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Blind Lemon Jefferson (1894-1929)

"See that my grave is kept clean!"

"Blind" Lemon Jefferson (October 26, 1894 – December 1929) was an influential blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s. Despite his commercial success, Jefferson stands alone in a category of his own. His musical style was extremely intense and individualistic, bearing little resemblance to the typical Texas blues style of the 1930s. Jefferson's singing and self-accompaniment seemed only loosely connected, and he appeared to improvise his accompaniment. His irregular vocal style and his freely structured field holler rhythms made the tension between his guitar and his voice wildly unpredictable. He was not influential on younger blues singers as they did not seek to imitate him as they did other commercially successful artists. Where, how, and from whom he learned to play guitar and learned his songs is unknown. Around 1912, he began performing at picnics and parties. He also became a street musician, playing in East Texas towns. By 1917, Jefferson had moved more or less permanently to Dallas, where he is reputed to have met and played with Lead Belly and was one of the early and prominent figures in the notable blues movement developing in Dallas' Deep Ellum area. Unlike many artists who were "discovered" and recorded in their normal venues, in December 1925 or January 1926, he was taken to Chicago, Illinois, to record his first tracks, released under the name Deacon L. J. Bates. This led to a second recording session in March 1926. His first releases under his own name, "Booster Blues" and "Dry Southern Blues", were hits; this led to the release of the other two songs from that session, "Got the Blues" and "Long Lonesome Blues", which became a runaway success, with sales in six figures. He recorded about 100 tracks between 1926 and 1929; 43 records were issued, all but one for Paramount Records. Jefferson is known to have done an unusual amount of traveling for the time in the American South, which is reflected in the difficulty of pigeonholing his music into one regional category. He sticks to no musical conventions, varying his riffs and rhythm and singing complex and expressive lyrics in a manner exceptional at the time for a "simple country blues singer". According to North Carolina musician Walter Davis, Jefferson played on the streets in Johnson City, Tennessee during the early 1920s at which time Walter Davis and fellow entertainer Clarence Greene learned the art of blues guitar. In 1927, Jefferson recorded another of his now classic songs, the haunting "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean". Jefferson died in Chicago in December 1929. The cause of death is unknown, and though rumors swirled that a jealous lover poisoned his coffee, a more likely scenario is that he died due to a heart attack after being disoriented during a snowstorm (another scenario is that he froze to death). Paramount Records paid for the return of his body to Texas by train, accompanied by pianist Will Ezell. Jefferson was buried at Wortham Negro Cemetery (now Wortham Black Cemetery). Far from his grave being kept clean, it was unmarked until 1967, when a Texas Historical Marker was erected in the general area of his plot, the precise location being unknown. By 1996, the cemetery and marker were in poor condition, but a new granite headstone was erected in 1997. In 2007 the cemetery's name was changed to Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery and keeping his wishes his gravesite is being kept clean by a cemetery committee in Wortham Texas. Jefferson had an intricate and fast style of guitar playing and a particularly high-pitched voice. He was a founder of the Texas blues sound and an important influence on the next generation of blues singers and guitarists, including Lead Belly and Lightnin' Hopkins. He was the author of many tunes covered by later musicians. (source: wikipedia.org)

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