Originally Posted by: RaskolnikovActually, BB's claim to fame is that instead of playing vibrato like his predecessors (parallel to the string), he shook the hell out of the strings in a perpendicular direction. In other words, BB is the reason why most of us play our vibrato the way we do today; if it weren't for him, we'd still be mimicing violinists and their approach to vibrato.

Yeah, he's got a limited bag of tricks; yeah, he's not a technical master, but Blues as we know it today simply wouldn't exist if it weren't for him.

If it weren't for him we'd still be mimicing a violinists appraoch to vibrato? I almost laughed when I read that. I think MOST of us discovered vibrato for ourselves by accident, the BB King way, as you claim. He's not the first of anything;certainly not "perpendicular" vibrato.

And blues "as we know it today" wouldn't exist if it weren't for him?
That's ridiculous.