AKA born: Francis Blackwell

(Born:  Feb 21, 1903  Syracuse, NC, Died:  Oct 27, 1954 Indianapolis, IN)

Scrapper Blackwell was best known for his work with pianist Leroy Carr during the early and  mid-’30s, but he also recorded many solo sides between 1928 and 1935. A distinctive stylist whose  work was closer to jazz than blues, Blackwell was an exceptional player with a technique, built  around single- note picking, that anticipated the electric blues of the 1940s and 1950s. He  abandoned music for more than 20 years after Carr’s death in 1935, but re-emerged at the end of  the 1950s and began his career anew, before his life was taken in an apparent robbery attempt…In 1962… soon after finishing his work on his first Prestige/Bluesville long-player
… Blackwell was shot to death in a back alley in Indianapolis, the  victim of a mugging. The crime was never solved.  ~ Bruce Eder,  All-Music Guide