J. C. Burris

J. C. Burris

Genres: harmonica blues, blues

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About J. C. Burris

J.C. Burris (May 15, 1928, Selby, NC, US - May 15, 1988, Greensboro, NC, US) was an American blues harmonica and rhythm bones player. The nephew of Sonny Terry, Johnny "J.C." Burris was also a blues harmonica player, though he didn't record too much. He is noted for his use of African rhythm bones, two sticks played like castanets that can be played off the harmonica. Burris did some performing in New York in the 1950s and worked on recording sessions with Terry, Sticks McGhee, and other artists on Folkways Records. At the end of the decade, he relocated to California, finding some work in folk clubs in San Francisco before a stroke in 1966 robbed him of his use of his right side. Several years later, he regained his mobility on his right side, and in 1973, he began performing again, recording some solo unaccompanied material in 1975-1976 that appears on Arhoolie's Blues Professor album. He continued playing at schools, clubs, and festivals until his death in 1988. Country blues at its elemental, folk-hinged best. Legendary harmonica player/percussionist/singer, J.C. Burris migrated from Ner York City (after recording for Folkways, Bluesville, Herals and Ember records) to San Francisco in 1961, making Barbara Dane's always-jumping, North Beach-based Sugar Hill club his initial home. Mostly, though, he played on the streets - frequently around Washington Square Park, where this writer first encountered his irrisistible Carollina blues vision - complementing spry, scruffy vocals with squealing bursts of mouth-harp, a set of African rhythm bones, foot stomping and assorted, quicker-than-the-eye, hand/body slapping.

Taken from Last.fm

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