Big Bill Broonzy

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Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley, 1903 – August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist.

His career began in the 1920s, when he performed country blues to predominantly African-American audiences.

He successfully navigated a shift in style to a more urban blues in the 1930s and 1940s, attracting working-class African-American audiences.

He was one of the leading figures of the emerging American folk music revival and an international celebrity in the 1950s.

His long and varied career makes him one of the key figures in the emergence of blues music in the twentieth century. During his lifetime, Broonzy copiedrighted more than 300 songs, including both versions of traditional folk songs and original blues songs.

He was one of the few blues composers to write songs that reflected his rural-to-urban life.

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Life and career

Born Lee Conley Bradley, he was one of Frank Broonzy (Bradley) and Mittie Belcher's 17 children. The time and location of his birth are uncertain. Broonzy appeared to have been born in Scott, Mississippi, but a body of emerging research gathered by the blues scholar Robert Reisman shows he was born in Jefferson County, Arkansas. Broonzy claimed he was born in 1893, and most estimates point to that year, but family records found after his death indicated that the year was 1903. Bill and his family moved to Lake Dick, Arkansas, near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where Bill spent his youth. He started playing music at an early age. Jerry Belcher, a ten-year-old boy, made himself a fiddle from a cigar box and learned how to perform spirituals and folk songs from his uncle. Louis Carter, a handmade guitar player, and a friend, Louis Carter, began appearing at social and church functions. These early performances included performances at "two stages": picnics where whites and blacks danced at the same venue, but with different stages for blacks and whites.

According to reports, Broonzy, a 17-year-old Broonzy, was married and working as a sharecropper in 1898 rather than earlier or later. He had discarded playing the fiddle and had become a preacher. According to a tale, he was given $50 and a new violin if he would play for four days at a local venue. His wife took the money and invested it before he could respond to the offer, so he had to play.

It has been previously reported that drought destroyed his crops and livestock in 1916 and he returned to work in Europe until he was drafted into the Army in 1917. And that after he was released from the Army in 1919, he left Pine Bluff and moved to the Little Rock area.

However, Broonzy's family records, census results, and local draft cards revealed that he was only 14 years old when the United States entered WWI in 1917, and that Broonzy never served in the Army during World War I.

In 1920, Broonzy moved north to Chicago in the search of adventure.

Bronzy switched from fiddle to guitar after arriving in Chicago. He learned to play the guitar from veteran minstrel and medicine show performer Papa Charlie Jackson, who began playing for Paraphrasedoutput in 1924. Broonzy spent his remaining years in various odd jobs, including Pullman porter, baker, and custodian, but his greatest passion was music. He performed at rent parties and social gatherings, steadily improving his guitar playing. He created "Saturday Night Rub," a solo guitar piece during his heydays.

Broonzy was able to book an interview with Paramount executive J. Mayo Williams thanks to his connections with Jackson. Broonzy's first test recordings, which were made with his buddy John Thomas on vocals, were rejected, but his second attempt, a few months later, was more fruitful. In 1927, Bill's Blues, his first album, "House Rent Stomp," was released, credited to Big Bill and Thomps (Paramount 12656). Despite the fact that the album was not well liked, Paramount retained its new talent and in the coming years, Big Bill and Thomps would have more albums. The records were not well-received. The reviewers characterized his style as immature and derivative.

Paramount used Bronzy's full name on a record in 1930, but it was mispelled as "Big Bill Broomsley" in its transcript. Bronzy was still poor, and he was working at a grocery store. Lester Melrose, a singer who has produced musical appearances for various companies, including Champion Records and Gennett Records, was chosen up by him. In January 1931, Harum Scarums, a trio made up of Broonzy, Georgia Tom, and Mozelle Alderson, recorded the two-part "Alabama Scratch" in Grafton, Wisconsin, and it was reported that it sounded "as if it was a real party" as it was described. Big Bill Johnson was a popular musician on the spring of 1931, and Broonzy appeared on several sides. In March 1932, he moved to New York City and began recording for the American Record Corporation on their line of less expensive labels (Melotone Records, Perfect Records, and others). These records were more popular, and Broonzy was getting more well known. He was back in Chicago and was playing in South Side clubs on a regular basis, and he toured with Memphis Minnie.

