 |
(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.
|
