One More Good Adventure

Now you’ve seen, hopefully you’ve been paying attention, three of New Orleans piano greats, Fess, Tuts and Allen. Now here they are together. It’s it’s not often you get to see more than one pianist at a time since there’s rarely more than one piano anywhere.

This was a rehearsal for a public television special but it was never presented since the Fess died before the performance…

Outside of New Orleans and some real music afficianados and trivia buffs Allen Toussaint isn’t a well-known figure. But Allen is a giant in the music world. But he’s one of the most influential figures in New Orleans R&B. Many of his songs, though, are familiar to the world through their numerous cover versions, including “Working in the Coalmine,” “Ride Your Poney,” “Brickyard Blues,” “Seeet Touch of Love”  and “Southern Nights.”

Though most often hiding behind the scenes Allen Toussaint does appear on stage from time to time and you are in for a real treat if you’re lucky enough to be around when he does. Allen is a great piano player in the long line of great New Orleans piano players.

Actually, the inclusion of this video is leading up to a post coming soon.

I’m sorry, I can’t resist adding this one right now.

As far as I’m concerned Dr. John is one of the finest piano players to ever come out of New Orleans. If you were around in the late 60s you probably remember him from “Right Place at the Wrong Time.” But the good Doctor plays the old standards as well.

Probably the most outstanding night of music I was ever treated to came in the early 80s at Tipitina’s. Dr. John was scheduled to start at 11:oo but, as usual in New Orleans, didn’t show up until sometime after midnight. There was no band to accompany him. Just an old upright by itself on the stage. The Doctor sat down at the keyboard and, in his gravelly voice said, “Anything you want to hear just write it down on a napkin and send it on up.” He then started to play and went on for the next three hours without stopping.

“I’m going to take a little break now,” he said, “and then I’ll be back.”

It was about a half hour before he returned. When he finished the second set, and not having repeated a single song all night, the audience left Tip’s to find that the sun had come up. The cost of a ticket that night had been $6.00!

Dr. John has one of the strongest left hands in the business as you’ll see and hear on this video which has a unique perspective.

“Tuts” was another New Orleans Piano legend. Born January 24, 1907 in New Orleans he started to teach himself how to play piano at age 10 and then studied with New Orleans jazz pianist Joseph Louis “Red” Cayou. He played with many jazz and Dixieland groups through the 20s and 30s. Hos keyboard style blended elements of ragtime, jazz, blues and boogie-woogie.
After living and playing in Saint Louis for many years he returned to New Orleans and in his later years he became a staple at the lounge of the Pontchartrain Hotel on the corner of St. Charles and Jackson Avenues on the edge of the Garden District.

Although he avoided recording for most of his career, he released the solo piano album New Orleans Piano Professor on Rounder Records in 1983.

On August 5, 1984, Tuts was playing at the New Orleans World’s Fair. After his first number and his usual response to the applause, (“Thank you, music lovers.”) He said, “I’m really happy to be with you here today. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to do this. I’m getting pretty old, you know…” He then played a little riff and stopped for a moment. He started playing another bit of a song and paused again before playing a couple of bars of a different song and then he died. Right there at the piano! No collapse and rushed off to a hospital somewhere. Isidore “Tuts” Washington died doing what he spent his life doing…making a joyful noise unto the Lord. We should all be so lucky to end our days the same way.

(P.S. I know this to be true because I actually happened to be there when it happened. The show was being broadcast live on WWOZ radio and somewhere in a HUGE box of cassette tapes I have is a rebroadcast of the event.)

Continuing on with my theme of great New Orleans piano players I was fortunate enough to see while living there, I present you with James Booker, also known as the “Piano Wizard of New Orleans.

Booker was an all-round player. Jazz, classical and New Orleans funk were all in his repetoir. He was the house pianist at the famed Maple Leaf bar in the Carrolton section of the city… a place where you could drink an ice cold Dixie beer, do your laundry and listen to great music all at the same time back in the early ’80s.

A little-known fact about Booker is that not only was he a wizard on the 88s, he was also a world champion typist. Booker, while little known to the American pulbic outside of New Orleans was extremely popular in Europe.

Sal Nunziato writing in an article said,

“It’s hard to describe Booker’s playing. Of course, as a New Orleans native, Booker will get the obvious comparisons to Professor Longhair and “Tuts” Washington, but it’s not that simple. James Booker also studied the solos of Chopin and Liberace, while continuing to play jazz standards and rock and roll. “He sounds like he has more than two hands.” That quote is attributed to…well…everyone who has heard Booker play.

“Booker played with people as diverse as Lloyd Price, Aretha Franklin, The Doobie Brothers, Rickie Lee Jones, and Ringo Starr. He even toured with Jerry Garcia. New Orleans piano player Joshua Paxton said this about James Booker’s playing in an article from Offbeat magazine: “It was the kind of piano playing that I had always wanted to hear, but never had. It was Ray Charles on the level of Chopin. It was all the soul, all the groove, and all the technique in the universe packed into one unbelievable player. That Booker’s music hasn’t become part of the standard piano repertoire is, in my opinion, a crime.”

Booker died in a wheelchair November 8th, 1983 waiting to be seen in the emergency room at Charity Hospital.

This is Booker’s last recorded song…Classified