| Hubert Sumlin | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Hubert Sumlin |
| Born | November 16, 1931 Greenwood, Mississippi, United States |
| Died | December 4, 2011 (aged 80) Wayne, New Jersey, United States |
| Genres | Chicago blues, electric blues[1] |
| Occupations | Singer, guitarist |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals |
| Years active | 1954–2011 |
| Associated acts | Howlin' Wolf Muddy Waters |
| Website | Official website |
| Notable instruments | |
| Gibson Les Paul Goldtop | |
Hubert Sumlin (November 16, 1931 – December 4, 2011) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer.[1] He was best known for his celebrated work, from 1955, as guitarist in Howlin' Wolf's band. His singular playing was characterized by "wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic suspensions".[2] Sumlin was listed as number 43 in the Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.[3]
Sumlin favored a Louis Electric Model HS M12 amplifier and a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop guitar.
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Born in Greenwood, Mississippi, United States, Sumlin was raised in Hughes, Arkansas. When he was eight years old, he got his first guitar.[4] As a boy, Sumlin first met Howlin' Wolf by sneaking into a performance. When Howlin' Wolf relocated from Memphis to Chicago in 1953, his long-time guitarist Willie Johnson chose not to join him. Upon his arrival in Chicago, Wolf first hired Chicago guitarist Jody Williams, and in 1954 Wolf invited Sumlin to relocate to Chicago to play second guitar in his Chicago-based band. Williams left the band in 1955, leaving Sumlin as the primary guitarist in Wolf's band, a position he held almost continuously (except for a brief spell playing with Muddy Waters around 1956) for the remainder of Wolf's career. According to Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf sent Sumlin to a classical guitar instructor at the Chicago Conservatory of Music for awhile to learn the keyboards and scales.[5] Sumlin played on the album Howlin' Wolf, also called The Rockin' Chair Album, which was named the third greatest guitar album of all time by Mojo magazine in 2004.[6][7]
Upon Wolf's death in 1976, Sumlin continued on with several other members of the late Howlin' Wolf's band under the name "The Wolf Pack" until about 1980. Sumlin has also recorded under his own name, beginning with a session recorded while touring Europe with Wolf in 1964. His final solo effort was About Them Shoes, released in 2004 by Tone-Cool Records. He underwent lung removal surgery the same year, yet Sumlin continued performing until just before his death.
Sumlin was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2008.[8] He was nominated for four Grammy Awards; in 1999 for the album Tribute to Howlin' Wolf with Henry Gray, Calvin Jones, Sam Lay, and Colin Linden, in 2000 for Legends with Pinetop Perkins, in 2006 for his solo project About Them Shoes (which featured performances by Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Levon Helm, David Johansen and James Cotton) and in 2010 for his participation on Kenny Wayne Shepherd's Live! in Chicago. He won multiple Blues Music Awards, and was a judge for the fifth annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.[9]
He died on December 4, 2011, in a hospital in Wayne, New Jersey, of heart failure at the age of 80.[10] Mick Jagger and Keith Richards paid Sumlin's funeral costs.[11]
| Year | Title | Label | Number | Notes |
| 1964 | American Folk Blues | Amiga | 850 043 | Germany |
| 1974 | Kings of Chicago Blues, Vol. 2 | Disques Vogue | LDM 30175 | France, recorded 1971 |
| 1976 | Groove | Black & Blue | 33.511 | France, recorded 1975 |
| 1980 | Gamblin' Woman | L + R | 42.008 | Germany, recorded 1980 |
| 1987 | Hubert Sumlin's Blues Party | Black Top | BT-1036 | US |
| 1989 | Heart & Soul | Blind Pig | BP-3389 | US |
| 1990 | Healing Feeling | Black Top | BT-1053 | US |
| 1991 | Blues Guitar Boss | JSP | 239 | UK, recorded 1990 in London |
| 1994 | Made in Argentina 1993 | Blues Special | 9501 | Argentina, recorded 1993 in Buenos Aires with Emilion Villanueva and the Kansas City Boys |
| 1994 | I'm the Back Door Man | Blues Special | 9506 | Argentina, recorded 1993 in Buenos Aires |
| 1996 | Blues Classics | Bellaphon | 82007 | Germany, recorded 1964 in East Berlin |
| 1998 | I Know You | APO | 2004 | US |
| 1998 | Wake Up Call | Blues Planet | 1116 | US |
| 1999 | Pinetop Perkins & Hubert Sumlin: Legends | Telarc | 83446 | US |
| 2003 | Doing the Don't | Intuition | 34252 | Germany; Elliott Sharp's Terraplane, with Hubert Sumlin |
| 2004 | About Them Shoes | Tone-Cool/Artemis Records | 51609 | US, also Rykodisc RCD 17307 in the UK |
| Year | Title | Label | Number | Notes |
| 2005 | The Blues Guitar of Hubert Sumlin | Homespun Tapes | SUMGT21 | US, VHS & DVD |