That Sweet New Orleans Piano Sound

Everybody has heard of the blues and jazz. But, have you ever heard of boogie woogie, zydeco, stride, ragtime, and calypso? Well believe it or not, all seven of these musical forms played an important role in shaping and influencing the amorphous genre we call rock and roll.

As one of the big three centers for the development of American roots music, New Orleans has been home to an incredible collection of artists over the decades, many of whom commanded the above musical styles. For me, two N'Awlinz players in particular blended all these genres into one savory gumbo of ivory tickling greatness: Professor Longhair and James Booker.

I'll spare you the full biography of either of these two legends (though if your interested, see here, and here), but I will talk just a little about their music. A lot of people (but probably not enough) are familiar with the music of Professor Longhair. He won a posthumous Grammy winner in 1987, he was a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee in 1992, and his album "New Orleans Piano" was voted #220 on Rolling Stones' 500 Greatest Albums list.

Fess, as he we called later in his career, has been credited as the founder of the New Orleans piano style. This style is generally characterized as a combination of all the above musical forms, with a special focus on the player's technique. This difficult technique involves using the left hand to continuously pound out bass line chord walks, while contemporaneously using the right hand to accent the bass notes and chords with lead style runs that fly all over the keys. In short, this.

Professor Longhair was not only the creator of this sound, but many today still consider his work on the keys to be the best ever produced. One of his most famous songs, and one that really showcases how uniquely talented this guy was (it also happens to be my favorite by him) is the eccentric tune "Tipitina". If you've ever been to New Orleans, you may have noticed a famous music club there in the city by the same name. Now you know where the name of the club came from. Here are some other great glimpses of the Fess: "Hey Little Girl," "Bald Head," and "Everyday I Have the Blues." All it takes is one listen to this stuff and there's no question that this guy helped pave the way for rock and roll.

James Booker came along as a recording artist a decade after rock and roll had cemented its place in American culture. However, thanks to his immense talent on the piano and his flare for performing, it didn't take long for the even the best musicians out there to name him as one of their influences. As you probably noticed from the above videos, Professor Longhair could really do a lot with the keys. But, in my opinion, Booker could do even more (especially with his left hand playing bass note walks.) He was classically trained on the piano, and was reputed to have learned entire compositions from Chopin, Bach and Rachmananoff after only one listen. Somehow, he was actually able to incorporate these classical sounds into his modern New Orleans style. Booker was nothing short of a virtuoso.

Tragically, he suffered from lifelong mental illness and battled a sever drug problem which eventually took his life. Despite this, much of his music still lives on. Booker is much less well known than Professor Longhair, so it's a lot harder to find links to his stuff online. By far, my favorite Booker tune is his take on the blues/jazz classic "Junco Partner." Unfortunately, I could not find a link to Booker's recording of the song (other than the 5 second preview on Amazon), so I will just have to link you to Dr. John's attempt; while good, it can't touch Booker's version of the song, trust me. There are, on other hand, some great examples of Booker's playing on these (mostly instrumentals): "Pixie,"Put Out the Light," "Yes Sir That's My Baby," and an untitled recording.

An interesting note is that Booker schooled a young Harry Connick, Jr. on how to play New Orleans style blues - can you tell?

For anyone who likes the blues, jazz and/or rock & roll, I would strongly suggest getting to know these two artists. There's no better place to start than here: for Professor Longhair start with the album New Orleans Piano; for James Booker start with any of these three records. Buy, download or steal, you'll be happy that these albums were added to your collection.

Boomer