Detroit Blues/Jazz/R&B Legend, Johnnie Bassett dies at 76…

 

Guitarist, singer and songwriter Johnnie Bassett grew up with blues music all around him in his native Florida, then honed his craft in The Motor City…

Check out what he had to say about his “I Can Make That Happen” album…

His unique ability to combine jump blues and Delta stylings, coupled with Motor City grittiness, gives his playing a distinctive sound….

Johnnie was a link to Detroit's musical glory days, during Detroit's vibrant '50s…

having played behind such talents as Little Willie John, John Lee Hooker   

Dinah Washington:

Bassett was also a session guitarist for Detroit's legendary Fortune Records…

He also played on sessions for Smokey Robinson & the Miracles in the late '50s, before Motown was launched….

Bassett was born in Marianna, Fla., on Oct. 9, 1935. The Bassetts moved to Detroit in 1944, and his brother got him his first guitar, a Kay, when he was a student 
at Northwestern High School…

DETROIT'S NORTHWESTERN HIGH SCHOOL--A LOT OF TALENT!!!

.

Bassett took to the guitar, and 
as a teenager started playing at 
talent shows, 
theaters and nightclubs 
around Detroit 
with a friend from school, 
pianist Joe Weaver, 

in a combo they started 
calling Joe Weaver
 & The Blue Notes…

Bassett and the Blue Notes were playing 
hotspots such as Basin Street East 
and the Frolic Showbar before they were 
old enough to drink. 
They'd only been at the Frolic for three weeks 
when they were anointed 
the house band in the mid-'50s.

After Bassett's family moved to Detroit 
in 1944, he made his debut as a guitarist 
with Joe Weaver and the Bluenotes, 
a teenage R&B band. 
The group won local talent contests 
and were hired to back up
 Big Joe Turner

 

Ruth Brown 

and others on their tour stops in Detroit...
As a session guitaris at Fortune Records he 
backed up...

 Nolan Strong and the Diablos, 
   

Andre Williams and the Don Juans:

 and the Five Dollars…

During his Detroit days, he also accompanied 
John Lee Hooker,

 Eddie Burns,

Alberta Adams,  

Lowell Fulson  

AND:

The T.J. Fowler Band

 

In 1994, Bassett received a lifetime achievement award from the Detroit Blues Society. He later recorded an album for the Dutch Black Magic label, I Gave My Life to the Blues (1996)...

Bassett and his band, the Blues Insurgents -- which he'd been fronting since the early 1990s -- have made several U.S., Canadian and European tours in support of LPs including 1997's Bassett Hound

1998's Cadillac Blues…

Johnnie on Detroit Blues in 2008:

Bassett never retired from playing, 
his LIVE musical career only ended with his death,

this morning,   

August 4, 2012…

His genius is recorded and lives on…

“I Can Make That Happen” 

Johnnie’s latest release…

R.I.P. Johnnie 

You ARE a Motor City LEGEND!!!

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