Blues legend Willie Dixon was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
His mother was a devoutly religious person who spent much of her time
writing religious poems, which gave the young Willie exposure to
rhyming and meter. At a young age he sang with a gospel group called
the Union Jubilee Singers, who had a show on radio station WQBC in
Vicksburg. Dixon and two friends however were arrested after they were caught stealing wood and other items from a doctor's house, and then sent to a prison farm. He briefly gave up singing for a career as a boxer, but soon
returned to his first love, music.
He left Mississippi in 1936 train-hopping to Chicago, which had a vibrant music
scene, but he also kept his hand in boxing; in 1937 he became the
Illinois Golden Gloves Boxing Champion. He turned pro (and even sparred
with heavyweight champion Joe Louis),
but after just four professional fights he got into a brawl with his
manager in the Illinois Boxing Commissioner's office over money he
believed he was being cheated out of, and his boxing career--for all
practical purposes--was over. Going back to his musical roots, he took
up bass playing, and in 1939 he and guitarist
Leonard Caston started a group called The
Five Breezes. The group played in Chicago-area clubs and even made a
few records, but in 1941 it broke up when Dixon was arrested for refusing to serve in
the military, after ignoring draft notices for months. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to prison.
After finishing his sentence he formed another group, The Four Jumps of
Jive, which made the rounds of Chicago's clubs, and even cut a few
singles for Mercury Records. He later formed yet another group, with
his old friend Caston and Bernardo Dennis, called The Big Three. At the
same time Dixon was playing in the city's South Side blues clubs with
such greats as Muddy Waters. He was playing
one night in 1948 at the Macomba Lounge when he met brothers
Phil Chess and
Leonard Chess, the club's owners who had
just started up Chess Records. They offered Dixon a job at the label as
a songwriter and producer, and he soon went to work for them full-time.
Soon Chess artists such as Muddy Waters,
Howlin' Wolf (aka "Howlin' Wolf") and
Little Walter were recording songs written
by Dixon, which met with great success. Dixon also recorded some
singles on his own, but he wasn't as successful a recording artist as
he was a songwriter.
In 1957 Dixon left Chess for Cobra Records, and worked with such
legendary guitarists as Buddy Guy and
Otis Rush. Unfortunately, Cobra went out of
business after two years, and Dixon returned to Chess. In addition to
his songwriting and producing chores, he also formed the Chicago Blues
All-Stars and toured extensively with them.
In the 1970s and 1980s he got involved in composing film soundtracks,
and he wrote the score for
Martin Scorsese's
Die Farbe des Geldes (1986). In
1980 he was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame. He still
played clubs, festivals and toured the US and Europe, in addition to
his songwriting and producing work. By 1990, however, his health began
to decline and he had to cut down on his touring and scale back his
performances with the Chicago Blues All-Stars. He died of a heart
ailment in Burbank, California, two years later.
