Little Arthur Duncan born 5 February 1934

Little Arthur Duncan (February 5, 1934 – August 20, 2008) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues harmonica player, singer, and songwriter. He was a member of the Backscratchers and over his career was associated with Earl Hooker, Twist Turner, Illinois Slim and Rick Kreher. 

Duncan and Little Walter

Duncan was born in Indianola, Mississippi. His first instrument was the drums. In 1950, aged 16, he left Mississippi not for Chicago, as so many of his contemporaries had, but for the sunnier climate of Key West, Florida - which may seem like an odd destination for a traveling blues-man, but it wasn't a totally unique idea, since it was there that Arthur net up with guitarist Earl Hooker for the first time. They eventually made their way up to Chicago, and by 1954 Arthur was living in the basement of the apartment building of the city's west side where Little Walter lived upstairs. Arthur and Walter became friends, and it was under Walter's tutelage that Arthur first began taking his music seriously. 

Although he kept a day job, Arthur began frequenting the clubs on the vibrant Chicago blues scene, meeting and sitting in with almost every major name active in the local clubs at that dine. He also sent down south for a couple of friends, guitar playing brothers Hip and Jug Linkchain, recruiting them to come up to Chicago, and together they formed Arthur's first professional band, which played mostly on weekends. With the south and west sides of the city teaming with blues joints at the time, there was no shortage of gigs, although then as now, making a living strictly with music was a some-what tough proposition. 

Arthur recalls playing at a jam session on the south side, and getting to know most of the other local harp bonbon such as Billy Boy Arnold, Carey Bell, and Good Rockin' Charles - in Arthur's words, "There was a whole lot of harmonica play-ers back then", and Arthur learned from them all. He says his activity on the local blues scene cul-minated in the early 1960s when he recorded an album for a small local label, which unfortunately never got distributed, and never went anywhere. 

                          Here’s “Pretty Thing” from above album.

                                    

As the Chicago blues scene cooled off, so did Arthur's performing ambitions, although he never stopped playing, occasionally playing on Maxwell Street or sitting in with friends, hanging out in the clubs and seeing friends like Earl Hooker, Magic Sam and Buddy Guy. In the early 1980s he decided to open his own club on the west side as a sideline when he wasn't able to work Isis regular construction job during the frigid Chicago winters; when the construction company folded, Arthur jumped into the nightclub game with both feet. 

As proprietor of the Artesia Lounge on Lake St., and later Backscratcher's Lounge on West Madison, lie booked the blues people he liked, and had a steady stream talent doing gigs or just coming by to hang out and sit in, including Taildragger, Johnny Dollar, Mighty Joe Young, Johnny B. Moore, Milton Houston, Little Smokey Smothers, Johnny Littlejohn and others. Of course Arthur would come out from behind the bar to do a number with the band whenever he got the chance. 

So for much of the 1980s he was off the blues scene at large, tending to his own little scene on the west side, but seldom performing outside of his own club. Eventually a dispute with the landlord led to the closing of Backscratcher's Lounge, a sad day for patrons but with a silver lining for blues fans else-where, since it freed Arthur to get out into the blues mainstream again. He began recording and occasionally touring, and sitting in with bands at clubs other than his own for a change. Since then, his reputation grew steadily and he became one of the 'must see' artists in Chicago for fans of the true, deep, lowdown blues that the city is fatuous for around the world. 

In 1989, Duncan recorded the album Bad Reputation, which was released on the Blues King label. He later appeared on a compilation album, Blues Across America: The Chicago Scene, with Emery Williams Jr. and Robert Plunkett. In 1999, Duncan recorded for Delmark Records, which released the album Singin' with the Sun that year. On the album he was accompanied by the guitar players Billy Flynn and Eddie Taylor Jr. Live in Chicago followed in 2000.

His final recording was Live at Rosa's Blues Lounge, a live album recorded in Chicago in August 2007. One music journalist noted that "spirited, gritty performances of Reed's "Pretty Thing," Wolf's "No Place to Go," and two Dixon favorites ("Young Fashioned Ways" and "Little Red Rooster") leave no doubt that Duncan lives and breathes electric Chicago blues." However, a subsequent lengthy illness and hospitalization prevented Duncan from building on this success. He died in Northlake, Illinois, in August 2008, of complications following brain surgery, at the age of 74. 

(Edited from Scott Dirks article & Wikipedia)