In August, we offer you a summer series dedicated to the great figures of “The Epic of Black Music” who died 25 years ago!
Luther Allison deserved to be celebrated as an icon of the 20th century, but fate deprived him of the unanimous recognition to which he so longed. Born in 1939 in Arkansas, Luther Allison will experience the humiliations and bullying of the black bluesman in segregationist America. This is the reason why, all his life, he will seek to bring cultures together, to provoke meetings and to share his enthusiasm with his contemporaries. While his fame seemed to raise him to the rank of the great figures of our time, illness was eating away at him from within. On August 12, 1997, Luther Allison left us, broke in full glory by a sneaky and undetectable cancer. A month earlier, he was still on stage, happy to be able to exchange and dialogue with an audience that acclaimed him with warmth and deep respect.
Luther Allison had a son, Bernard Allison, who had to fight hard to make a name for himself as his father’s aura was so imposing. Today he willingly admits that the father figure sometimes overshadowed him: “A lot of people knew my father before he knew me. There is always had this reflex of saying: “Bernard Allisonthe son of Luther Allison”. I hope people will get into the habit of calling me Bernard, rather than the son of… Chey, it’s reality but I also have a first name. It can be good or bad. I think today the name Bernard Allison is better known, people make more easily the difference between the father and the son at the level of the voice and of Iu of guitar. I think it will pass but slowly. There will always be someone to say “Luther’s son”I understand this very well, you have to be patient so that the public recognize as an artist in their own right, come to your concert or buy your CD and finally say to themselves: “I just saw Bernard Allisonit is notna not like his father. This is the kind of reflection I expect, to be recognized in my own name”. (Bernard Allison on Joe Farmer’s microphone).
The disappearance of Luther Allison, a few days before his 58th birthday, was a brutal and violent psychological shock for many of his admirers and friends. The late French guitarist and singer Patrick Verbeke had often spoken to us about his friend Luther Allison, and remembered this sad day in the summer of 1997 for a long time. Patrick Verbeke also left us in the middle of August, it was the 22 August 2021. The two big-hearted accomplices are now reunited beyond the skies…
Another talented musician often shared the stage with Luther Allison. This is trumpeter Boney Fields. He does not fail to regularly interpret the title Freedom borrowed from his former stage partner. This song, which appeared on the album richman in 1987, denounced the apartheid regime in South Africa and, more generally, all the racial discrimination observed on our planet. Luther Allison was a man of peace who often questioned the daily manifestations of so-called “ordinary” racism. He didn’t understand that Chuck Berry had never been considered the creator of rock’n’roll. He fumed when we celebrated Elvis Presley. He did not hesitate to affirm that Chuck Berry had been deprived of the status of “King” because of the color of his skin.
Luther Allison was an altruistic artist often irritated by social injustices and inequalities. 25 years after his disappearance, his speech and his music are sadly still relevant!
⇒ The website of Luther Allison
⇒ The website of Bernard Allison
⇒ The website of Boney Fields.