B.B. King Enlivens His Own Tribute

Minute for minute, Monday’s Blues Foundation tribute at the Palace to living legend B.B. King was more testimonial than concert.

Momentum was scarce, and performances by the greats were fleeting during the two-hour-plus musical portion of the organization’s annual Hall of Fame celebration.

The Lifetime Achievement Award recipient himself mustered only a flash of electricity, but King’s ageless guitar work provided a sharp, if brief, jolt near the end of a numbing jam session.

The Palace was all gussied up like a supper club for the occasion, which also honored albums by Bobby “Blue” Bland and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band as well as musicians Slim Harpo, Koko Taylor and Brownie McGhee, author Arnold Shaw and Alligator Records founder Bruce Iglauer. The hourlong awards presentation featured loving speeches to King from Ruth Brown, Rufus Thomas and John Lee Hooker, and then the talent lined up to jam in honor of the 72-year-old axman.

Curiously, although the participants included such luminaries as Hooker, Ike Turner, Buddy Guy, Dr. John, Bonnie Raitt and Joe Louis Walker, there were few transcendent moments.

Guy was uncharacteristically subdued, trading his usually brazen Chicago blues for a quieter variety, while Turner tore up the piano, coaxing 80-year-old Memphis icon Thomas, an early King mentor, back out to sing the classic “Rocket 88.”

The most significant performance passed nearly unrecognized by the crowd, as three members of the Butterfield Band--guitarist Elvin Bishop, keyboardist Mark Naftalin and drummer Sam Lay--gathered for a rare reunion, performing “Born in Chicago” with Charlie Musselwhite on vocals. Bishop’s taut, ringing guitar work marked one of the few times an instrument really seemed to sing the blues.

When King finally took the stage, he was generous to a fault, prompting every band member to solo while he strode about, teasing listeners with scant licks through which his famous style rang loud and clear. When he settled down for a few minutes in the spotlight, the rich, vibrating, melodic chords he peeled off resonated with 50 years worth of traveling, conveying the essence of the road, the stage, the constant change and blunted sameness of life on tour. He wasn’t up there more than 20 minutes, but for that short span, time stood still.