James Booker: New Orleans Piano Wizard; 25 Years Gone
The name James Booker means very little in most parts of the world. In New Orleans, and to a great number of musicians, mainly piano players, the name James Booker is holy. Not bad for someone who was once called "the best black, gay, junkie piano player who ever lived."
In New Orleans, it seems as if everyone has a James Booker story. One story is that district attorney Harry Connick Sr. promised to keep Booker out of jail in exchange for a series of piano tutorials for his son Harry Jr. I'm sure it wasn't quite that simple, but it's a great story.
I visit New Orleans a few times a year, but I live in New York City, and even I have a few James Booker stories. They all involve my precious James Booker t-shirt and how it has caused a number of strangers from NYC to Florence Italy to stop me, ask me where I got it, and tell me their James Booker stories.
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."
25 years ago this Saturday the 8th, the legendary James Carroll Booker III died in a wheelchair, while waiting in a hospital emergency room, after being haunted for so many years by mental illness and drug addiction. And though I am not a piano player, I can say with great confidence, that the music he left behind is unrivaled. "Classified" is easily obtainable and worth every penny, if only for the intensity of Booker's "Angel Eyes." My single favorite live performance not just by Booker, but anyone, can be found, although with great difficulty in the song "True," from the "Live At Montreux" CD. How about making that available to the public, whoever is in charge of doing that?
I've honored and praised the magical city of New Orleans, its beautiful people, and infectious music a number of times on these pages. I've done the same on my own pages HERE. Still I go back to James Booker, his heartbreaking voice, impossible left hand, and iconic photos with that full on 'fro and eye patch. 25 years gone, I believe it's time to honor James Booker. Even The Chipmunks have a boxed set.
Rickie Lee Jones said this:
"Booker died then, much like he had lived, no one seemed to notice him, or maybe it was just that it would have been unbearable for him to have been noticed too much. I am glad to hear that people celebrate James Booker now. He would be really happy about that, in a quiet way, I think."
I never got to see James Booker play. Never saw The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix or Elvis Presley either. But not seeing Booker bothers me more.
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Sal,
I'm a little late getting to your piece, but thanks SO much for the remembrance of an American Original. As a piano player I had not really dug into the N.O. tradition until after Katrina, although the style had attracted me since I first heard Fats Domino and Huey Piano Smith in the early 60's on my crystal radio (wow).
Booker was like a couple of other musical prodigies that I have known in my hometown of Seattle, one a saxophone player and the other a vocalist, both of whom were drop-dead geniuses tragically hampered by mental illness, drug abuse, and who were also gay. The singer , Sam Smith, could sing anything, and was one of the best R&B singers I have ever heard. I knew Sam when he was 10 years old and singing in church, and played in his band some years later. When listend to Booker's playing I immediately recognized the gospel roots onto which had been grafted the classical technique that he displayed with apparent ease. I also felt the pathos that was the undercurrent of his playing. I was so taken by his spirit and playing that I actually spent about a year falling asleep every night with Booker playing in my I-Pod ear buds. No other musician has had that kind of effect on me. Thanks to the internet and folks like you, the word about Booker is still getting out all these years later. Keep it up!
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Wonderful tribute to Booker, Sal. We were blessed when both Josh Paxton and Steve Rohback turned up to jam at a New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Dr. John benefit - a great surprise that made the night three times more Bookerish.
One other thing, if anybody out there has the power and connections to do a Booker retrospective: back in the 80's, Cox Cable of New Orleans had a music program on, of 1 hr performances by many local groups, some quite esoteric (like Ecoutez! a group devoted to recreaing the sound of the Oprheum pit orchestra). But Booker did one of these, and his performance was quite good. I had an audio tape of it but like everything else I owned, including many hrs of perfs taped off the air, Katrina repossessed it.
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Mack,
I don't have HOURS of performances, but I do have hours of performances. Get me your address and I'll try to replace some of what you lost
Hi Mack,
Your'e talking about the video Cox Cable did at the Maple Leaf 8 days before Booker died. I have the show on DVD. It's kinda sad because it shows booker's brilliance at times but most of it is very erratic and not the final portrayal of a genius. I"ll try to get it to Sal soon and he can send you a copy..
josh
www.joshch
Sal,
It's great to see a tribute to Booker; like you say, it's rare to hear his name or find someone who was touched by his music. I was one who spent my Tuesday nights at the Maple Leaf bar, drinking heavily in anticipation of a simply astonishing display of keyboard prowess. If Booker would show, he never disappointed, despite his condition.
