Willie Dixon

The blues is a musical language through which we share and explore the most intimate and profoundly moving aspects of the human spirit

As one of the main architects of postwar Chicago blues, Willie Dixon helped further

the career of Muddy Waters, penning such songs as 'Hoochie Coochie Man' - 'I Just Want To Make Love to You' Also the Howlin' Wolf Classics 'Evil' - 'Spoonful' - 'I Ain't Superstitious' - 'Little Red Rooster' and 'Back Door Man'

He was born 1st July 1915 in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Dixon's mother wrote and recited religious poetry, thisc helped him learn the fundamentals of music at an early age. He sang with the Union Jubilee Singers. Dixon’s first career choice was professional boxing. In 1936 he left Vicksburg for Chicago and became Illinois State Golden Gloves heavyweight champion in the novice category. He often sparred with Joe Lewis but this career came to an end with a fight between Dixon and his manager over money.

In 1939 he started playing the bass and formed the Five Breezes with Leonard "Baby Doo" Caston.

In 1941, Dixon declared himself a conscientious objector and was arrested for refusing to serve in the U.S. armed forces. After leaving prison, Dixon formed a new group called the 'Four Jumps of Jive', which performed in Chicago clubs. Caston returned to Chicago and their partnership resumed forming the Big Three Trio along with Bernardo Dennis, later replaced by Ollie Crawford. Bullet Records signed them and they performed together until 1952 when Baby Doo left the group.

Dixon's career was wide ranging, not only did he produce his own recordings he worked in many other areas of the music industry. He was a composer, producer, arranger, recording artist, talent scout, bandleader and session bass player for Chess Records in the 1950s and '60s. Willie Dixon's words clearly express the artistic impulse found at the center of mankind. The blues is a musical language through which we share and explore the most intimate and profoundly moving aspects of the human spirit.

Learn the values of the Blues, a great art form that is the cornerstone of American music history. Throughout the Blues we hear myriad expressions of human emotions ranging from throbbing pain to spirited joy. This music echoes its rich African past as it adapts to survival in the New World.

Dixon's career really took off in 1954 when Muddy Waters recorded Dixon's 'Hoochie Coochie Man' and Howlin Wolf recorded 'Evil'. As a session man he also recorded with many artists including Waters, Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Walter, and Jimmy Witherspoon.

Through the '70s and '80s, Dixon toured regularly and recorded for several labels, but didn’t have any
mainstream success, staying in the blues arena. Dixon scored music for the movies, The Color of
Money and produced Bo Diddley's version of 'Who Do You Love' in La Bamba.

In 1980 Willie Dixon was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame. With royalty money from his songs he created the The Blues Heaven Foundation in 1982. This non-profit organization offers such programs as 'Blues in the Schools' and scholarship funds, and also gives aid to down and out blues artists. In 1988 he released the album 'Hidden Charms' and completed an autobiography, 'I Am the Blues'

Willie Dixon, blues writer and founder of the Blues Heaven Foundation, had hepatitis, when he died of a heart ailment in his Burbank, California. home on January 29,1992. The Blues Heaven Foundation was Willie's vision dedicated to assisting Blues artists as well as preserving the Blues and its history

Red Blooded Blues; was compiled and recorded to raise international awareness about hepatitis
while offering people of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds the opportunity to learn the values of the Blues, a great art form that is the cornerstone of American music history.

Red Blooded Blues showcases the diversity of the genre, as the writers and performers bring their own personal awareness to the forefront through their voices and respective instruments.