 |
(Booker T.
Washington White)
Born
Nov 12, 1906 in Houston,
MS
Died
Feb 26, 1977 in Memphis,
TN
|
 |
Bukka White was
another bluesman
from Mississippi. The following quote places him in a musical and
cultural
context:
Eddie "Son" House and Booker
T. Washington "Bukka" White were giant figures in the annals of
American
music. Both were passionate purveyors of their native Mississippi delta
music and of slide guitar. Both were seminal figures, not only through
their association with legendary blues pioneer Charlie Patton, but also
in the strong influence Mississippi blues has had on this century's
music
from Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters, all the way to Eric Clapton.
In the early part of this
century
Mississippi still retained characteristics of a frontier state,
physically,
socially and politically. The delta region, which had only
recently
|
cleared
out of the wilderness in
the late nineteenth century, was a rich, fertile area that attracted
black
labor to share crop on the burgeoning cotton plantations. Jim Crow
laws,
expressly aimed at tying blacks to the lowest level of society and to
the
plantation system, left them little mobility or redress against the
social
order. Amidst this backdrop, a new type of secular music was evolving
in
black culture and taking center stage. Chiefly played on the recently
popularized
guitar, the blues quickly displaced most earlier styles and became the
dominant medium for black musical expression and entertainment. It
spread
through Mississippi like a high water flood.
It is from
Yazoo
Blues Mailorder.
|
