B.B. King

His famous electric guitar Gibson ES-335, called «Lucille», inspired a line of guitars launched by Gibson in 1980. King is also known for his intense concert schedule, performing between 250 and 300 shows a year during the 1970s.Riley B. King was born in a cabin on a cotton plantation between Itta Bena and Berclair, Mississippi, as the son of Albert King and Nora Ella Farr. In 1930, his mother separated from his father and remarried. Due to his mother's financial difficulties, King spent much of his childhood with his maternal grandmother, Elnora Farr, in Kilmichael. His mother's death occurred when he was nine years old.From a young age, King participated in the gospel choir of the Elkhorn Baptist Church in Kilmichael.

At 12 years old, he acquired his first guitar for $15, although another version suggests it was a gift from Bukka White, his mother's cousin. In 1943, he left Kilmichael to work as a tractor driver and began playing the guitar with the Famous St. John's Quartet in Inverness, performing in local churches and at the radio station WGRM in Greenwood.During the 1950s, B. B. King solidified his position as a prominent figure in rhythm and blues, achieving several hits on the R&B charts of the magazine Billboard between 1952 and 1955. Although his main audience was from R&B and blues, King always surrounded himself with jazz musicians and arrangers, especially saxophones and trumpets, for his recordings and live performances.

His band in the first recordings of 1949 for Bullet Record Transcription Company included the brothers Calvin and Phineas Newborn, Jr., his father Phineas Newborn, Sr., Tuff Green, the brothers Tom and Ben Branch, Willie Mitchell, and the trombonist Sammie Jett. James «Boogaloo» Bolden, trumpeter and leader of King's band for 20 years, had been part of Duke Ellington's orchestra. Other jazz musicians who collaborated with King were The Crusaders, Johnny Pate as arranger and producer of albums such as Live at The Regal and Blues on Top of Blues, and the trumpeter Snooky Young.