Artist: Big Bill Broonzy
Born: 1893 06 26
Died: 1958 08 15
Location: Scott, MS
Genres: Blues
Labels: COLUMBIA/LEGACY, LEGACY
Related Artists: Memphis Slim, Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey, Tampa Red, Blind Willie McTell,
Washboard Sam, John Brim, Blind John Davis
Discography:
1998 - Warm, Witty & Wise
1930 - Good Time Tonight

Bio:
In terms of his musical skill, the sheer size of his repertoire, the length and variety
of his career and his influence on contemporaries and musicians who would follow,
Big Bill Broonzy is among a select few of the most important figures in recorded blues
history. Among his hundreds of titles are standards like "All by Myself" and "Key to the
Highway." In this country he was instrumental in the growth of the Chicago Blues sound,
and his travels abroad rank him as one of the leading blues ambassadors. Literally born
on the banks of the Mississippi, he was one of a family of 17 who learned to fiddle on a
homemade instrument. Taught by his uncle, he was performing by age ten at social functions
and in church. After brief stints on the pulpit and in the Army, he moved to Chicago where
he switched his attention from violin to guitar, playing with elders like
Papa Charlie Jackson. Broonzy began his recording career with Paramount in 1927.
In the early '30s he waxed some brilliant blues and hokum and worked Chicago and the road
with great players like pianist Black Bob, guitarist Will Weldon and Memphis Minnie.
During the Depression years Big Bill Broonzy continued full steam ahead, doing some
acrobatic label-hopping (Paramount to Bluebird to Columbia to Okeh!). In addition to solo
efforts, he contributed his muscular guitar licks to recordings by Bumble Bee Slim,
John Lee (Sonny Boy) Williamson and others who were forging a powerful new Chicago sound.
In 1938, Broonzy was at Carnegie Hall
(ostensibly filling in for the fallen Robert Johnson) for John Hammond's revolutionary
Sprirtuals to Swing Series. The following year he appeared with Benny Goodman and
Louis Armstrong in George Seldes's film production Swingin' the Dream. After his
initial brush with the East Coast cognoscenti, however, Broonzy spent a good part of
the early '40s barnstorming the South with Lil Green's road show or kicking back in
Chicago with Memphis Slim. He continued alternating stints in Chicago and New York with
coast-to-coast road work until 1951 when live performances and recording dates overseas
earned him considerable notoriety in Europe and led to worldwide touring. Back in the
States he recorded for Chess, Columbia and Folkways, working with a spectrum of artists
from Blind John Davis to Pete Seeger. In 1955, Big Bill Blues, his life as told to Danish
writer Yannick Bruynoghe, was published. In 1957, after one more British tour, the pace
began to catch up with Broonzy. He spent the last year of his life in and out of
hospitals and succumbed to cancer in 1958. He survives though; not only in his music,
but in the remembrances of people who knew him...from Muddy Waters to Studs Terkel.
A gentle giant they say...tough enough to survive the blues world...but not so tough he
wouldn't give a struggling young musician the shirt off his back. His music, of course,
is absolutely basic to the blues experience, and was celebrated in 1999 with the release
of the three-disc retrospective The Bill Broonzy Story.

~ Steve James, All Music Guide