Background
He was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. His father ran a juke joint which featured musicians such as Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Nighthawk, and Hill learned to play the saxophone.
He was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. His father ran a juke joint which featured musicians such as Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Nighthawk, and Hill learned to play the saxophone.
Hill was Turner"s regular tenor saxophone player at the band"s first recording sessions at the Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, in March 1951, which produced the Rhythm & Blues classic "Rocket 88", credited to Hill"s fellow saxophonist and singer Jackie Brenston. The record features a solo by the 17-year-old Hill, after Brenston"s cry of "blow your horn, Raymond, blow!". The single reached no.1 on the Rhythm & Blues chart and has often been called "the first rock and roll record".
Hill left Turner"s regular performing band in 1952 after a dispute over payments.
However, he continued to play on some of Turner"s records, and also worked as a session musician at Sun and other local labels, backing Howlin" Wolf and Little Junior Parker among others Hill plays tenor sax on Parker"s "Mystery Train" and is the lead performer on the instrumental side, Participant 2, of Jessie Hill"s "Oo-poo-pah-doo".
"Spread your fingers, Raymond!", the unrelated Jessie Hill shouts out. In October 1952 he recorded a session with his own band, including Turner"s former guitarist Willie Kizart, which remained unreleased for many years.
He also recorded with Turner"s band, featuring Turner on guitar and Billy Emerson on piano, releasing the single "The Snuggle" / "Bourbon Street Jump" under his own name on Sun in 1954, both sides being instrumentals.
From 1955, he returned to working in Turner"s band on a full-time basis, and moved to Saint Louis, Missouri with them. In 1957 he had a relationship with the band"s new 17-year-old backing singer Anna Mae Bullock, then known as Little Ann and later as Tina Turner. Before the birth, Hill broke his ankle and left the band, staying with Jackie Brenston in Saint Louis, while Ike Turner and his band moved to California.
Foreign a time Hill worked in Albert King"s band, before returning to Clarksdale.
He died of heart failure in Clarksdale in 1996, at the age of 62.
He was best known as a member of Ike Turner"s band the Kings of Rhythm in the 1950s, and also recorded under his own name and worked as a session musician.