Luther Allison (August 17, 1939 – August 12, 1997)
was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
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 ...
singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was born in
Widener, Arkansas
Widener is a town in St. Francis County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 212 at the 2020 census, a decline from 273 in 2010.
Geography
Widener is located at (35.023559, -90.683886).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the ...
,
although some accounts suggest his actual place of birth was
Mayflower, Arkansas
Mayflower is a city in Faulkner County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,234 at the 2010 census, up from 1,631 at the 2000 census.
History
Mayflower is a small town located along Interstate 40 southeast of Conway (Faulkner County ...
.
Allison was interested in music as a child and during the late 1940s he toured in a family gospel group called The Southern Travellers.
He moved with his family to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
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, coordinates =
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, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
in 1951
and attended
Farragut High School
where he was classmates 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 ...
' son.
He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he dropped out of school
and began hanging around outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being invited to perform. Allison played with the bands 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 ...
and
Freddie King
Freddie King (September 3, 1934December 28, 1976) was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King and B.B. King, none of whom were blood related). Mos ...
, taking over King's band when King toured nationally.
He worked with
Jimmy Dawkins
James Henry “Jimmy” Dawkins (October 24, 1936 – April 10, 2013) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer. He is generally considered to have been a practitioner of the "West Side sound" of Chicago blues.
Career ...
,
Magic Sam
Magic or Magick most commonly refers to:
* Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces
* Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic
* Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
and
Otis Rush
Otis Rush Jr. (April 29, 1934 – September 29, 2018) was an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. His distinctive guitar style featured a slow-burning sound and long bent notes. With qualities similar to the styles of other 1950s art ...
,
and also backed
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.
...
.
Chicago Reader
The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...
has called him "the Jimi Hendrix of blues guitar".
Biography
Early life
Luther Sylvester Allison was born on August 18, 1939, in Widener, Arkansas, the fourteenth of 15 children. His family moved to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
when he was 12, in search of better opportunities. Several of Allison's siblings sang in a gospel group called the Southern Travellers. One of his older brothers, Ollie, soon began working as a guitarist on Chicago's booming South Side blues scene. Seeking to emulate his brother, Luther took up the guitar himself. By the middle of his teens, Allison was good enough to sit in with his brother's band on club dates.
Career
From 1954, Allison jammed with his brother's band, the Ollie Lee Allison Band.
By 1957, he had formed a band with Ollie and another brother, Grant Allison, initially called The Rolling Stones, later changed to The Four Jivers, and they performed at clubs in Chicago.
Allison's big break came in 1957, when
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 ...
invited him to the stage. The same year he worked briefly with
Jimmy Dawkins
James Henry “Jimmy” Dawkins (October 24, 1936 – April 10, 2013) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer. He is generally considered to have been a practitioner of the "West Side sound" of Chicago blues.
Career ...
, playing in local clubs.
Freddie King
Freddie King (September 3, 1934December 28, 1976) was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King and B.B. King, none of whom were blood related). Mos ...
took Allison under his wing, and after King got a record deal, Allison took over his gig in the house band of a club on Chicago's West Side.
He worked the club circuit in the late 1950s and early 1960s. During this period, Allison moved to
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
for a year where he worked with
Shakey Jake Harris
James D. "Shakey Jake" Harris (April 12, 1921 – March 2, 1990) was an American Chicago blues singer, harmonicist and songwriter. He released five albums over a period of almost 25 years. He was often musically associated with his nephew Magic ...
and
Sunnyland Slim
Albert Luandrew (September 5, 1906March 17, 1995), "Blues pianist and singer Sunnyland Slim was born Albert Luandrew in Vance, Mississippi, September 5, 1906 (most sources say 1907, but the Social Security Death Index and 1920 census data give t ...
.
He recorded his first single in 1965. He signed a recording contract with
Delmark Records
Delmark Records is an American jazz and blues independent record label. It was founded in 1958 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. The label originated in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953 when then owner, and founder, Bob Koester released a recordi ...
in 1967 and released his debut album, ''Love Me Mama'', the following year. He performed a well-received set at the 1969
Ann Arbor Blues Festival
Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival is a music festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that started in 1972 from the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, which itself began in 1969. Although the festival has had a tumultuous history and suspended operations in 200 ...
and as a result was asked to perform there in each of the next three years.
He toured nationwide. In 1972, he signed with
Motown Records
Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmant ...
, one of the few blues artists on that label.
In the mid-1970s he toured Europe. He moved to France in 1977.
Allison was known for his powerful concert performances, lengthy soulful guitar solos and crowd walking with his
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typi ...
. He lived briefly during this period in
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...
