Overview
- He died on Feb. 28 after cardiac arrest, according to Billboard Canada, with collaborator Paul James saying Hammond’s wife, Marla, alerted him to the news.
- He emerged in the early 1960s after signing with Vanguard Records in 1963, debuting with interpretations rooted in Delta blues traditions.
- He released more than 30 albums and won a 1985 Grammy for Blues Explosion, recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival, with additional Grammy nominations across the 1990s and 2000s.
- He was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame in 2011 and was the son of influential producer and talent scout John Henry Hammond Jr.
- Musicians including Joe Bonamassa and George Thorogood posted tributes, praising Hammond as a defining ambassador of the blues and a personal inspiration, while one outlet’s headline about collaborations with Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton was not corroborated in the obituaries.