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Blind Blake: early 1890s - c. 1933
Blind Blake was the Southeast region’s answer to country blues guitar genius. Only Blind Lemon Jefferson sold more records during the 1920s. Possibly the best ragtime guitarist ever, Blake left a raft of masterly recordings that combined elements of blues, ragtime, jazz, and minstrel, prompting the evolution of the Piedmont blues style. His elaborate finger picking technique was similar to playing ragtime piano on six strings and nobody has dominated it in such a way since.
Talk about an enigma. So little is known of Arthur “Blind” Blake’s life that it’s as if a ghost of rare talents came and went, leaving only the music as confirmation. What little has been pieced together is based on conjecture. The period of his recordings from 1926 to 1932 provides the most solid clues to his origins. Based on a single known photograph from his stretch with Paramount Records, it’s approximated that he was born in the early 1890s. Various reports allude to his birthplace as Jacksonville or Tampa, Florida. One of his recordings has Blake speaking Geechee dialect, suggesting a theory that he may have come from the South Georgia Sea Islands, though this is doubtful.
We can also glean from his music that he traveled widely, picking up various musical styles like country blues, skiffle jazz, music hall, and ragtime, all of which he incorporated into his repertoire fluently. Other bluesmen confirm sightings in Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia before actually arriving in Chicago sometime in the mid-1920s. One thing is certain, Blake made a indelible impact with his guitar playing. In the summer of 1926 he got his start backing vaudeville blues singer Leola B. Wilson. Paramount was quick to sign him as a solo artist and a month later he recorded the double sided “Early Morning Blues” and “West Coast Blues.” The latter became a minor hit and propelled him into the limelight.
Blake recorded around eighty solo sides for Paramount over the next six years and was also a favorite “stable” guitarist for the likes of Ma Rainey, Papa Charlie Jackson, Ida Cox, Johnny Dodds, and Gus Cannon. His extraordinary trove of recordings turned Blake into Paramount’s best-selling artist not to mention influencing other blues musicians and the evolution of the genre itself. Songs like “Southern Rag,” “Too Tight,” “Diddie Wa Diddie,” and “Sweet Jivin’ Mama,” all exemplify his sweeping range of styles and dexterity.
That dexterity classed him as a master of ragtime blues finger picking which basically imprinted the ragtime piano technique onto guitar strings. His left hand provided sophisticated rhythmic patterns while syncopating with the right hand thumb. It was this right hand action and his speed that put him in another realm. Skills that when matched with his array of polygenetic references placed Blake at the forefront of guitar finger picking.
When he wasn’t recording for Paramount, Blake supplemented his income by playing South Side Chicago house rent parties. His own apartment became a jamming den where the likes of Big Bill Broonzy, Roosevelt Sykes, Tampa Red, and Scrapper Blackwell would turn up regularly to booze and play the blues. None, supposedly, could keep up to Blake’s dazzling speed on the strings. Nor could they keep up to his love of whiskey. He apparently enjoyed getting drunk and fighting.
Due to the stock market crash Paramount Records collapsed in 1932 and Blake never recorded again. He left Chicago as mysteriously as he had arrived, most likely returning to Florida where he died unnoticed. No evidence exists as to how or when. What we’re left with is his exceptional body of work and that’s what really matters. Written by Tim Kirker for Tuneresource Music Inc.
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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