Broonzy's affiliate Bluebird Records began recording with the pianist known as "Black Bob" in 1934. Black Bob's music was shifting to a more R&B sound, and his singing sounded more assured and personal. He began playing with Joshua Altheimer in 1937, recording and performing with a small instrumental ensemble that included "traps" (drums), double bass, and one or two melody instruments (horns, harmonica, or both). He began recording for Vocalion Records in March 1938.

Broonzy's name has grown. At the "From Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall, produced by John H. Hammond, he was asked to fill in for the recently deceased Robert Johnson. He appeared at the 1939 concert at the same venue. His participation led him to a small part in Swingin' the Dream, Gilbert Seldes's jazz interpretation of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream set in New Orleans in 1890, including Louis Armstrong as Bottom and Maxine Sullivan as Titania.

Broonzy's output during the 1930s only partially reflects his contribution to Chicago's blues. Washboard Sam, his half-brother, and his colleagues Jazz Gillum and Tampa Red have both been recorded for Bluebird. Broonzy was credited as the maker of several of their most popular albums of the time. He is said to have played guitar on the majority of Washboard Sam's songs. Broonzy was extremely careful not to have his name appear on these artists' albums only as a composer due to his unique relationship with his record label.

Broonzy developed his writing skills during the 1940s, which proved to be more popular among his increasingly affluent city audience as well as those that shared his country roots. His career during this period shows that he toured a broader musical spectrum than nearly every other bluesman before or after, including in his repertoire ragtime, hokum blues, country blues, urban blues, jazz-tinged songs, folk songs, and spirituals. Broonzy performed songs that were the bridge that allowed several younger artists to cross over to the future of the blues: the electric blues of postwar Chicago. The way forward was clearly shown by his 1945 recordings of "Where the Blues Began" with Big Maceo on piano and Buster Bennett on sax, as well as "Martha Blues" with Memphis Slim on piano. "Key to the Highway," one of his best-known songs, was released at this time. Broonzy was signed by Mercury Records when the second American Federation of Musicians' strike ended in 1948.

Broonzy performed in 1949, when I Come for to Sing, a touring folk music revue founded by Win Stracke, also featuring Studs Terkel and Lawrence Lane. Terkel dubbed him the company's most important figure. The revue had some success as a result of the revival of folk music. When the revue came to a stop-performing at Iowa State University in Ames, Broonzy met Leonard and Lillian Feinberg, who found him in a custodial job at Iowa State when a doctor ordered Broonzy to stop touring later this year. He remained in Ames until 1951, when he rediscovered touring.

After performing there and building relationships with a likely intention to cultivate his own authority and craft, he left Chicago in 1950 to work as a janitor at Iowa State. The exposure from I Come for to Sing made Broonzy's return to action in 1951 a possibility. He was greeted with standing ovations and applause wherever he went. The tour was a turning point in his career, and when he returned to the United States, he was a featured act with numerous well-known folk artists, including Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. His financial position became more stable from 1953 to 2006, and he was able to live well off his earnings from music. He returned to his roots as a solo folk-blues and travelled and recorded extensively. Broonzy's numerous appearances in British folk and jazz clubs during the 1950s and 1950s were a major influence on British audiences' knowledge of the blues and helped support the early British folk revival and early blues revival. Bert Jansch, one of many British musicians on the folk scene, cited him as a central figure in their careers. In addition, John Lennon, a member of the Beatles, cited Broonzy as a primary influence.

Broonzy met and became romantically involved with Pim van Isveldt, a Dutch woman, while in the Netherlands. Michael, a boy who now lives in Amsterdam, and they had a baby.

Broonzy and Studs Terkel, a 1953-born Broonzy, were taken by Broonzy to Circle Pines Center, a year-round camp in Delton, Michigan, where he was employed as the summer camp cook. He worked there from 1953 to 1956. Pete Seeger, 54, travelled to Circle Pines and performed with Broonzy on the farm lawn, which was caught by Seeger on the new fine-arts radio station in Chicago, WFMT-FM.

Broonzy's autobiography, Big Bill Blues, was published in 1955, with the help of Belgian writer Yannick Bruynoghe. He toured around the world, visiting Africa, South America, the Pacific region, and Europe from early 1956. Broonzy was one of the founding faculty members of the Old Town School of Folk Music in 1957. On the school's first night, December 1, he taught a class called "The Glory of Love."

Broonzy was suffering from throat cancer by 1958. He died on August 14, or 15, 1958 (sources differ on the exact date) and is buried in Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois.

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