John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker was one of the greatest American blues singers and guitarists, and an important influence for many musicians today.

John Lee Hooker was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, on August 22, 1917 to William Hooker and Minnie Ramsey. His father was a parking attendant and pastor of the Baptist Church. He had six brothers and four sisters.

Rhythmically, his music was very free, a characteristic that has been common among the first acoustic blues musicians of the Delta. Their phrasing was not as tied to the standards of most blues singers. This informal and incoherent style was diluted with the appearance of Chicago's electric blues bands, but even when he didn't play alone, Hooker maintained his own sound.

Hooker's musical career began in 1948 when he achieved success with the single "Boogie Chillum," sung in a half-spoken style that would become characteristic.He maintained a solo career, always being popular among blues fans and folk music fans of the early 1960s, thus jumping to the white audience. Records like Black snake (1959), Wednesday evening blues (1960) or Birmingham blues (1963) asserted their prestige on both sides of the Atlantic. Bob Dylan was their opening act in New York in 1960. He died in San Francisco on June 21, 2001, aged 84.