Zakiya Hooker

Zakiya Hooker grew up immersed in the blues, gaining an intimate perspective on the genre from her own home thanks to her father, the celebrated blues giant John Lee Hooker. Her entry onto a comparable musical path began in 1991, a year that mixed triumph with sorrow. That marked her first onstage appearance alongside her father, where the pair performed a duet together. Joy soon gave way to loss when her youngest child, John, age 20, died in an automobile accident. Three years before that, her son Maurice had been sentenced to an extended prison term. Drawing on the same resilience shown by her father and earlier generations of blues performers, she endured these hardships. Her 1996 release Flavors of the Blues, issued by Pointblank Records/Virgin, stands as evidence of that inner fortitude. Her first album, Another Generation of the Blues, came out in 1993 on Silvertone/Zomba Records and matched its title by featuring a father-daughter duet uniting John Lee Hooker with Zakiya across artistic eras. Flavors of the Blues likewise contained a vocal collaboration with her renowned parent. Born Vera Lee Hooker, she adopted her current name only after settling in California once her initial marriage ended. While raising her children alone, she selected a given name meaning “pure” in Hebrew and “intelligence” in Swahili. She met her subsequent husband, Ollan Christopher, in 1987; he had previously collaborated with Curtis Mayfield. The pair maintains a recording studio, and Christopher supports her work as bassist, co-songwriter, and producer while also contributing background vocals to her second album.