Jesse Fuller (March 12, 1896 — January 29,^[1] 1976) was an American one-man band musician, best known for his song "San Francisco Bay Blues". Events 538 - Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving Year 1896 ( MDCCCXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Events 904 - Sergius III comes out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed Antipope Christopher. Year 1976 ( MCMLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of Musical instruments simultaneously using their hands feet limbs and various mechanical contraptions A musician is a person who plays or writes Music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music An instrumentalist plays a A song is a Musical composition. Songs contain vocal parts that are performed 'sung' and generally feature Words ( Lyrics) commonly followed " San Francisco Bay Blues " is an American folk song and is generally considered to be the most famous composition by Jesse Fuller. ^{[2] [3]}

Contents 1 Early life 2 Start of career 3 The fotdella 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Early life

Fuller was born in Jonesboro, Georgia, near to Atlanta. Jonesboro is a city in Clayton County, Georgia, United States. The State of Georgia ( is a state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule He was sent by his mother to live with foster parents when he was a young child, in a rural setting where he was badly mistreated. Growing up, he worked a multitude of jobs: grazing cows for ten cents a day, working in a barrel factory, a broom factory, a rock quarry, on a railroad and a streetcar company, shining shoes, and even peddling hand-carved wooden snakes. ^[4].

He came west and in the 1920s worked briefly as a film extra in The Thief of Bagdad and East of Suez. Eventually he settled in Oakland, California, across the bay from San Francisco, where he worked for the Southern Pacific railroad. Oakland (ˈoʊklənd founded in 1852 is the eighth-largest city in the U California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city During World War II, he worked as a shipyard welder, but when the war ended he found it increasingly difficult to find work, especially because of being black. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships These can be Yachts military A welder (also weldor, which term distinguishes the Tradesman from the equipment used to make welds is a Tradesman who specialises in Welding Around the early 1950s, Fuller's thoughts turned toward the possibility of making a living playing music. The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive

Start of career

Up to this point, Fuller had never worked professionally as a musician, but had certainly been exposed to music, and had learned to play guitar and picked up quite a number of songs: country blues, work songs, ballads, spirituals and instrumentals. A musician is a person who plays or writes Music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music An instrumentalist plays a Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. The guitar is a Musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles A song is a Musical composition. Songs contain vocal parts that are performed 'sung' and generally feature Words ( Lyrics) commonly followed Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) refers to all A work song is typically a Rhythmic A cappella Song sung by people working on a physical and often repetitive task A ballad is a Poem usually set to Music; thus it often is a story told in a Song. An instrumental is a Musical composition or recording without Lyrics or any other sort of Vocal music; all of the Music is produced by And he had carried his guitar with him and played for money by passing the hat. When he decided to try to work as a professional, he found it hard to find other musicians to work with: thus was his one-man-band act born.

Starting locally, in clubs and bars in San Francisco and across the bay in Oakland and Berkeley, Fuller became more widely known when he performed on television in both the Bay Area and Los Angeles, and in 1958 his recording career started with his first album on the Good Time Jazz record label^[4]. Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in Northern California, in the United States. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic An album or record album is a collection of related audio or Music tracks distributed to the public In the Music industry, a record label can be a Brand and a Trademark associated with the Marketing of music recordings and Music Fuller's instruments included 12-string guitar, harmonica, kazoo, cymbal (high-hat) and fotdella, several of which could be played simultaneously. A harmonica is a free reed Wind instrument which is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes (reed chambers or The kazoo is a simple Musical instrument ( Membranophone) that adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when one vocalizes into it Cymbals are a modern percussion instrument Cymbals consist of thin normally round plates of various Cymbal alloys; see Cymbal making for a discussion of their The fotdella was an instrument invented and constructed by Jesse "The Lone Cat" Fuller, an American one-man-band musician who needed an accompaniment instrument beyond

Much later, the Grateful Dead covered a few of Fuller's songs, including "The Monkey and the Engineer" and "Beat It on Down the Line". The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Popular music, a cover version, or simply cover, is a new rendition ( Performance or Recording) of a previously recorded commercially released A song is a Musical composition. Songs contain vocal parts that are performed 'sung' and generally feature Words ( Lyrics) commonly followed

The fotdella

No discussion of Fuller would be complete without devoting some attention to the fotdella. The fotdella was an instrument invented and constructed by Jesse "The Lone Cat" Fuller, an American one-man-band musician who needed an accompaniment instrument beyond This is an instrument entirely of Fuller's creation and construction. Keeping in mind that he was a one-man band, the problem was how to supply a more substantial accompaniment than the typical high-hat (cymbal) or bass drum used by street musicians. A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of Musical instruments simultaneously using their hands feet limbs and various mechanical contraptions Fuller's stroke of genius, which he said came to him as he was lying in bed, was this fotdella. It was a foot-operated percussion bass, consisting of a large upright wood box, shaped like the top of a double bass. Attached to a short neck at the top of this box were six bass strings, stretched over the body. And finally, there was the means to play those strings: six foot pedals, each connected to a padded hammer which struck the string, in a homemade wooden contraption.

The six notes of the fotdella allowed him to play a bass line in several keys, though he occasionally would play without it if a song exceeded its limited range.

The name was coined by his wife, who took to calling the instrument a "foot-diller" (as in a "killer-diller" instrument played with the foot), which was shortened to fotdella.

See also

• One-man band
• List of blues musicians
• List of Country blues musicians
• List of Blues revival musicians
• List of Country blues musicians
• San Francisco Bay Blues
• List of guitarists by genre
• List of harmonicists

References

External links

• Elijah Wald's article on Jesse Fuller
• A biography
• Illustrated Jesse Fuller discography
• All Music Guide
• Youtube video of Jesse Fuller playing "San Francisco Bay Blues"

Events 202 BCE - The Battle of Zama results in the defeat of Carthage and Hannibal. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

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