Emphrey died in 2017, aged 67. Mary Alford, "Calep Emphrey Jr., longtime drummer for BB King, dies", ''Delta Democrat-Times'', April 26, 2017
. Retrieved 28 April 2017

References

1949 births 2017 deaths African-American drummers Blues musicians from Mississippi American blues drummers 20th-century African-American musicians 21st-century African-American musicians People from Greenville, Mississippi American male drummers Drummers from Mississippi {{US-drummer-stub