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James Booker Albums
Spiders on the Keys / Junco
Partner /
New Orleans Piano Wizard: Live!
Resurrection
of the Bayou Maharajah * *
* * * James
Booker
(1939-1983)
By David Kunian They called him Little Booker, the Bayou
Maharajah, The Piano Prince of New Orleans and just simply
Booker. He lived from 1939 until 1983 and was the best pianist
anyone ever heard. His fingers going across the keys looked
like a nest of spiders let loose on the piano. His voice was
possessed with the soul of someone trying to make sense of all
the turmoil and pain of his life and yours. When he played the
piano, any and all songs could come from the notes. Everything
from the Godfather theme to the works Ernesto Lecuona to
Beethoven to the rawest, gutbucket, junker blues of back o' town
New Orleans, many times all in the same song.
He was a wild character, often leaving in the middle of a set
or haranguing the audience with his theories of philosophy, the
legalization of drugs and the CIA. When he got onstage, those
lucky witnesses saw the grand questions that writers, musicians,
poets and thinkers have been contemplating since the beginning
of time: What is the line between genius and madness? Music and
beauty and art? What is the nature of tragedy and joy and how do
they dance together?
However, the bottom line was the music. It was beautiful and
intense, dark and light, focused and crazed, always technically
and creatively the work of genius. James Booker's music is music
that changes the lives of everyone who heard and still hears it.
There are recordings of him on several labels including Rounder,
DJM and Aves. He can also be heard playing with Aretha Franklin,
Fats Domino, Earl King, The Coasters, Ray Charles, Lionel
Hampton and Lloyd Price. Pianists influenced by him include Dr.
John, Allen Toussaint, Harry Connick, Jr., George Winston, Art
Neville, Jon Cleary, Tom McDermott and Joshua Paxton. And now
the entire catalog of Booker's music is available from the Don
Williams Music Group.
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update 16 May 2011 |
