Home » Jazz Musicians » Robert Lockwood Jr.

Robert Lockwood Jr.

Robert Jr. Lockwood typified the history of blues (country to city) from the 1930’s to the present. Far more sophisticated than other blues artists who opt for 3 to 5 chord structures, standard 12-bar outings and the ever-present 7ths (blue notes), he developed from a rural country blues artist to a musician who excelled in jazz, rhythm and blues, and jump. He was a well-rounded, consummate musician with original compositions ranging from acoustic country blues to electric big city blues.

Lockwood was born March 27, 1915 in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, a farming hamlet about 25 miles west of Helena. 1915 was remarkable because several other monumental blues artists were born within a 100-mile radius that year; notably Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Little Walter Jacobs, Memphis Slim, Johnny Shines, and Honeyboy Edwards. They would all meet up in the future.

His first musical lessons were on the family pump organ. He learned the guitar, at age eleven, from Robert Johnson, the mysterious delta bluesman, who was living with his mother. From Johnson, Lockwood learned chords, timing, and stage presence. By the age of fifteen, Robert was playing professionally, often with Johnson; sometimes with Johnny Shines or Rice Miller, who would soon be calling himself Sonny Boy Williamson II. Johnson’s fast lifestyle caught up with him, passing away in 1937. Lockwood was 22 but prepared for the future.

Lockwood’s first recordings came in 1941, with Doc Clayton, on his famous Bluebird Sessions in Aurora, Illinois. During these sessions, he cut four singles under his own name. These were the first incarnations of “Take A Little Walk with Me”, and “Little Boy Blue,” Lockwood staples sixty years later.

Later in 1941, Lockwood was back in Arkansas where he re-united with Sonny Boy II to host a live radio program broadcast at noon from KFFA in Helena, sponsored by the King Biscuit Flower Company. James “Peck” Curtis and Dudlow Taylor provided the rhythm. This show became a cultural phenomenon; everybody would listen during his or her lunch hour. Several generations of southern bluesman can trace their musical roots to the show.

Lockwood moved around, the usual route was Memphis, St. Louis, to Chicago. By the early 1950’s, he had surfaced in the Windy City, where he became the top session man for Chess Records, the epitome of blues labels. Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Walter, Roosevelt Sykes, Sunnyland Slim, and Eddie Boyd, whom he toured with for six years, you can hear his smooth chords on their recordings.

Read more

Tags

221
Album Review

Robert Jr. Lockwood: Steady Rollin' Man

Read "Steady Rollin' Man" reviewed by Nic Jones


Guitarist Robert Jr. Lockwood had Robert Johnson not only as a stepfather but also as a guitar tutor. What Johnson couldn't have taught him, however, was how to come by ears big enough to take in the playing of Charlie Christian, but the fact that he did gives this music an edge it might otherwise have lacked. Where Lockwood could have fallen back on every blues cliché in the book, he instead produces lines of exceptional fluidity that are arguably ...

Read more articles

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Steady Rollin' Man

Delmark Records
2007

buy

Delta Crossroads

Telarc Records
2000

buy

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.