FULLER UP HOME GRIM REAPER PAGE CAUSES OF DEATH SEARCH BY NAME GET IN TOUCH SHAMEFUL DISCLAIMER    Fuller Up, The Dead Musician Directory     Albert Washington  Diabetes......Oct.  23, '98 (Blues Unlimited July 1971.Photo courtesy Steve Tracy) Age 59 OBITUARY  BIOGRAPHY   LINKS

OBITUARY 

Renown bluesman Albert Washington dies                                        CINCINNATI, Oct. 26 (UPI) A graveside service will be held                                      Friday for world renown blues guitarist and singer Albert                                      Washington, who died last Friday in Columbus at the age of 59.                                       Washington, who is listed in the "Who's Who of Blues," suffered                                      from diabetes. He moved to Columbus last month to be cared for                                      by his daughter, Lisa Yates.                                       She told the Cincinnati Post: "He stayed in the hospital the whole                                      time he was here. He never got to come home. The diabetes                                      really took its toll."                                       Steve Tracy the author of "Going to Cincinnati: A History of the                                      Blues in the Queen City" said Washington was "known all over                                      the world in blues circles."                                       During the 1960s and '70s, Washington recorded many albums                                      for Fraternity Records and performed at Cincinnati clubs and                                      concerts. His music was said to reflect influences of gospel,                                      rhythm and blues, and funk.                                       Washington told Tracy that his mother often warned him about                                      playing "the Devil's music," so he incorporated gospel into his                                      songs. "If you sing a song that's not worth listening to in public,                                      now that could be a sin. I can feel the fire from the Holy Ghost in                                      me."                                       Washington was the father of 10 children.   © 1998 UPI. All rights reserved.   Blues Guitarist Albert Washington Dies                Blues guitarist Albert Washington died Friday in Cincinnati of diabetes, the Associated                 Press reported. Washington, whose sound was influenced equally by gospel and the blues,                 originally recorded "Turn On the Bright Lights" -- a song that would go on to be covered by                 jam-rock giants the Grateful Dead. Washington was 59.   Sonic Net   Editorial note:  After one year of creating and maintaining this site I  have noticed that obituary reporting (like most reporting) is shoddy.   Shoddy Shoddy Shoddy.  I remember the Grateful Dead.  And I remember   a song called "Turn on Your Love Light," made popular by Bobby Blue Bland.  I also studied math in 3rd grade and I was taught that 1998 - 1935 = 63 not 59.  I leave the obit that I find fault with on this site because I wasn't there when  Albert was born, maybe he was 59.  And maybe the author of the obit saw  the Dead more than me and recalls "Turn On the Bright Lights" by Albert Washington  as a concert highlight.  Feel free to seek perfection elsewhere, or give us the benefit  of your intimate knowledge of the facts. Mailto: Gordon Polatnick

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

Born: 17 August 1935 in Rome, GA; Died: 23 October 1998 in Columbus,Ohio                                          Singer and songwriter Albert Washington has spent most of his career                   singing in the blues clubs around Cincinnati, Ohio and his home in Long Island,                   N.Y. Washington, who is blind, released two recordings for Iris Records in the                   1990s, Step It Up and Go in 1993 and A Brighter Day in 1994.                    One of four children of Jerry and Helen Washington, Albert's love of blues and                   gospel made itself known at a very early age. Washington remembers wanting to                   play his uncle's guitar at age five. At seven, he made his own guitar out of a                   gasoline can using rubber bands as strings. After losing his father at age nine,                   Washington got a job washing dishes after school to help his mother with the bills.                   After moving to Newport, Kentucky with his family while in his teens, Washington                   was encouraged by his mother to continue his gospel singing, but not his blues                   singing. At 16, he joined the Gospelaires, then recording for Don Robey's Duke                   and Peacock labels out of Houston. A few years later, he formed his own gospel                   group, the Washington Singers. In his late teens, Washington would sneak into                   blues clubs in nearby Cincinnati every chance he had, and there he was first                   exposed to the music of artists like Sam Cooke, Big Maybelle, Charles Brown and                   Amos Milburn.                    Washington cites B.B. King as most influential on his style of singing and guitar                   playing, which is heavily sprinkled with his gospel singing roots. Shortly after his                   mother died, he began singing blues as often as he could at the Vet's Inn in                   Cincinnati, where he worked with a house band for 16 years. In 1962, he recorded                   his first single for the Finch label in Cincinnati, and it was later released on the                   Bluestown label. His 1964 singles for the VLM label, including a song he wrote                   called "Haven't Got a Friend,'' got him noticed in England, and this in turn led to a                   deal with Fraternity Records in 1966. Lonnie Mack joined Washington on several                   singles for Fraternity recorded in 1969. In 1970, he recorded two singles for the                   Jewel label before finally recording his first LP for the Detroit-based Eastbound                   Records in 1972.                    Because of complications from diabetes, Washington lost his sight, and his career                   fell into a trough from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s.                    But despite the crippling effects of diabetes and the tragedies that befell him over                   the course of his life, Washington remains an upbeat, positive figure.                    In January, 1993, Long Island-based Iris Records released his first recording in two                   decades, Step It Up and Go. He began touring regionally again, but he still                   frequents clubs in Long Island. His 1994 follow up album, A Brighter Day, was                   named one of the top three blues recordings of 1994 by France's Academie Du                   Jazz. Washington continues to perform in blues clubs around Long Island.                    ~Richard Skelly, All-Music Guide

 

 LINKS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcKDTXpeYqA