“He would put a lot of treble on his amp to get the sound he wanted out of Lucille. Working and being in his presence was magical”: Jerry Jemmott on playing bass with B.B. King

Jerry Jemmott and B.B. King.

When Jerry Jemmott got the call to work with B.B. King on his Live & Well record in 1969, he was far from a new kid on the block. Jemmott was a go-to session bassist for Atlantic and so was brimming with confidence when he slung his bass over his shoulder and hit the studio.

“I was a jazz cat, but I grew up knowing B.B. King as The King of the Blues,” Jemmott says of his early impressions of the guitarist. “He was dedicated to it down to the bone, but he liked jazz also. I found him to be humble, fearless, intuitive and quick-witted.”