Hubert Charles Sumlin (November 16, 1931 – December 4, 2011) 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 ...
guitarist and singer,
best known for his "wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic suspensions" as a member of
Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade care ...
's band. He was ranked number 43 in ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
''s "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Biography
Sumlin was born in
Greenwood, Mississippi
Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta region, approximately 96 miles north of the state capital, Jackson, and 130 miles south of the riverp ...
, and raised in
Hughes, Arkansas
Hughes is a city in St. Francis County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 1,441 at the 2010 census, a decline from 1,867 in 2000.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land ...
. He got his first guitar when he was eight years old. As a boy, he met Howlin' Wolf by sneaking into a performance.
Wolf relocated from Memphis to Chicago in 1953, but his longtime guitarist
Willie Johnson chose not to join him. In Chicago, Wolf hired the guitarist
Jody Williams
Jody Williams (born October 9, 1950) is an American political activist known for her work in banning anti-personnel landmines, her defense of human rights (especially those of women), and her efforts to promote new understandings of security i ...
, but in 1954 he invited Sumlin to move to Chicago to play second guitar in his band. Williams left the band in 1955, leaving Sumlin as the primary guitarist, a position he held almost continuously (except for a brief spell playing with
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 ...
around 1956) for the remainder of Wolf's career. According to Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf sent him to a classical guitar instructor at the
Chicago Conservatory of Music
The Music Conservatory was founded in 1867 as the Chicago Musical College, a conservatory. In 1954,
the Chicago Musical College became part of Roosevelt University
Roosevelt University is a private university with campuses in Chicago and Schau ...
to learn
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
and
scales. Sumlin played on the album ''
Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade care ...
'' (called the "rocking chair album", with reference to its cover illustration), which was named the third greatest guitar album of all time by ''
Mojo
Mojo may refer to:
* Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* MOJO HD, an American television network
* ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film
* ' ...
'' magazine in 2004.
![Hubert Sumlin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Hubert_Sumlin.jpg)
Upon Wolf's death in 1976, Sumlin continued playing with several other members of Wolf's band, as the Wolf Gang, until about 1980. He also recorded under his own name, beginning with a session from a tour of Europe with Wolf in 1964. His last solo album was ''About Them Shoes'', released in 2004 by Tone-Cool Records. He underwent lung removal surgery the same year, but he continued performing until just before his death. His final recording, just days before his death, was tracks for an album by
Stephen Dale Petit
Stephen Dale Petit (born 19 April 1969) is an American-born guitarist, singer, songwriter and New Blues musician.
Petit's blues guitar experience started at a young age in California and continued through drug addiction, addiction, alcoholism, ...
, ''
Cracking The Code'' (333 Records).
Sumlin was inducted into 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 the ...
Hall of Fame in 2008. He was nominated for four
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
s: in 1999 for the album ''Tribute to Howlin' Wolf'', with Henry Gray, Calvin Jones, Sam Lay, and Colin Linden; in 2000 for ''Legends'', with
Pinetop Perkins
Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins (July 7, 1913 – March 21, 2011) was an American blues pianist. He played with some of the most influential blues and rock-and-roll performers of his time and received numerous honors, including a Grammy Life ...
; in 2006, for his solo project ''About Them Shoes'' (which features performances by
Keith Richards
Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...
,
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...
,
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. H ...
,
David Johansen
David Roger Johansen (sometimes spelled ''David Jo Hansen''; born January 9, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal proto-punk band the New York Dolls. He is also known for his work under ...
and
James Cotton
James Henry Cotton (July 1, 1935 – March 16, 2017) was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who performed and recorded with many fellow blues artists and with his own band. He also played drums early in his career.
...
) and in 2010 for his contribution to
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Kenny Wayne Shepherd (born Kenny Wayne Brobst; June 12, 1977) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He has released several studio albums and experienced significant commercial success as a blues artist.
Life and career
Shepherd wa ...
's ''
Live! in Chicago
''Live! In Chicago'' is a blues album by Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band.
Critical reception
On AllMusic, Steve Leggett wrote, " enny Wayne Shepherddoes play a hot lead guitar – that, in a nutshell, is what he does. But over the years he's also lea ...
''. He won multiple
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, " ...
s. He was a judge for the fifth annual Independent Music Awards, given to support the careers of independent artists.
Sumlin lived in
Totowa, New Jersey
Totowa (pronounced "TO-tuh-wuh" ) is a borough in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 10,844,[heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...]
on December 4, 2011, at the age of 80, in a hospital in
Wayne, New Jersey
Wayne is a Township (New Jersey), township in Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. Home to William Paterson University and located less than from Midtown Manhattan, the township is a bedroom suburb of New York ...
.
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
and
Keith Richards
Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...
paid Sumlin's funeral expenses.
Partial discography
References
External links
*
Hubert Sumlin biography at About.comBBC review of ''About Them Shoes''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumlin, Hubert
1931 births
People from Greenwood, Mississippi
People from Totowa, New Jersey
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
American blues singers
Blues musicians from Mississippi
Chicago blues musicians
Black Top Records artists
2011 deaths
Guitarists from Illinois
Guitarists from Mississippi
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American male musicians
Blind Pig Records artists
Telarc Records artists
Chess Records artists
Black & Blue Records artists
African-American guitarists
20th-century African-American male singers
21st-century African-American male singers