The guitar great Hubert Sumlin has died at the age of 80. Sumlin was Howlin' Wolf's right arm and made a huge contribution to American blues music. His death was attributed to heart failure. Sumlin was born in Greenwood, Mississippi but raised in Arkansas. He played with Wolf for decades, joining him in 1954, but also played with many other musicians, including Muddy Waters for a stint in 1956. Wolf reportedly sent him to the Chicago Musical College for classical instruction.
Sumlin was known for the biting staccato lick that you hear in songs like Smokestack Lightning, a lick that all of his imitators tried to copy but really couldn't. Life on the road was often hard and I enclose a passage from today's Chicago Tribune that illustrates the tension and travails.
Sumlin was known for the biting staccato lick that you hear in songs like Smokestack Lightning, a lick that all of his imitators tried to copy but really couldn't. Life on the road was often hard and I enclose a passage from today's Chicago Tribune that illustrates the tension and travails.
"Showing up after a gig had ended in Little Rock, Ark., in the 1950s, Sumlin nonchalantly piled into the car heading to the next date. It didn't take long before Wolf interrupted the journey, dragged Sumlin out of the vehicle and shoved him down a hill, costing the musician two front teeth.Mr. Sumlin was a quiet, self effacing and humble man who will be missed by all lovers of our important blues heritage.
"He was a big man, and he scared me half to death!" Sumlin said in a Tribune interview earlier this year.
A few days later, Sumlin turned up unannounced at Silvio's, a landmark Chicago blues club where the Wolf often howled, and cocked his fist.
"I hit him!" Sumlin recalled in the Tribune interview. "I knocked his teeth out too. And afterward, he laughed. … I hated I did it. I apologized. But you know what the guy did? We went back to work."