I spent years trying to find a recording of his work, and was then shocked to discover "The Resurrection Of The Bayou Maharajah", a collection of those very Tuesday night gigs. That, along with "Classified", has helped me remember the fun I had in New Orleans almost 30 years ago.
Thanks again for the post! It's great to meet a kindred spirit.
See Sal Nunziato's Profile
Thanks Miles. It's astounding just how many people were so touched my this man.
Hey Sal
As a kid growing up learning to play Booker stuff, there was no sheet music apart from stuff Tom McDermott had transcribed so I used to pick out the left hand and then the right hand. I spent years trying to get it together and to this day, Booker's piano style is the hardest , most unique way of playing that has existed in contemporary music. Throughout the years, i've collected extensive audio and video libraries of Booker from New Orleans folks and I developed my relationship with Dr. John (Mac) because of our shared admiration of Booker's piano. Here are a few of my tributes to Booker...
http://www
http://www
"gotta watch out for the CIA" James Carroll Booker
www.joshch
See Sal Nunziato's Profile
Damn Josh! You're "Saints" gave me chills! Thanks for the comments and for sharing the link to your performance. I'm glad we spoke over the summer and hope we can hang again. We can talk Booker, New Orleans, and music in general.
Hi Sal, well i'm glad you dug it... I mean for the other link to this one : http://www
and also a version of Goodnight Irene I learned from mac who learned it from booker and i made some gumbo out of it ..
http://www
.. email me so I can send you the pic of you in your booker tshirt... I 'll let you know when my next show is and hopefully you can come out..
thanks again for such a well exectued portrait on Booker. Plus if you want some booker stuff, let me know
Well, this warmed the cockles of my heard. Grits ain't groceries, eggs ain't poultry, and Mona Lisa was a man.
As a young musician in New Orleans during the 70s I was lucky enough to play with James a number of times. Aside from his brilliance as an artist, he was a sweet guy who deserved a better life.
C'mon y'all, taking nothing away from all previous observations, but when you talk about the greatest pianist in any music, you must begin with Art Tatum.
James Booker was the finest piano player who ever lived, end of story. Fess, Fats, Tuts, Toussaint, Harry and the rest cannot come anywhere close to Booker's imagination and power. Thanks for the nice reminder, Mr. Nunziato.
James Booker is a "must know" for any one who loves the keys.
A great loss to the blues community and the artistic world.
Just by chance I got to see James Booker perform in a place that was a combination bar/laundrymat in New Orleans. I had never heard of him before, and much too infrequently since. It was one of the most stirring performances I've ever had the pleasure of witnessing. My "Piano Wizard Live" album was worn out after a couple of years.
I last saw Booker perform at Jazz Fest in the early '80s. At the end of his set, he invited 12-year-old Harry Connick Jr. onstage to join him in a duet. Sweet! Here's a great Booker number: http://www
That bar/laundromat you remember is the justly famed Maple Leaf on Oak St. It's legendary for the performances there, although it's been some time since they took out the laundromat. Booker played there at least twice a week. 25 years ago! I seems like yesterday.
One memory stand out right now, although Booker is only peripheral to it. Booker did the opening set one evening at the Maple Leaf, when I had a whole crowd in for--I forget, either Jazzfest or Mardi Gras. He was great, but that night he was eclipsed by the main act, a Carribean folksinger from the Bahamas named Exuma and his accompanist, Josiah Teddy Kinlock, who played on a sort of rack bedecked with bells, gongs, cymbals and a lot of stuff that looked like it had come from a junkyard. And they were nothing short of magnificent, causing staid WASPs from Middle America to jump into the center of the circle in the famous Ring Dance, from the tune "Penny Sausage" and gyrate and twist with utter sensual abandon to the music, in the crowded, smoky, hot confines of the Maple Leaf. One woman jumped out of the ring shook her head, and said to no one in particular, "I can't believe I just did that!" "New Orleans does that to you." said a bystander. (Me. ) Anyhow, bless you James, wherever you are.
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