![]() ![]() So I put more emphasis on the single string than I did the chords. Usually, for some reason, most of the players would always say, B., take the solo. And they'd hardly let me play in the rhythm section. KING: Well, every time I've worked in a band, I was always featured. Tell me, also, about developing that style of single note. GROSS: Now, also, you play a kind of single-line guitar as opposed to, you know, chords or rhythm guitar. So maybe a mini bit of pushing and pulling, but not from the strength of my hand. But it's like kind of just shaking your hand and getting a vibration on the string a little bit. ![]() KING: Well, it's - how can I tell you? It's sort of like - it's not really pushing and pulling the strings like a lot of guitar players think I do. GROSS: Tell me more about the trill on your hand. And that was the beginning of the trill on my hand. And that was one of the things that I tried to do so much, was to imitate that - that sound. And I hear that - to me, a steel guitar is one of the sweetest sounds this side of heaven. I would hear the Hawaiian sound or the country music players play steel and slide guitars, if you will. How did you hear Hawaiian guitar, and how did it - why was it so exciting to you? It was another sound you tried to emulate. GROSS: (Laughter) Now, you also left Hawaiian guitar. KING: (Laughter) Yeah, trying and failing. It sounds like you developed your style by trying and failing to imitate your influences - people like Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, your cousin Buckle White, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian. GROSS: (Laughter) Now, I love the way you describe developing your style. GROSS: You hear the sound of that very first red guitar? Believe it or not, I still hear the sound of that sound, if you will, through the guitar that I play today. Man, how much more heaven can you have (laughter)? That's the way it seemed to me at the time. KING: No, I thought this was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. GROSS: Did you think that was cool or silly (laughter)? KING: It had a hole in center, and it was made by a company called Stella. King in 1996, his autobiography, "Blues All Around Me," had just been published. Although I'll still live on, but so lonely I'll be. You know you done me wrong, baby, and you'll be sorry someday. Here's his 1969 recording of one of the songs he was most associated with, "The Thrill Is Gone."ī B KING: (Singing) The thrill is gone. He recorded and performed well into his 80s and died in 2015 at the age of 89. He remained true to his blues style throughout countless shifts in the pop music world. He was a sharecropper's son who worked on a plantation until, as a young man, he relocated to Memphis in 1947 and began busking on streets with his guitar. King was born in 1925 in Indianola, Miss. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE THRILL IS GONE") ![]() Today, we have my 1988 interview with South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and my 1996 interview with one of the best-known blues singers and guitarists of all time, B.B. The interviews from our archive that we'll hear with performers featured in the film include Mavis Staples, Gladys Knight, Max Roach, and one of my favorite jazz singers, Abbey Lincoln. The documentary includes interviews describing the ways in which the festival reflected changes in Black culture and politics. The film features never-before-shown footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which showcased performances by soul, R&B, jazz and gospel performers, including Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, The Staple Singers and The 5th Dimension. We're ending the summer with our series Summer of Soul, a collection of interviews with musicians featured in Questlove's concert documentary, "Summer Of Soul." It was released over the summer and is streaming on Hulu. ![]()
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