James Booker - Biography
James Booker (1939-1983) wasn’t just a titan in any music scene. He was a titan in the New Orleans music scene, which makes him a protean figure in the soundscape of essential Americana. His marriage of rhythm ‘n’ blues and barrel-chested, gut-bucket soul was inspired, and inspirational. Booker was the prime influence on generations of musicians, including — but by no means limited to — Harry Connick Jr., who considers Booker his mentor. An obvious prodigy and an insatiable student of sound, he developed a singularly devastating performance idiom by immersing himself in music of every imaginable genre. He grew up playing gospel organ in his pastor father’s Baptist church on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but he was just as well versed in the classical mastery of Frédéric Chopin and Johann Sebastian Bach; he studied with Tuts Washington, yet he toured with the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. Booker was an extraordinarily dexterous polyglot, and he possessed a keen ability to absorb elements of ragtime, boogie-woogie, Harlem slide, Latin music, and international esoterica, and then spray them out with a velocity of science-fiction proportions.
Booker was so facile, so technically gifted, that he could coast on flabbergasteronics; accordingly, most of his extant recordings were taken from the nightclub stage, not the studio booth. This ties into another crucial aspect of Booker’s larger-than-life personae: his difficult, indulgent, wily ways. Booker went up the river more than once, due to his various addictions (if you’ve haven’t done time in Angola, you’re not a bluesman), and he was visibly gay in the Deep South, in an era in which it was hard enough just being black. He wore a conspicuous eye patch, to compensate for an orb lost in dubious circumstances. If he’s not as prominent in the musical annals as Professor Longhair or Dr. John, it’s not because of a deficiency in talent. Look to the recollections of any of his peers, students, or protégés, and they’ll confirm: as a performer, James Booker erupted like fireworks. Oh, and on the subject of Dr. John? Booker taught him how to play keys. Before James Booker entered his life, the legendary pianist Dr. John was a mere guitar player.
At the age of 14, Booker made his debut on the classic Imperial label, with “Doin' the Hambone” b/w “Thinkin' 'Bout My Baby”; soon after, he was doing session work for the likes of Fats Domino. He kept busy for years doing session work and playing nightclubs. His appearances at the New Orleans Jazz Festival caught the attention of Island Records impresario Chris Blackwell. Booker’s big-time debut, Junco Partner (1976 Island), established him as one of the all-time great piano professors, as it careened back and forth across the spectrum of his tastes and influences. A high productive period followed, with The Piano Prince Of New Orleans (1976 Aves), Blues & Ragtime From New Orleans (1976 Aves), New Orleans Piano Wizard: Live! (1977 Rounder) and Classified (1982 Rounder) were all released in his lifetime. Several more excellent titles were released posthumously, including Resurrection Of The Bayou Maharajah (1993 Rounder), Spiders on the Keys (1994 Rounder), and The Lost Paramount Tapes (1995 Rounder).
Sadly, the Big Easy has a way of turning ugly when drug and alcohol problems run amok, and Booker’s did just that. But while the life of James Booker maybe have tumbled to a shambolic, inglorious end off-stage, on-stage, he was one of the greatest talents the Crescent City ever produced. Just ask the R&B legend Ernie K-Doe: “Booker come off the piano, it got fire jumpin' off of it. Completely. Fi-yah. Just one of them things.”
