Blues legend Buddy Guy, live in Mumbai!

For a very, very select few performers, there comes a time when they transcend their art and become wellsprings of creation, keepers of the flame. Chicago-born electric guitar player and singer Buddy Guy is one of them.

The blues legend will play in Mumbai on December 17, says his Web site.

Guy and his polka dot Fender Stratocaster are part of rock and blues music folklore. Buddy is the Guy guitar gods like Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Carlos Santana and Jimi Hendrix paid obeisance to.

Clapton has been quoted as saying that Guy is 'by far and without doubt the greatest guitarist alive today.'

But

Guy's manic guitar's influence was the most visible on the man most consider the greatest rock guitar player ever, Jimi Hendrix.

In fact, when Jimi Hendrix burst onto the scene, Clapton commented he was like 'Buddy Guy on acid.' And when Santana heard a Hendrix record for the first time, he thought it was Buddy Guy as well.

The 69-year-old Buddy -- like B B King, or the now deceased Muddy Waters -- is one of the people who are synonymous with blues, the music that gave birth to jazz and rock, two genres of music that have arguably had more impact on the world than any other.

So, if you want to understand how history can be conveyed through pressure on a guitar string, you will have your opportunity this December.

Photograph: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images