Background

Chester Arthur Burnett was born on June 19, 1910 on a plantation between West Point and Aberdeen, Mississippi, one of six children of Gertrude and Dock Burnett, poor farm laborers.

Education

Chester had little formal education, leaving school early to help his family with farm work. The Delta region, characterized by harsh poverty and hard physical labor in the fields, produced a rich music now recognized world-wide as one of America's great twentieth-century cultural artifacts. Young Burnett learned traditional field chants and spirituals in his childhood, and in his teens he learned the blues music endemic to small backwoods bars ("juke joints") where black workmen relaxed on weekends.

Career

From the late 1920's into the 1930's and 1940's, Burnett was an itinerant musician; he eventually chose the name "Howlin' Wolf" from a series of nicknames that included "Foot" and "Bull Cow. " His chosen name also alludes to hit song of the same title sung by John ("Funny Papa") Smith in the early 1930's. Its effect was undoubtedly intensified by the physical presence of the 300-pound, luminous-skinned Burnett.

From the late 1920's, Burnett developed his style largely under the influence of, and often under direct instruction from, more established blues musicians, especially Robert Johnson, Rice Miller (one of two bluesmen called "Sonny Boy Williamson, " who taught him to play harmonica), Blind Lemon Jefferson, Texas Alexander, and Charley Patton of Cleveland, Miss. According to Bertha Lee Patton, Charley Patton's wife, Burnett worked all day with Patton to master his technique. His other instrument was the guitar.

During World War II he served in the United States Army (1941 - 1945), frequently entertaining troops. After the war he moved to Twist, Arkansas, and Penton, Mississippi, where he did farm work. In 1947, however, at Lake Cummins, Mississippi, he formed his own band to work in juke joints.

At various times his band included James Cotton, Herman ("Little Junior") Parker, and teenage pianist and part-time talent scout Ike Turner. From 1948 to 1952 he worked at radio station KWEM in West Memphis, Arkansas, as disc jockey, performer, and salesman; he also began recording, first with Sam Phillips of the Sun label and then with Leonard Chess of Chess Records, to whom Phillips introduced him. He continued recording with Chess for well over a decade; his first hit, "Moanin' at Midnight, " was in 1951.

In 1952, in a decisive transition, Howlin' Wolf moved to Chicago to become part of the impressive blues scene there.

From 1961 to 1964 he toured with the American Blues Festival, playing concerts in England and Europe; he also performed at the First International Jazz Festival, in Washington, D. C. (1952).

The live performances were interspersed with frequent radio performances; he also made one appearance on network television, on "Shindig" (1965), with the Rolling Stones. By this time he was a blues celebrity; his performance caused a sensation at the 1966 Folk Festival at Newport, Rhode Island.

Burnett's last public performance was at the Chicago Amphitheater, with B. B. King, in November 1975.

He died in the Veterans Administration hospital in Hines, Illinois, and was buried at Oakridge Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.

Achievements

• Through the 1950's and 1960's Chester Burnett was one of the foremost figures in urban blues, along with singers like Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) and Jimmy Reed, performing on the South Side and the West Side of Chicago and increasingly on tour. His album called "The Back Door Wolf" won the Montreaux Festival Award in 1975. Burnett's popular songs included "Howlin' Blues, " "The Killing Floor, " "Smokestack Lightnin', " "Who's Been Talkin'? , " "Work for Your Money, " and "Worried About My Baby. " His deeply traditional repertoire sustained a strong if limited following throughout his career; his return to celebrity status was stimulated by the interest of largely British rock groups, who "rediscovered" him, went to see him, and brought him to Europe. In what was not a direct financial exploitation, but was certainly crosscultural aggrandizement, his Delta roots helped to revitalize and nourish the post-1960 transatlantic rock phenomenon, as well as to stabilize and to establish blues in American folk music.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - The Soul of a Man

    (DVD 2003)

  • Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Piano Blues
  • chester burnett aka howlin wolf LP
  • The Howlin' Wolf Story - The Secret History of Rock & Roll

Views

Burnett's urban status in the second half of his life never obscured or fundamentally changed the rural roots of his country blues style and technique.

These roots largely accounted for his influence on younger rock musicians; among the English and American groups who recorded his songs or who were openly indebted to Burnett's rhythm and blues style were some of the most famous names in international rock, including the Butterfield Blues Band, Cream, the Grateful Dead, and especially the Rolling Stones.

He also had a profound influence on younger blues musicians, including Johnny Shines ("Little Wolf") and B. B. King.

Quotations: He also turned from Rodgers's hillbilly yodeling, not suited to his voice, to blues shouting style: "I just stuck to the Wolf. I could do no yodelin' so I turned to Howlin'. "

Personality

His physical presence in the early 1930s was of the 300-pound, luminous-skinned man.

Interests

• Music & Bands

  Chester Burnett strongly admired the music of white country blues singer Jimmie Rodgers, whose blues yodeling stemmed from African-American blues music.

Connections

After marrying and divorcing fellow bluesman Willie Brown's sister during the 1930's, Burnett married Lillie Handley (also in the 1930's); they had four children.

Father:

Dock Burnett

Mother:

Gertrude Burnett

Wife:

Lillie Handley Burnett

1925–2001

References

• Chester Arthur Burnett
• Pretty Baby (Chester Burnett)
• The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 12: Music