By the time B.B. King ambled out on stage Tuesday night, the 500 or so guests invited to the grand opening of his posh, 16,000 square-foot B.B. King Blues Club & Grill were stuffed to the gills on jumbo shrimp, jumbo oysters and gallons of alcohol from the open bar. But judging from the roar of approval that greeted King's first stinging note on his beloved Gibson, "Lucille," the evening's main course was a generous helping of classic American blues.

With King seated at the front of his eight-piece band ("At seventy-four years of age, I've earned the right to sit down!" he joked), he led an uninterrupted, barnstorming two-hour set. Among those who attended the performance were Dr. John , Bad Company's Paul Rodgers, trumpeter Chuck Mangione and singers Ruby Wilson and Gloria Lynne -- all of whom got up on stage with Kenny Wayne Shepherd for an extended version of "Everyday I Have the Blues."

Well, maybe everyday but today. "I feel happy today -- a dream is coming true," King told Rolling Stone after his forty-minute sound check earlier that day. "It's beyond my wildest dreams."

New York is the third city to lay claim to a B.B. King Blues Club (following Memphis, Tenn., and Universal City, Calif.). "I've played eighty-eight different countries around the world, and I've never found a city like New York," enthused King from the stage. Located on 42nd Street, the club is the latest attraction in the new, more tourist-friendly Times Square. "We hope that this will be the the place that you will want to come to . . . and, of course, whenever B.B. King can, he will be here with Lucille in arm," King continued.

The club will feature a wide variety of blues, jazz and rock acts, with June's bookings ranging from Little Richard to Jean Luc Ponty to Johnny Winter to Steel Pulse .

"It's real exciting," remarked Kenny Wayne Shepherd during rehearsal. "I'm glad that he was inclined to have me help him open up his club. It's something New Yorkers needed for a long time, and who better to bring it than B.B. King?"

GIANLUCA TRAMONTANA
(June 22, 2000)