JAZZ CASUAL:B.B. KING

This performance by blues giant B.B. King performed on Gleason's intimate live music program is a great example of the man's playing at the height of his considerable powers. Though King's later work is still very good, it really doesn't hold a candle to his playing in the early 1960s, when his sound was raw, his singing less affected, and his fingers more agile. Features six songs, including "Got a Whole Lot of Lovin'" and "That's Wrong, Little Mama." Originally broadcast May 9, 1968.

B.B. King. His very name evokes aural images of warbling, lilting blues guitar lines, and a shouting, wailing voice singing about love gone bad. When most of us think of B.B. King, we probably think of him as he appeared in his middle and later years: a large, stout man in sequined jackets with large rings on his hands. We don't think of him as the boy and young man who played his guitar and sang on street corners in his native Mississippi.

B.B. King. His very name evokes aural images of warbling, lilting blues guitar lines, and a shouting, wailing voice singing about love gone bad. When most of us think of B.B. King, we probably think of him as he appeared in his middle and later years: a large, stout man in sequined jackets with large rings on his hands. We don't think of him as the boy and young man who played his guitar and sang on street corners in his native Mississippi.