To honor famed bluesman B.B. King upon his visit on Sept. 12, Library curators assembled several artifacts from the collections related to jazz in general and King in particular. - Michaela McNichol
Blues ambassador B.B. King, who in his 80th year still tours the country with his beloved guitar, Lucille, received the Library's Living Legend Award in a ceremony held on Sept. 12 at the Library.
For more than 60 years, King has defined the blues for a worldwide audience. He has released dozens of albums, many of them Grammy-winning classics, and his performing style has been a model for thousands of young players. He holds a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a Kennedy Center Honors Award and is a member of the Blues Foundation and Rock and Roll halls of fame.
The night before the Library's award ceremony, King, who celebrated his birthday on Sept. 16, performed at Wolf Trap, Va., and he had a dizzying schedule of Washington-area appearances to promote his new CD, "B.B. King and Friends—80" and a new book, "The B.B. King Treasures." He signed and gave both to the Library.
King also recorded an interview to contribute to the oral history archives of the American Folklife Center (AFC) in the Library of Congress, to help launch the Library's new multiyear, multidimensional celebration of Creativity Across America, which will include concert and film tours, oral histories, teacher institutes and other programs around the country.
The 80-year-old jazz legend, wearing his newly awarded Living Legend medal, presented a copy of his new book to the Library. - Michaela McNichol
The Library inaugurated its Living Legend Award in its bicentennial year, 2000. (For more information about the award visit the Web site at www.loc.gov/about/awards/legends/.)
"All of those honored reflect the breadth and diversity of America's cultural and civic heritage, which is mirrored in the Library's collections and includes artists, writers, activists, filmmakers, physicians, entertainers, sports figures and public servants," observed Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.
"The life and music of B.B. King are without question in this lofty category of achievement," said Billington, presenting King with the large gold medallion that has gone to, among others, Yo-Yo Ma, Pete Seeger, Dave Brubeck, Dolly Parton, Itzhak Perlman, Leontyne Price and Tony Bennett.
Speaking less formally in front of cases displaying the Library's famous Stradivarius instruments, to which King had alluded, Billington added, "We are fortunate to have the Strads, but we are also happy to have you—Lucille—and you, as her courtier. We feel less blue because of the blues."
Clearly appreciative of the Library's award, for which he thanked Billington and "all of you at the Library," King also was moved by the grandeur of the Main Reading Room and the Great Hall, which he toured on his way to the ceremony in the Whittall Pavilion.
"I have played in 90 countries, and I have never seen anything more beautiful than this," he told the Librarian as he gazed upward in the Great Hall, which glowed in light from the late afternoon sun. "I am so happy you showed me this. I feel more proud of my country than ever."
While at the Library, King saw some samples of the vast collections.
"This is a letter written by Huddie Ledbetter, Lead Belly, in 1941," said AFC Director Peggy Bulger showing the document to King as he sat before the cameras in the center's recording studio.
"This is so wonderful. I never dreamed I would see something like this," King said.
"And this is the original recording of Booker Washington "Bukka" White, your cousin," said Bulger, handing him a large acetate disc. "It was recorded in 1939 in Parchman, Miss., by John A. and Ruby Lomax."
"Thanks for letting me hold this," he said.
The recording triggered King's memory of his mother's first cousin. "I loved him," he said. "When he came to visit, he always brought candy. He always had a good sense of what bothered you."
King recalled White's advice to him, then an aspiring young musician: "'If you are going to be a blues singer, dress every day as if you are going to the bank to borrow money.'"
Asked if White had influenced his music, King replied, "I liked gospel and jazz. There is a very thin line between gospel and blues, mostly in the lyrics. A lot of people didn't want to sing the blues; they wanted to sing gospel. But to me, gospel has a boogie-woogie beat, eight beats to the bar."
"Did you start with a guitar?" asked Bulger.
"I started with one string, a piece of wire off a broom stick." King described nailing both ends of the wire to the outside of the house on the back stoop and using two bricks as bridges to make the wire taught.
Eventually he acquired his first guitar, succeeded by 15 others, all called Lucille. While posing for pictures after getting his award, King told the story of how Lucille got her name.
"I used to play quite often in Twist, Ark., 45 miles northwest of Memphis. It got cold, and for warmth they set a pail half full of kerosene in the middle of the dance floor for people to dance around.
"One night two guys got to fighting, and they knocked the kerosene over," said King. Rivers of fire spread over the dance floor, and everyone ran for the front door, including B.B. King. "Then I remembered my guitar, and I ran back for it. The building was burning rapidly; timbers were falling in, and I almost lost my life."
He rescued the guitar, which he named Lucille for the girl the two men were fighting over. "I wanted to remind myself never to do that," King said.
Remembering one of his first big concerts in Memphis, he recalled some sound advice from his first manager: "Don't get up there and try to be Nat King Cole; just be yourself."
Confessing that he still gets nervous before playing in front of a strange audience ("It's like meeting your in-laws for the first time. You want to impress them and you want them to like you"), he said he still has to remember "to just be myself."
Bulger asked if there were some event in his life or music that stood out as remarkable. "Coming here to the Library is very important to me," he replied.
