Blind Blake | |
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![The only known photograph of Blake,[1] ca. 1927](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aBlind_Blake.jpg) The only known photograph of Blake,[1] ca. 1927 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Blind Blake |
| Born | Arthur Blake 1896 |
| Died | December 1, 1934(1934-12-01) (aged 37–38) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instruments |
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| Labels | Paramount |
| Formerly of | Irene Scruggs |
Arthur Blake (1896 – December 1, 1934), known asBlind Blake, was an Americanblues andragtime singer and guitarist. He is known for recordings he made forParamount Records between 1926 and 1932.
Little is known of Blake's life. Promotional materials fromParamount Records indicate he was born blind and gave his birthplace asJacksonville, Florida, and it seems that he lived there during various periods. He may have had relatives inPatterson, Georgia. Some authors have written that in one recording he slipped into aGeechee (Gullah) dialect, suggesting a connection with theSea Islands.Blind Willie McTell indicated that Blake's real name was Arthur Phelps, but later research has shown this is unlikely to be correct.[2] In 2011, a group of researchers led by Alex van der Tuuk published various documents regarding Blake's life and death in the journalBlues & Rhythm. One of these documents is his 1934 death certificate, which states he was born in 1896 inNewport News, Virginia, to Winter and Alice Blake (his mother's name is followed by a question mark).[3] Nothing else is known of Blake until the 1920s, when he emerged as a recording musician.
Blake recorded about 80 tracks forParamount Records from 1926 to 1932.[4] He was one of the most accomplished guitarists of his genre and played a diverse range of material.[5] He is best known for his distinctive guitar playing, which was comparable in sound and style toragtime piano.[1] He may have lived in Jacksonville, going toChicago for his recording sessions. According to van der Tuuk et al., he returned to Florida for the winter. In the 1930s he was reported to be playing in front of a Jacksonville hotel.[3]
Blake's first recordings were made in 1926,[6] and his records sold well. His first solo record was "Early Morning Blues", with "West Coast Blues" on theB-side. Both are considered excellent examples of his ragtime-based guitar style and were prototypes for the burgeoningPiedmont blues. Blake made his last recordings in 1932; his career ended with Paramount's bankruptcy.[5] Stefan Grossman and Gayle Dean Wardlow have suggested it is possible that only one side of Blake's last record is actually by him;[7]"'Champagne Charlie Is My Name' does not sound like Blake's playing or singing". Two of Blake's Paramount single releases, "Miss Emma Liza" / "Dissatisfied Blues" and "Diddie Wa Diddie" / "Police Dog Blues", are either seemingly lost or no listenable copy exists.[8]
His complex and intricate fingerpicking inspiredReverend Gary Davis,Jorma Kaukonen,Ry Cooder,Arlen Roth,John Fahey,Ralph McTell, David Bromberg,Leon Redbone and many others.Big Bill Broonzy, hearing Blake in person in the early 1920s, said of his guitar playing "He made it sound like every instrument in the band- saxophone, trombone, clarinets, bass fiddles, pianos- everything. I never had seed then and I haven't to this day yet seed no one that could take his natural fingers and pick as much guitar as Blind Blake."[9]
The track "You Gonna Quit Me" fromBob Dylan's 1992 albumGood as I Been to You is a cover of Blind Blake's "You Gonna Quit Me Blues."
Blake married Beatrice McGee around 1931. In the following year, he made his final recording at the Paramount headquarters inGrafton, Wisconsin, just before the label went out of business.
For decades nothing was known of him after this point, and it was rumored that he met with a violent death.Reverend Gary Davis heard he had been hit by astreetcar in 1934 andBig Bill Broonzy thought that he had frozen to death after falling over drunk during a Chicago blizzard and was too overweight to get back up.[10] The research of van der Tuuk et al. suggests that Blake stayed in Wisconsin, living inMilwaukee'sBrewer's Hill neighborhood, where Paramount boarded many of its artists. He seems not to have found work as a musician. In April 1933, he was hospitalized withpneumonia and never fully recovered. On December 1, 1934, after three weeks of decline, Beatrice Blake summoned an ambulance. He had apulmonary hemorrhage and died on the way to the hospital. The cause of death was listed aspulmonary tuberculosis. He was buried in Glen Oaks Cemetery, inGlendale, Wisconsin in a previously unmarked grave.[3]
Blake figures in the plot ofLee Child's firstJack Reacher novel,Killing Floor (1997), and there are references to him in Child's 2011prequel,The Affair. Reference to Blake is made again inThe Sentinel (2020), written by Lee Child and his brotherAndrew Child, when Jack Reacher is on the lookout for venues in Nashville, 'where Blind Blake could have played'.
Blake's original recording of "Diddy Wah Diddy" is referenced on the cover ofRobert Crumb'sZap Comix #1.
"Blind Blake" and his song "Police Dog Blues" appear inReacher, Season 1, the TV series based on Lee Child's novel,Killing Floor. The main character Jack Reacher (a blues lover) arrives at the fictional town of Margrave, Georgia looking for some trace of Blake.
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