B.B. King
Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925, on the Berclair cotton plantation near the town of Itta Bena, Mississippi, the son of sharecroppers Albert and Nora Ella King. He considered the nearby city of Indianola, Mississippi to be his home. When King was four years old, his mother left his father for another man, so he was raised by his maternal grandmother, Elnora Farr, in Kilmichael, Mississippi.
Jon Brewer
Following the worldwide success of B.B. King: The Life of Riley and his deepening alliances in America's South, Jon Brewer with his wife, writer and executive producer, Laura Royko chronicled in depth the development of blues music over 300 years of music as expressionism through slavery, abolition of slavery and the Civil Rights Movement, taking music right into early Rock N Roll in the 3 part Miniseries seen on Sky Television and Amazon Prime : Monochrome: Black, White and Blue.[9]
Following the positive reception of B.B. King: The Life of Riley,[10] Brewer was contacted by the Nat King Cole estate to create a documentary feature on the life of Nat King Cole.[11] In 2014 the documentary film Nat King Cole: Afraid of the Dark finished filming and edit. The film premiered in London on 13 May 2014, and has continued to be broadcast worldwide, winning the 2015 Screen Nation 'Diversity in Factual Programming Award' sponsored by BBC and ITV .