King Alex

"King-Alex" was born July 29, 1934 in Arkadelphia, Arkansas and passed away March 15, 2008. He grew up with his musical family in Forriday, Louisiana. At age 14, he moved to Kansas City and began his musical training with help from bass lessons from Claude "Fiddler" Williams. Formal training at UMKC's Conservatory of Music helped Alex refine his ability to play the bass and he was the first African-American bassist to play an electric bass in Kansas City through the Conservatory. He was a career musician living and working the rest of his life in Kansas City. He performed at local venues, regional and national blues and jazz festivals. He performed with the late Tommy Soul, Lester "Wizard" King, Albert Collins, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Lawrence Wright and the Outlets, Leon Estelle, "Little-Joe" Robinson and Claude "Fiddler" Williams - just to name a few. His group The Turnpikes recorded a couple of sides in the late 1950's for the Central label, followed by more sides in the early 1960's for Spindle. There was a long gap of 15 years before recording a single for NMI in 1979 and another 15+ years before he entered the most productive era of recording, as a slew of full-length albums came out in in the 1990s and early 2000s. Littlejohn was inducted into the Elder Statesmen of Kansas City Jazz in 2002 along with former employer and life-long friend Richard "Dick" Berkley.