Arbee William Stidham was an American blues singer and multi-instrumentalist.
19 Facts About Arbee Stidham
1.
2.
Arbee Stidham was born at De Valls Bluff, Arkansas, United States, in 1917 to Luttie Abraham and Mable Stidham and into a family steeped in music.
3.
Arbee Stidham's father was a musician in the Jimmie Lunceford Band, his uncle Ernest Arbee Stidham was the leader of the Memphis Jug Band and his uncle Isaiah was a violinist.
4.
Arbee Stidham attended the Prairie Valley Training School as a child and Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
5.
Arbee Stidham first learned to play a clarinet given to him by a local merchant in De Valls Bluff.
6.
Arbee Stidham said: "That's what I learned to play, and after I learned to play the clarinet, I went to the saxophone".
7.
Arbee Stidham used to order records, "Louis Armstrong and things on that kick" and listen to them late at night at low volume.
8.
At the age of twelve, Arbee Stidham made his first appearance at the Ninth Street Theatre in Little Rock, Arkansas.
9.
Arbee Stidham's band backed Bessie Smith during tour stops in 1930 and 1931, appeared frequently on KARK-AM radio in Little Rock and continued to work clubs in Little Rock and Memphis, Tennessee.
10.
Arbee Stidham's biggest hit, "My Heart Belongs to You", was recorded at his first session.
11.
Arbee Stidham spent the rest of his career trying to achieve the same success, recording for Checker, States, and other independent record labels as a jazz-influenced blues vocalist.
12.
Arbee Stidham's wife urged him to learn to play the guitar.
13.
Arbee Stidham played the guitar and sang on recordings for Folkways Records in the early 1960s.
14.
Arbee Stidham recorded five songs on May 25,1965 at the Sun Records studio in Memphis, Tennessee.
15.
Arbee Stidham appeared regularly at the Pirates Cove nightclub, often accompanying Robert Lockwood Jr.
16.
Arbee Stidham was a lecturer on the Blues music genre at Cleveland State University in the 1970s.
17.
Arbee Stidham recorded occasionally during the early 1970s and performed at music festivals and clubs in the United States and abroad.
18.
In January, 1982, Arbee Stidham performed with Willie Dixon's "Blues Rent Party" band during the Chicago Winter Jazz Fair held at the Blackstone Hotel.
19.
Arbee Stidham died on April 26,1988, at the University of Chicago Medical Center in Cook County, Illinois, aged 71.