FULLER UP HOME GRIM REAPER PAGE CAUSES OF DEATH SEARCH BY NAME GET IN TOUCH SHAMEFUL DISCLAIMER    Fuller Up The Dead Musician Directory    Ernest Baker King Ernest March 4, 2000 Age 60 Automobile accident    OBITUARY  BIOGRAPHY   LINKS  Buy or Hear the Music         Editor's Pick:  King of  Hearts

OBITUARY 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                 LOS ANGELES BASED BLUES SINGER, KING ERNEST, WAS KILLED IN AN AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT ON SATURDAY NIGHT, MARCH 4TH IN LOS ANGELES, RETURNING HOME FROM AN ENGAGEMENT.  *Currently, no other details available  THE BOOM BOOM ROOM IS SAD TO WITNESS THE PASSING OF WEST COAST BLUES ARTIST, KING ERNEST WHO DIED SATURDAY, MARCH 4TH IN AN AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT ON HIS WAY HOME FROM AN ENGAGEMENT.   IT IS A TRAGIC AND GREAT LOSS TO ALL WHO KNEW AND LOVED HIM.             Blues & Soul singer, King Ernest, was a rising blues artist who shared the  stage with several greats including, Tyrone Davis, Syl Johnson and Little  Milton.  He was a regularly featured artist at John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom  Room and was fast building a name for himself in the blues music industry.  As a soul and blues singer, King Ernest sang his entire life. Born in 1939,  in Natchez, Mississippi, to a sharecropper's family, Ernest started out  playing the guitar at local juke joints.      Contemporary blues and R& B sounds of peers he performed with in the  clubs of Chicago, such as,  Tyrone Davis, Syl Johnson and Little Milton in the 60's,  made the deepest impression on Ernest.           In 1964, Ernest left Chicago for New York, where he picked up the nickname  "King" from his new band.  The following year, Ernest made his first  single,  "I Feel Alright/"I'm So Tired" for Old Town Label and enjoyed success on  the East Coast soul/R&B circuit.   Ernest soon returned to Chicago where he yielded steady bookings and recorded a handful of singles for local labels like Sonic, Barry and his own Blue Soul Records.  He recorded a single released on the prestigious Mercury label,  "That's When I Woke Up."            Ernest's musical adventures took him from one end of the country to the  other and he was eventually lured to Los Angeles in 1980 by a record deal that  never materialized, which led him to retire from the music business and  take a day job.         Fourteen years later, Ernest decided to start performing again and was  re-discovered by a local blues promoter/producer who sent him back out  on the road and into the recording studio, which resulted in Ernest touring  throughout the west coast and Canada and the release of "King Of Hearts."  At 57 years of age, King Ernest was a seasoned musician, younger and more  energetic than his years, as his music was explosive and he dazzled crowds  wherever he performed.   He will be missed...              Media Contact:         Liv Andreas                                   Phone:   415/923.5910                                   Fax:       415/673.8719           NY TIMES

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

All-Music Guide       Born: May 30, 1939 Died: March 4, 2000      Vocalist King Ernest came up singing in the lively Chicago blues club scene of the 1950s and '60s, sharing stages with the likes of Tyrone Davis, Syl Johnson and Little Milton Campbell.   Born and raised in Natchez, Mississippi, he learned basic blues from his father, a sharecropper who used to play guitar at local juke joints. After a year at Southern University in Baton Rouge, he moved to Chicago, where he found his inspiration in clubs that hosted the likes of Muddy Waters and Chester Burnett, better known as Howlin' Wolf. His first professional shows in Chicago were with guitarist Byther Smith. Later, he discovered the soul-blues stylings of singers like Syl Johnson and Tyrone Davis.  These singers made a bigger impact on his own singing style, and he established a reputation in Chicago's club scene in the early 1960s as Good Rockin' Ernie.    In 1964, Baker left Chicago for New York City, where a new band he formed there gave him the  nickname "King" for his wild dancing antics on stage. In 1965, Baker recorded his first single, "I Feel  Alright" b/w "I'm So Tired," for the Old Town label, and enjoyed modest success through the 1960s on the East Coast's R&B club circuit until returning to Chicago in 1967. He remained in Chicago for another ten years, recording a number of singles for Chicago labels, including Sonic, Barry and his own Blue Soul Records. But recognition on a national level still eluded Baker, who moved to Los Angeles in 1980. After a record deal he had there failed to come to fruition, he dropped out and took a job with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, doing most of his singing in church as a member of the Crenshaw Christian Center Choir.    After retiring from his day job, he began playing shows again at L.A. nightclubs, and his powerful vocals and still-energetic stage persona quickly attracted a small legion of dedicated fans to his club shows. After being discovered by promoter and producer Randy Chortkoff, he began touring up and down the California coast and into Canada.    His debut album for Evidence Records, King of Hearts, released in 1997, has helped to expand his audience from a regional following in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to an international following. On his recording, Baker offers up his interpretations of songs by Charlie Musselwhite, Hound Dog Taylor, Junior Parker and Harold Burrage. He also tackles "Better Days," a track co-written by guitarist Jimmy Rip and vocalist Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. Appropriately, Rip accompanies King Ernest on this track on the album. -- Richard Skelly, All Music Guide

 

LINKS

Center Stage bio on King Ernest Tuscon Weekly Saskjazz Bio and links King Ernest reclaims his blues crown... An Interview in Blues Access

 

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