Big Bill Broonzy is synonymous with pre-war Chicago blues. One of the first artists to make his way to the Windy City, he became one of the most influential artists in blues history.
Broonzy reinvented himself many times. He made his own cigar box fiddle at the age of 10, and with help from his uncle, learned to play.
After he moved to Chicago in the 1920s, he switched from fiddle to guitar, learning from Papa Charlie Jackson. Broonzy worked as a Pullman porter, cook, and foundry worker until he mastered it.
Broonzy was also one of the first bluesmen in Chicago to play electric guitar, beginning in 1942, though his audiences preferred the acoustic sounds of the South.
When a younger generation of electric blues artists began ruling the Chicago scene, Broonzy found a new audience in the white, folk music lovers of both the United States and Europe.
Being a versatile artist with an instinct for professional survival, Broonzy first went to Europe in 1951. He was greeted by enthusiastic fans, and critical acclaim. Subsequent European tours found him influencing young British artists including John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Ray Davies, and Rory Gallagher. Broonzy felt most at home in the Netherlands, where there were no Jim Crow laws nor racism. He fell in love with a Dutch girl by the name of Pim van Isveldt, and fathered a son, Michael, who still lives in Amsterdam.
During his travels on the folk circuit, Broonzy became friends and performed with artists that included Pete Seeger, and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. His song, “Black, Brown and White Blues,” became a protest anthem against racism. In spite of the song’s critique of discrimination, some fans in the black community did not approve of his shift from blues to folk music. Regardless, upon returning from his last tour of France in 1956, he became a founding faculty member of the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago
Source: JD Nash - American Blues Scene
(photo © Robert Doisneau)
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