B.B. King in the News

Sidney A. Seidenberg has been named Chairman and Floyd Lieberman President and CEO of SASCO Productions Inc. While Seidenberg remains active in all areas of management, Lieberman will handle all the day-to-day responsibilities of the management company.

Lieberman has been with SASCO for 35 years. SASCO Productions., Inc. represents. B.B. King as well as Gene McDaniels, Trade Martin, and Bubba Knight of Gladys Knight & the Pips.

Tina France, who has been with SASCO Productions, Inc. for 20 years, has been named vice-president and will be involved in all aspects of artist development, assisting Floyd Lieberman.

B.B. King won the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Recording for Blues on the Bayou earlier this year (his ninth). He previously won in the same category in 1993 (Blues Summit), 1991 (Live at the Apollo), 1990 (Live at San Quentin), 1985 ("My Guitar Sings the Blues," a track from Six Silver Strings) and 1983 (Blues & Jazz). His other Grammy awards were for Best Rock Instrumental Performance ("SRV Shuffle" with Eric Clapton, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, Dr. John and Art Neville from A Tribute To Steve Ray Vaughan - 1996); Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording (There Must Be a Better World Somewhere-I 981); and Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance, Male ("The Thrill Is Gone"-1970). B.B. King has received 20 Grammy nominations through 1999.

King's Indianola Mississippi Seeds won a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, an art director's award. In 1998, "The Thrill Is Gone" was installed in the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1987, B.B. King received the Grammy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award.

On April 25, B.B. King released his new album Makin' Love Is Good For You on MCA Records. Recorded last year in Maurice, Louisiana, B.B. King's touring band is featured on 14 tracks, featuring six B.B. King compositions, four of which are brand new. Some of the cover songs include Buddy Jackson's "Since I Fell For You," Barbara George's "I Know," Willie Dixon's "Don't Go No Farther," A.C. Reed's "I'm in the Wrong Business" and Willie James Mabon's "Monday Woman." The album was produced by B.B. King and executive produced by Floyd Lieberman and Sidney A. Seidenberg for SASCO Productions, Inc.

The New York Post has given "Makin' Love Is Good For You" four stars (****), and writer Dan Aquilante says, "It's pretty early in the year for Grammy predictions, but bet on this disc to snag the award as best traditional blues album of the year."

The highly anticipated B.B. King and Eric Clapton collaborative album Riding With The King is due on June13 on Warner Bros. Records. Five of the songs recorded were classic B.B. King songs while John Hiatt penned the title track. The album was produced by Eric Clapton and Simon Climie: Keyboardist Joe Sample, bassist Nathan East3 drummer Steve Gadd and guitarists Jimmie Vaughan and Doyle Bramhall played on the album along with Clapton and King. A video of the title track is expected to be shot in mid-May.

The new B.B. King Blues Bar and Grill will open in New York in early June as part of the E-Walk complex between Broadway and Eighth Avenue on 42nd Street. "B.B. King will be there to perform bn opening~night as part of a few nights stand," says Floyd Lieberman, president and CEO of SASCO Productibns, Inc., King's management company.

This marks B.B. King's third club: The Memphis, Tennessee club opened on famed Beale Street in 1991 and the Universal City, California club opened in 1994. There are seven more prospective locations nationally and internationally planned.

On May 28, B.B. King will perform a National Memorial Day Concert on the West Lawn of the United States Capital to ~ men and women who risked death~Qr gave their lives for freedom. This year the annual holiday event will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Korean War, the 55th anniversary of the end of World War II, the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the men and women who served World War I, Vietnam and Desert storm.

The Concert will be broadcast live on PBS stations from 8:00 - 9:30 p.m. ET and will also air overseas via the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network.

Other performers will include country music star Tnsha Yearwood, the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of top of the pops conductor Erich Kunzel, actors Charles Durning and James Naughton, General Cohn Powell and Harolyn Blackwell. - The evening of musical performances, archival footage and dramatic readings will be hosted by Qssie Davis.

On May 29, B.B. King will tape a live concert at the BET sound studios in Washington, DC in front of a closed audience. This program will be broadcast on the BET on Jazz Concert Series over a three year period. It will also be distributed on home video, DVD and VHS by Image Entertainment.

B.B. King will appear on the Paula Zahn Show on Wednesday May 24 and on May 25, B.B. King will appear on the Late Night with David Letterman show.

B.B. King kicks off his annual European summer jazz festival tour on June 29 in London, England and winds down on July 27 in Barcelona, Spain. This year B.B. King will perform 21 concerts in 12 countries - England, Germany, Finland, Belgium, Norway, Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, France and Spain.

This marks King's first international concerts of the year. Generally, he performs in Europe once or twice before the summer jazz festivals, but this year, Eric Clapton and B.B. King recorded an album together, Riding With The King, during the period King normally tours Europe.

The ninth annual B.B. King~Blues Music Festival featuring B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Susan Tedeschi and Tommy Castro kicks off August 1 at the House of Blues in Las Vegas, Nevada and winds down October 1 at the Starplex Amphitheater in Dallas, Texas. So Far, 49 shows are booked into 46 cities with multiple night engagements set for Seattle, Washington; Atlanta, Georgia; and Boston, Massachusetts.

B.B. King has headlined all nine years of the festival. This marks the third appearance by Buddy Guy, who performed the first two years (1992-1993) and the second for Susan Tedeschi, who was a special guest on select dates in 1998. (Tedeschi received a Grammy Nomination forBest New Artist in 1999.) San Francisco guitaristivocalist Tommy Castro makes his first appearance on the blues festival this year.

B.B. King Press Releases