Sonny Boy Williamson I

John Lee Curtis Williamson, the original Sonny Boy Williamson, was the first harmonica player to achieve star status as a recording artist and the musician who established the blues harmonica as a lead instrument rather than merely an accompaniment. His recordings for Bluebird beginning in 1937, including 'Good Morning, School Girl,' 'Sugar Mama,' and 'Stop Breaking Down,' were hugely influential and commercially successful, and his technique (using tongue-blocking, hand effects, and vocal tones through the instrument) expanded the harmonic range of the blues harp dramatically. He was murdered on the streets of Chicago's South Side in 1948 at age 34, robbed while walking home from a performance. His legacy was complicated when Rice Miller, an older musician, appropriated his name and achieved even greater fame as 'Sonny Boy Williamson II.'