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Eddie Lusk
Lusk's
parents were both ministers in the Pentecostal Church and ran The Lusk
Bible Way Center on Chicago's South Side. When he was old enough, his
mother delegated the piano-playing duties to her son. Lusk was also
tempted by the blues sounds emanating from Pepper's Lounge nearby and
spent his teenage years struggling against their influence. He was
ordained in the Pentecostal faith in 1968 but found the temptation of
the blues too strong. He became music director at the Shiloh Academy,
thus inspiring the nickname given to him by Professor Longhair. He
worked with Luther Allison for three years and throughout the 80s
recorded with artists such as Fenton Robinson, Syl Johnson, Koko
Taylor, Buddy Guy and Michael Coleman, and toured with Jimmy Dawkins,
Phil Guy and Otis Rush. He formed his own band, the Professor's Blues
Review with vocalist Gloria Hardiman, and recorded "Meet Me With Your
Black Drawers On" for the 1987 anthology The New Bluebloods. On his
only solo album, Professor Strut, Hardiman was replaced by
Karen Carroll. He continued to be in demand for sessions, some of which
remain unissued. He and his band appeared in the 1991 film V.
I. Warshawski, and later in the year toured Europe with Coleman and
Kenny Neal. In the summer of 1992, Lusk was diagnosed with colon
cancer, brought on by AIDS. In desperation, he took his own life by
jumping into the Chicago River.
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