, where he signed with Rumble Records, releasing two live recordings, ''Gonna Be a Live One in Here Tonight!'', produced by Bill Knight, and ''Power Wire Blues'', produced by George Faber and Jeffrey P. Hess. Allison played the bar circuit in the United States during this period and spent eight months of the year in Europe at high-profile venues, including the
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...
. In 1992, he performed with the French rock and roll star
Johnny Hallyday
Jean-Philippe Léo Smet (; 15 June 1943 – 5 December 2017), better known by his stage name Johnny Hallyday, was a French rock and roll and pop singer and actor, credited for having brought rock and roll to France.
During a career spanning 57 ...
in 18 shows in
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 ...
, also playing during the intermission.
Allison's manager and European agent, Thomas Ruf, founded
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 ...
in 1994. Signing with Ruf Records, Allison launched a comeback in association with
Alligator Records
Alligator Records is an American, Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971. Iglauer was also one of the founders of the ''Living Blues'' magazine in Chicago in 1970.
History
Iglauer started the label using hi ...
. Alligator founder
Bruce Iglauer
Bruce Iglauer (born July 10, 1947) is an American businessman and record producer who founded Alligator Records as an independent record label featuring blues music.
Early life and career
Iglauer was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States ...
convinced Allison to return to the United States. The album ''Soul Fixin' Man'' was recorded and released in 1994, and Allison toured the United States and Canada. He won four
W. C. Handy Awards in 1994. With the James Solberg Band backing him, nonstop touring and the release of ''Blue Streak'' (featuring the song "Cherry Red Wine"), Allison earned more Handy Awards and gained wider recognition. He won several Living Blues Awards and was featured on the covers of blues publications.
Illness and death
During his tour in the summer of 1997, Allison checked into a hospital on July 10, 1997 for dizziness and loss of coordination. It was discovered that he had a tumor on his lung that had
metastasized
Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...
to his brain. He began radiation therapy on July 16, which lasted through August 1. In and out of a coma, Allison died at around 2:30 A.M. on August 12, 1997, five days before his 58th birthday, in
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
.
His final album, ''
Reckless'', had just been released 5 months prior.
His son
Bernard Allison
Bernard Allison (born November 26, 1965) is an American blues guitarist, based out of Paris, France.
Biography
Bernard Allison was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. His father, Luther Allison, was a Chicago blues musician. Allison move ...
, at one time a member of his band, is now a solo recording artist. Bernard, the youngest of nine siblings, was exposed to all kinds of music by his father. The younger Allison made his first venture into the music business at age 13, when he performed on a live album with his father.
Allison was posthumously inducted into the
Blues Hall of Fame
The Blues Hall of Fame is a music museum located at 421 S. Main Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Initially, the "Blues Hall of Fame" was not a physical building, but a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1 ...
in 1998. In 2000, the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' called him "the
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...
of the blues".
He was a strong influence on many young blues guitarists, such as Chris Beard (singer), Chris Beard and Reggie Sears.
Allison is buried at Washington Memory Gardens Cemetery in Homewood, Illinois
Homewood is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,463 at the 2020 census.
The village sits just a few miles south of Chicago proper. It is bordered by Chicago Heights and Flossmoor to the south, Hazel Crest to ...
.
Discography
Studio and live albums
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
Compilations
Video
See also
*List of blues musicians
Blues musicians are musical artists who are primarily recognized as writing, performing, and recording blues music. They come from different eras and include styles such as ragtime-vaudeville, Delta and country blues, and urban styles from Chicag ...
*List of Chicago blues musicians
Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois, in the 1950s, in which the basic instrumentation of Delta blues—acoustic guitar and harmonica—is augmented with electric guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums, piano, harmo ...
* List of electric blues musicians
* List of guitarists by genre
*List of notable brain tumor patients
A brain tumor is an abnormal growth of cells within the brain or inside the skull, and can be cancerous (malignant) or non-cancerous (benign). Just over half of all primary brain tumors are malignant; the rest are benign, though they may still be ...
References
External links
*
Luther-Allison.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allison, Luther
1939 births
1997 deaths
African-American guitarists
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
American expatriates in France
Blues musicians from Arkansas
Deaths from lung cancer in Wisconsin
Chicago blues musicians
Delmark Records artists
Electric blues musicians
Motown artists
Musicians from Madison, Wisconsin
Musicians from Peoria, Illinois
People from St. Francis County, Arkansas
American blues singers
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century African-American male singers
Singers from Arkansas
Guitarists from Arkansas
Guitarists from Illinois
Black & Blue Records artists
Ruf Records artists
Blind Pig Records artists
Alligator Records artists