Champion Jack Dupree
A formidable contender in the ring before he shifted his focus to pounding the piano instead, Champion Jack Dupree often injected his lyrics with a rowdy sense of down-home humor. But there was nothing lighthearted about his rock-solid way with a boogie; when he shouted "Shake Baby Shake," the entire room had no choice but to acquiesce.
Dupree was notoriously vague about his beginnings, claiming in some interviews that his parents died in a fire set by the Ku Klux Klan, at other times saying that the blaze was accidental. Whatever the circumstances of the tragic conflagration, Dupree grew up in New Orleans' Colored Waifs' Home for Boys (Louis Armstrong also spent his formative years there). Learning his trade from barrelhouse 88s ace Willie "Drive 'em Down" Hall, Dupree left the Crescent City in 1930 for Chicago and then Detroit. By 1935, he was boxing professionally in Indianapolis, battling in an estimated 107 bouts.
In 1940, Dupree made his recording debut for Chicago A&R man extraordinaire Lester Melrose and OKeh Records. Dupree's 1940-1941 output for the Columbia subsidiary exhibited a strong New Orleans tinge despite the Chicago surroundings; his driving "Junker's Blues" was later cleaned up as Fats Domino's 1949 debut, "The Fat Man." After a stretch in the Navy during World War II (he was a Japanese P.O.W. for two years), Dupree decided tickling the 88s beat pugilism any old day. He spent most of his time in New York and quickly became a prolific recording artist, cutting for Continental, Joe Davis, Alert, Apollo, and Red Robin (where he cut a blasting "Shim Sham Shimmy" in 1953), often in the company of Brownie McGhee. Contracts meant little; Dupree masqueraded as Brother Blues on Abbey, Lightnin' Jr. on Empire, and the truly imaginative Meat Head Johnson for Gotham and Apex.
King Records corralled Dupree in 1953 and held onto him through 1955 (the year he enjoyed his only R&B chart hit, the relaxed "Walking the Blues.") Dupree's King output rates with his very best; the romping "Mail Order Woman," "Let the Doorbell Ring," and "Big Leg Emma's" contrasting with the rural "Me and My Mule" (Dupree's vocal on the latter emphasizing a harelip speech impediment for politically incorrect pseudo-comic effect).
After a year on RCA's Groove and Vik subsidiaries, Dupree made a masterpiece LP for Atlantic. 1958's Blues From the Gutter is a magnificent testament to Dupree's barrelhouse background, boasting marvelous readings of "Stack-O-Lee," "Junker's Blues," and "Frankie & Johnny" beside the risqué "Nasty Boogie." Dupree was one of the first bluesmen to leave his native country for a less racially polarized European existence in 1959. He lived in a variety of countries overseas, continuing to record prolifically for Storyville, British Decca (with John Mayall and Eric Clapton lending a hand at a 1966 date), and many other firms.
Perhaps sensing his own mortality, Dupree returned to New Orleans in 1990 for his first visit in 36 years. While there, he played the Jazz & Heritage Festival and laid down a zesty album for Bullseye Blues, Back Home in New Orleans. Two more albums of new material were captured by the company the next year prior to the pianist's death in January of 1992. Jack Dupree was a champ to the very end.
© Bill Dahl /TiVo
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The Best of20 Selected Tracks
Blues - Released by Man In Blue on 2 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blue Horizon Sessions 1967
Blues - Released by Blue Horizon on 27 Jun 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jack & Charles - [The Dave Cash Collection]
Champion Jack Dupree, Charles Brown
Blues - Released by The Dave Cash Collection - OMP on 9 May 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Best Collection
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Music Manager on 16 Apr 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Champion Jack Dupree's Drunk Again
Blues - Released by Charly Records on 25 Jun 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Warehouse Man Blues
Blues - Released by Reminisce Music on 17 Mar 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Drunk Again / Shim Sham Shimmy
Blues - Released by Red Robin Records on 17 Feb 1954
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Milestones of Legends - "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?", Vol. 6
Champion Jack Dupree, Little Richard
Jazz - Released by Documents 2 on 25 Mar 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Hurry for SunshIne
Blues - Released by Reminisce Music on 7 Jul 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Heart of the Blues is Sound
Blues - Released by Charly | BYG on 7 Sep 1971
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dupree 'N' Mcphee: The 1967 Blue Horizon Session
Champion Jack Dupree, TS McPhee
Blues - Released by ACE RECORDS on 29 Jul 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Milestones of Legends - Boogie Woogie & Blues Piano, Vol. 10
Champion Jack Dupree, Roosevelt Sykes
Blues - Released by Documents 2 on 13 Jan 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Silent Partner
Blues - Released by Music Today Records on 23 Feb 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Champion of the Blues (Album of 1961)
Pop - Released by Blues Classics on 30 Jun 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo