James Booker
Certainly one of the most flamboyant New Orleans pianists in recent memory, James Carroll Booker III was a major influence on the local rhythm & blues scene in the '50s and '60s. Booker's training included classical instruction until age 12, by which time he had already begun to gain recognition as a blues and gospel organist on radio station WMRY every Sunday. By the time he was out of high school he had recorded on several occasions, including his own first release, "Doing the Hambone," in 1953. In 1960, he made the national charts with "Gonzo," an organ instrumental, and over the course of the next two decades played and recorded with artists as varied as Lloyd Price, Aretha Franklin, Ringo Starr, the Doobie Brothers, and B.B. King. In 1967, he was convicted of possession of heroin and served a one-year sentence at Angola Penitentiary (referred to as the "Ponderosa"), which took the momentum out of an otherwise promising career. The rediscovery of "roots" music by college students during the '70s (focusing primarily on "Fess" by Professor Longhair) provided the opportunity for a comeback by 1974, with numerous engagements at local clubs like Tipitina's, The Maple Leaf, and Snug Harbor. As with "Fess," Booker's performances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festivals took on the trappings of legendary "happenings," and he often spent his festival earnings to arrive in style, pulling up to the stage in a rented Rolls Royce and attired in costumes befitting the "Piano Prince of New Orleans," complete with a cape. Such performances tended to be unpredictable: he might easily plant some Chopin into a blues tune or launch into a jeremiad on the CIA with all the fervor of a "Reverend Ike-meets-Moms Mabley" tag-team match.
Booker's left hand was simply phenomenal, often a problem for bass players who found themselves running for cover in an attempt to stay out of the way; with it he successfully amalgamated the jazz and rhythm & blues idioms of New Orleans, adding more than a touch of gospel thrown in for good measure. His playing was also highly improvisational, reinventing a progression (usually his own) so that a single piece would evolve into a medley of itself. In addition, he had a plaintive and seering vocal style which was equally comfortable with gospel, jazz standards, blues, or popular songs. Despite his personal eccentricities, Booker had the respect of New Orleans' best musicians, and elements of his influence are still very much apparent in the playing of pianists like Henry Butler and Harry Connick, Jr.
© Bruce Boyd Raeburn /TiVo
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The Lost Paramount Tapes
Blues - Erschienen bei DJM Records am 11.03.1997
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Classified (Remixed & Expanded Edition)
Blues - Erschienen bei Rounder Records am 01.01.1982
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True (Live At Tipitina's - 04/25/78)
James Booker, Tipitina’s Record Club
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Spiders On The Keys (Live At The Maple Leaf Bar, New Orleans, LA / 1977-1982)
Jazz - Erschienen bei Rounder am 15.09.1993
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Resurrection Of The Bayou Maharajah (Live At The Maple Leaf Bar, New Orleans, LA / 1977-1982)
Jazz - Erschienen bei Rounder am 22.07.1993
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At Onkel Pö's Carnegie Hall, Hamburg 1976, Vol. 1 (Live)
Jazz - Erschienen bei Jazzline am 01.03.1976
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Let's Make a Better World! Live in Leipzig
Blues - Erschienen bei Black Sun Music am 01.01.1991
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United, Our Thing Will Stand: Live At Tipitina's 1976 (Live)
Soul - Erschienen bei Night Train International am 01.01.1999
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The Piano Prince of New Orleans
Blues - Erschienen bei Black Sun Music am 01.01.1976
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King Of The New Orleans Keyboard
Blues - Erschienen bei jsp am 01.03.2012
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James Booker: Manchester '77
Blues - Erschienen bei Document Records am 01.06.2006
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A Taste of Honey: Live In New Orleans, 1977
Soul - Erschienen bei Night Train International am 01.01.2000
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Blues & Ragtime from New Orleans
Blues - Erschienen bei Black Sun Music am 01.01.1976
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Gonzo: More Than All The 45's
Soul - Erschienen bei Night Train International am 01.01.1996
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The Ivory Emperor
R&B - Erschienen bei Mojo Workin' am 10.02.2022
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Nightingale
Jazz - Erschienen bei oldies and hits for future am 28.05.2019
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Gonzo (Billboard Hot 100 - No 43)
R&B - Erschienen bei Music Manager am 05.11.2020
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Under The Christmas Tree
Jazz - Erschienen bei The Christmas Tree am 24.11.2021
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Sound and Vision
Jazz - Erschienen bei the sound girly am 13.12.2014
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