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

drummer and bandleader, best known as a member of B.B. King's band. Born in Greenville, Mississippi, he played French horn and saxophone in the school band at Coleman High School, before attending Mississippi Valley State College, where he majored in music. Around 1969, he began playing drums in Little Milton's band, before joining first Freddie King and then Albert King. 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 {{US-drummer-stub