Arbee Stidham

Arbee William Stidham (February 9, 1917 was an American blues singer and multi-instrumentalist.

According to the authors of the book All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues, Stidham was "exactly the sort of singer that thrived in the R&B or 'race' market after World War II; although essentially a bluesman, he wasn't a blues purist... his mixture of blues, jazz and gospel made him quite popular... in the '40s and '50s".

Early life Arbee Stidham was born at De Valls Bluff, Arkansas, United States, in 1917 to Luttie Abraham and Mable (née Perkins) Stidham and into a family steeped in music. Stidham's father was a musician in the Jimmie Lunceford Band, his uncle Ernest Stidham was the leader of the Memphis Jug Band and his uncle Isaiah was a violinist. Stidham attended the Prairie Valley Training (elementary) School as a child and Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Early music career Stidham first learned to play a clarinet given to him by a local merchant in De Valls Bluff. Stidham said: "That's what I learned to play, and after I learned to play the clarinet, I went to the saxophone". named "Arbee Stidham and His Southern Syncopators" at the age of thirteen. After playing venues throughout the south, Stidham toured with his band in Chicago, playing with Lucky Millinder during the 1930s.

Chicago recording sessions

In the mid-1940s, Stidham moved to Chicago, where he met Lester Melrose, who signed him to a recording contract with RCA Victor in 1947.

Number one hit When "My Heart Belongs to You" was released, a copy was sent to Zenas Sears, an Atlanta disk jockey and music producer at WGST AM radio. Sears tried the song and his audience flooded the station with calls, asking to hear the record again and again. Sears recommended the record to Gene Nobles, the R&B disc jockey at Nashville's WLAC AM. The first night Noble played the song, he received 181 calls to play it again. At the same time, the record was also listed on Billboards "ten most-played juke box records" for several weeks.

1960s recordings Stidham played the guitar and sang on recordings for Folkways Records in the early 1960s. Stidham was a lecturer on the Blues music genre at Cleveland State University in the 1970s. He also recorded occasionally during the early 1970s and performed at music festivals and clubs in the United States and abroad.

Documentary film subject While living in Cleveland in 1973, Stidham was the subject of The Bluesman, a short documentary film directed by Kent State University professor Robert West. The film was described as "a portrait of the underground legend, American blues singer Arbee Stidham, a Depression era musician in a film of melancholy reality".

In August, 1982, Stidham performed with the Arbee Stidham Blues Band at the Petrillo Band Shell during the 4th Annual Kool Jazz Festival held in Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois. The band members included Henderson Smith, trumpet; Ahmad Salaheldeen, Tommy "Madman" Jones, Nat Reed, saxophones; Lacey Gibson, guitar; Lafayette Leake, piano; Camille, bass; Odie Payne, drums, many of whom were well-known Chicago musicians. A review of the performance said "blues shouter Arbee Stidham gave the crowd of 8,000 fans a rough, cheerfully energetic set. Stalking the stage with the sly, bent-kneed zeal of a Groucho Marx, Stidham sang with a similarly sly sense of humor".

Death and burial Stidham died on April 26, 1988, at the University of Chicago Medical Center in Cook County, Illinois, aged 71. Stidham is buried at Oakridge Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.

Discography LPs Arbee's Blues (Folkways, 1961) Tired of Wandering - The Blues Of Arbee Stidham (Bluesville, 1961) A Time for Blues (Mainstream, 1972) There's Always Tomorrow (Folkways, 1973) Sun - The Roots of Rock Volume 6: Sunset Soul (Charly, 1976) My Heart Belongs To You (Crown Prince, 1981) Long Man Blues (Pearl, 1990)