Billie and Dee Dee Pierce The Larry Borenstein Collection

Billie and De De Pierce were an enduring love story in jazz. Billie (Wilhelmina) Goodson came to New Orleans from the Pensacola area in the early 30's, following sister Sadie Goodson who was already established in the Crescent City. (All seven Goodson girls were trained in piano and voice and three, Sadie Billie and Ida, survived into modern times to be recorded.) Billie soon found work with George Lewis and Buddy Petit and others. While playing a gig at the Blue Jay Club in 1935 she met, fell in love with and married trumpeter De De Pierce and together they led a house band at Luthjen's for the next two decades until De De's health problems forced a temporary retirement.

Failure to get proper treatment led to De De loosing his sight but by 1959 into the 60's they made a comeback just in time to catch the Preservation Hall era. They made recordings for Folklyric, Jazzology, Riverside, and American Music as well as touring and recording with Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Health issues forced a second retirement by the 70's and De De died in 1973, followed 10 months later by Billie.


These recordings were made mostly at an Art Gallery turned nighttime recording studio here in the French Quarter by a pair of drinking companions and historic jazz enthusiasts, Larry Borenstein and Bill Russell. What makes these particular sessions special is that on tracks 6-12 they were asked to do their bawdiest material from the old Luthjen's days. An interesting time portal to the days that give rise to jazz and R&B.

Ida Goodson - Pensacola Piano

Most folks are not aware that Pensacola has been home to a satellite New Orleans music community almost since the birth of Jazz. By far some of the most significant contributions were made by the Goodson sisters.

The Baptist Reverend Madison Goodson and his wife Sarah Jenkins had 7 girls in the 1900's  Maggie, Mabel, Dalla, Sadie, Edna, Wilhelmina, and culminating in Ida in 1909.All were trained in piano and voice - the good reverend intended them to be musical vessels of God and permitted no jazz or blues in his house. Of course human nature being what it is all the girls fell in love with the new New Orleans Jazz and the blues of Bessie Smith (Sadie, Willie and Ida all accompanied Bessie at different points in time in the 20's and 30's) The girls would teach each other songs when the parents were away and post a sentry against a surprise return, all learned to segue into Gospel songs at a moments notice.

After the death of their mother in 1921, the girls left home one by one beginning with Sadie who went straight to New Orleans, married a jazz musician (actually several, the last being Kid Sheik) and became a mainstay in the New Orleans Jazz scene for more than 70 years. She was an original piano player for the Preservation Hall Band, and in the 60's & 70's both she and Willie (later Billie Pierce) sat at the PHB piano bench in rotation with Sweet Emma Barrett. (there were multiple versions of the band at the same time)

By 1926 we can assume that the good reverend's heart had born all it could stand from his rebellious girls and he passed away. The two eldest girls, Maggie and Mabel died around the same time (both in their early 20's), Edna and Dalla apparently ran off with minstrel shows and Willie followed Sadie to New Orleans around 1930, marrying trumpeter DeDe Pierce and changing her name to Billie Pierce. Billie became world famous as something of a vamp, at times with Sadie on piano, other times she played it herself. Sadie too played the vamp role but usually to a raunchy, small club audience. Edna focused on singing and at times appeared in the 20's and 30's with one or the other of her sisters. Dalla seems to have vanished. Ida found work in a theater where she accompanied visiting artists like Bessie Smith but also played behind the silent movies. She eventually went on the road with a Pensacola jazz band that Willie had left and even came to New Orleans for a short time but she stayed on in Pensacola playing with an assortment of local bands and in different styles over the years. She could play Jazz, Barrelhouse Blues, Swing or Gospel. By the 50's the demand for jazz musicians in Pensacola faded and Ida returned to Gospel music full time, immersing herself in the church as her father had hoped for so many years earlier.

There are a few recordings of Sadie and Billie out there but Ida is quite elusive. You can read about a live performance of a duet with Sadie recorded by the Florida Folk Archive and a short film called Wild Women Don't Have the Blues but good luck ever finding either. There was allegedly a recording made by a European producer and sold in Europe only, no sign of that either. This impossibly rare and perfectly mint album was produced on a grant by Florida Folklife Program which means there may have been all of a couple hundred ever made. (a friend who works for a similar agency here in Louisiana now tells me that 100 is the more likely number)

What stunned me immediately is that Ida's piano style is instantly identifiable as being straight out of the tradition of Tuts Washington and James Booker. A genuine New Orleans Piano Professor in a little old lady from Pensacola! Having heard recordings of all three, Ida is the most impressive piano player, while Billie had the stronger voice. This album came to me as a side benefit of my new vinyl ripping business, I'm keeping it for now because it is so impossibly rare, no one can come up with a price! There aren't any others in evidence!

**added note: Sadie and her husband Kid Sheik (she married him at 80 years old) left New Orleans and moved north to Detroit in the mid 90's. She must have left some bad blood down here with Preservation Hall because her name no longer appears in the historical rosters of the band. She was reputed to be a hard, short tempered woman, given to single snarled comment interviews when pestered by journalists.