New Orleans piano legend James Booker

[andy131481]

The Litttle Chopin.



[DosntExistAnymore]

I Can Dig it Baby'

[1Woutervdb1]

No pianist like this one.

[1blastman]

Booker is the Jimi Hendrix of New Orleans piano. His genius comes not just from his innovative genius of creating new piano techniques, but also from his tormented, soul and altered perception of reality. Check out the very tormented version of Classifed on one of his live at the Maple Leaf albums - either Taste of Honey or United Our Thing Must Stand. He played right at the edge of sanity and no one has ever come that close.

[IndependentGeorge76]

@1blastman James Booker aint the Jimi Hendrix of the piano, Jimi Hendrix is the James booker of the guitar.... but otherwise i make you right ;)

[1blastman]

@IndependentGeorge76 Yeah, you rite. I can desitively agree wid dat!!!!

[1blastman]

@IndependentGeorge76 No arguement from me :o) I listen to Booker every day, but play Hendrix only occasionally. Got Booker in my DNA.

[pianiplunker]

That lick he does at about 1:02 is the tightest shit I've ever heard.

[bebobjunkie]

Booker's so cool...

[lkeber]

This is mislabeled. Not Montreux; it's Nice, France from 1978.

[shiffyboy]

@lkeber correctomundo.

[pipewatcher]

so nice ! Thanks for the post!!

[tynertyner]

NOLA in one post...

[zm177]

What is the name of his song?

[imbaAntares]

It is Classified

[zm177]

thanks :)

[Chesterton7]

love it thanks for posting

[hififlipper]

this man was a genius, I hear his records for 10 years now frequently, and I enjoy the only CD I got more everytime I hear I again.

This is legend.

[crazypianolady]

Killer riff! I can play a little blues, but I'm only just starting to discover amazing artists such as Booker. Can anyone suggest any? A list would be great, and I'll take it from there! (Bit of an endless list I know!!....)

[shantidude]

Well, it's hard to beat Booker for technique, but for Nola piano players, you gotta add the great Professor Longhair. I also think Champion Jack Dupree is one of the most fun to listen to.

Then for straight up, killer boogie-woogie, you got the big three: Meade "Lux" Lewis, Albert Ammons, and Pete Johnson...

For more straight ahead blues players/singers, Sunnyland Slim is pretty great.

That's off the top of my head - I'm sure there's a ton more! Enjoy!

[axavild]

awesome!

[jamesbooker88]

thanx for sharing this great stuff...

[quundar]

in fact, the place was not Montreux, Switzerland, but Nice jazz festival, arena stage, French Riviera ( Nice is the name of the town , not "pretty "jazz festival !). I would say year 76. French tv video.Anyway, thousands of thanx checker , the performance primes the place!

Btw, there is a gatemouth Brown performance at the same place, on youtube.

[eric669]

James Booker was a genius of the piano in a broader way than just Blues. Dr John is, in my opinion, the best living Blues pianist and also a great songwriter and a very original singer.

[1blastman]

@eric669 Amen, Brother. He was the best that ever was!

[lordkoos]

Booker also taught Harry Connick Jr.

[thefifths]

booker is the OG

[bennethos]

uhm, booker teached dr john to play the piano ;), they played together in a band when dr john was still a guitarist :p .

Dr John always gets quite emotional when they ask him stuff about Booker in an interview. I think they were very good friends...

[zeppy13131]

FreeStyle: Booker is where guys like Dr. John came from.

[badlandsbooker]

totally AWESOME!!!!!!!

[FreeStyleUK123]

He's really good but I prefer dr.john :-)

[CCSGods25]

Maybe you should ask the Doc who taught him

[FreeStyleUK123]

I just said I prefer the Doctor's music to james brookers?

I wasn't downgrading him...

Is there a problem with preferring one musician to another?

[gargran]

steve i couldn't agree more. my older brother turned me on to this cat about two years ago and i can't enough of him.

[steviedeedee]

A genius. In every sense of the word. Every ounce of his life comes out in his playing.