James Booker

Here is New Orleans own James Booker playing a medley that is much calmer than much of the barrelhouse style he is recognized for decades later. 

James Booker must be one of the greatest musicians to have struck the "ivory" in the past century. Here is a gritty home recording of Booker playing in Europe, 1978. The look that he gives the camera around 7:46 is a still shot that summons the depth of the man himself, while capturing his now infamous starred eye-patch.


Also, is this the first time the camera man has operated a home video player? I realize it is 1978 but wow, pretty funny, the random leg zooms, drifting off into the corner of the room shots, and Booker himself telling the cameraman how distracting his video light is when it is only a foot or so from his face. Or they may have just been partaking in a little extracurricular fun.

James Booker Live New Orleans Jazz Fest, 1978

For a brief bio we turn to AllMusic.Com and Bruce Boyd Raeburn:


"Certainly one of the most flamboyant New Orleans pianists in recent memory, James Carrol Booker III  was a major influence on the local rhythm & blues scene in the '50s and '60s. Booker's training included classical instruction until age 12, by which time he had already begun to gain recognition as a blues and gospel organist on radio station WMRY every Sunday. By the time he was out of high school he had recorded on several occasions, including his own first release, "Doing the Hambone," in 1953. In 1960, he made the national charts with "Gonzo," an organ instrumental, and over the course of the next two decades played and recorded with artists as varied as Lloyd Price, Aretha Franklin, Ringo Starr, the Doobie Brothers, and B.B. King . In 1967, he was convicted of possession of heroin and served a one-year sentence at Angola Penitentiary (referred to as the "Ponderosa"), which took the momentum out of an otherwise promising career. The rediscovery of "roots" music by college students during the '70s (focusing primarily on "Fess" by Proffesor Longhair) provided the opportunity for a comeback by 1974, with numerous engagements at local clubs like Tipitina's, The Maple Leaf, and Snug Harbor. As with "Fess," Booker's performances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festivals took on the trappings of legendary "happenings," and he often spent his festival earnings to arrive in style, pulling up to the stage in a rented Rolls Royce and attired in costumes befitting the "Piano Prince of New Orleans," complete with a cape. Such performances tended to be unpredictable: he might easily plant some Chopin into a blues tune or launch into a jeremiad on the CIA with all the fervor of a "Reverend Ike-meets-Moms Mabley" tag-team match.

Booker's left hand was simply phenomenal, often a problem for bass players who found themselves running for cover in an attempt to stay out of the way; with it he successfully amalgamated the jazz and rhythm & blues idioms of New Orleans, adding more than a touch of gospel thrown in for good measure. His playing was also highly improvisational, reinventing a progression (usually his own) so that a single piece would evolve into a medley of itself. In addition, he had a plaintive and seering vocal style which was equally comfortable with gospel, jazz standards, blues, or popular songs. Despite his personal eccentricities, Booker had the respect of New Orleans' best musicians, and elements of his influence are still very much apparent in the playing of pianists like Henry Butler and Harry Connick, Jr."


Note: I apologize for not embedding the video directly, the author has disabled the feature. Enjoy.


James Booker playing for friends in Europe 1978. Filmed by the late German collector Dietrich Von Staden.

Also check out James Booker performing the song "Classified:"

And if you'd like, an article posted on Huffingtonpost.com by Sal Nunziato with an excerpt:

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...

...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."

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."