Bo Diddley Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and a Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He is also recognized for his technical innovations, including his distinctive rectangular guitar, with its unique booming, resonant, shimmering tones. Born in McComb, Mississippi, as Ellas Otha Bates, he was adopted and raised by his mother's cousin, Gussie McDaniel, whose surname he assumed. In 1934, the McDaniel family moved to the South Side of Chicago, where he dropped the Otha and became Ellas McDaniel. He was an active member of Chicago's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he studied the
New Orleans rhythm and blues as flatted notes, are the third, fifth, and seventh scale degrees. In New Orleans R&B, the flatted third is particularly notable. New Orleans Rhythm and blues was pioneered by local barrelhouse pianists Champion Jack Dupree, Archibald, and Professor Longhair. Professor Longhair, otherwise known as "Fess," was considerably influential in the development of the New Orleans R&B sound. Alan Toussaint, an important figure in New Orleans R&B, described him as "The Bach of Rock 'n' Roll." He combined Caribbean and boogie-woogie rhythms to create his signature style. The result was a usage of polyrhythms that he often whistled while playing. Although