Carey Bell

Carey Bell Harrington, harmonica player: born Macon, Mississippi 14 November 1936; married (15 children); died Chicago 7 May 2007.

A veteran of the Chicago blues scene, the harmonica player Carey Bell spent years supporting the giants of the genre before pursuing a successful career in his own right and going on to enjoy a highly fruitful musical partnership with his son, the guitarist and singer Lurrie Bell.

His playing, with its "chopped" phrasing and characteristically full tone, owed much to that of his heroes - Big Walter Horton, "Little Walter" Jacobs and Sonny Boy Williamson II - and can be heard to best effect on the albums Bell cut for the Alligator label, including Deep Down (1995) and Good Luck Man (1997).

He acquired his first harmonica at the age of eight and by the time he was in his late teens was performing in Chicago alongside his godfather, the pianist Lovie Lee. His arrival in the Windy City coincided with a downturn in the fortunes of the harmonica and he spent much of the 1960s playing electric bass behind stars such as Walter Horton and Earl Hooker. At the decade's close, he decided to re-focus his attention on the harmonica and, in 1969, recorded his début solo album, Carey Bell's Blues Harp, for the local Delmark label.

In the years that followed, he became an increasingly high-profile presence on the international blues circuit and toured and recorded with the likes of Muddy Waters, Lowell Fulson and Willie Dixon. It was, however, his 1990 collaboration with his fellow harmonica-players James Cotton, Junior Wells and Billy Branch, the award-winning Harp Attack!, that would bring his music to a wider audience.

In the years leading up to his death, Bell performed frequently with his son Lurrie, their partnership culminating in the fine acoustic disc Second Nature (2004) and, more recently, a live album entitled Gettin' Up (2007).

Paul Wadey

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