Blues guitarist to star at Broward Center with fireworks to follow
The thrill may be gone but the incomparable B.B. King is still grooving with his sidekick and guitar Miss Lucille — continuing to endear more audiences with his unique style and rendering of the blues at the ripe age of 87-years-old.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, Riley “B.B.” King is considered one of the most influential blues musicians of all time and is often referred to as “The King of Blues” as well as “The Ambassador of the Blues.”
Born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, King followed the examples of pioneers like Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker to integrate his unique blend of vocal-like stringing and vibrato that have become the foundation of many of today’s top guitarists — from George Harrison and Jeff Beck to Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. But when you listen to King, what you hear is a combination of blues, jazz, swing and pop music. For him they are all fair game.
He says, “When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.”
King will help South Florida residents ring in the new year with a concert at the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, Dec. 31 at 9 p.m. From there, the audience will have a front row seat for an exciting fireworks display along the river when 10,000 lights and strobes will descend from the sky.
According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its profile of King, “He’s reigned across the decades as the genre’s most recognizable and influential artist. King doesn’t play chords or slides; instead, he bends individual strings until the notes seem to cry.”
Watch B. B. King “dance” with Lucille and bring in the new year in style.
Go to www.browardcenter.org for more information.
By D. Kevin McNeir
kmcneir@miamitimesonline.com
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