By Jaclyn Breeze — Edward James “Son” House Jr. was a blues singer and guitarist. He was born in Lyon, Mississippi in 1902. He was very vocal in his early teens about how he hated the blues. When he was 25 years old, he was with one of his friends and heard someone playing bottleneck guitar (a style of playing with lots of glissandos and vibrato), which he had never heard before and he immediately changed his mind about the blues. He went and bought a guitar and began busking. Another blues musician, Charley Patton, saw him and invited him to play in his group. Patton was signed with Paramount Records and brought Son House along to the recording session. The songs did not do well after release and Son House did not record again for 35 years. In 1964, Son House was living in Rochester, NY, and working at a train station, as he had been retired from music for many years. He learned that his early recordings were becoming internationally popular and he began recording again and touring the United States and Europe. He retired again in 1974 and lived in Michigan until his death in 1988.
Listen to some of his work here:
What other famous musicians lived in Rochester? Head to the library or Google to find some of them! Let us know which is your favorite and why at jaclyn@jazz901.org.