A repost by request: "New Orleans. The city's name just brings to mind music. Jazz and R&B are almost synonymous with its history. And, so are piano players. From the 19th Century classical composer, Louis Morreau Gottschalk, Storyville sporting house players, Tony Jackson and Jelly Roll Morton, R&B greats Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint and Huey Smith, bluesier artists Champion Jack Dupree and Professor Longhair, to modern masters such as Harry Connick Jr. and Dr John, they have always held the center of attention. But, of them all, perhaps no one individual led a more eccentric or erratic life than James Booker. Haunted by mental health disorders and heavy drug addiction, the promising career of perhaps the Crescent City's most talented pianist came to an all too sad and early end.
James Carroll Booker III was born in New
Orleans on
December 17, 1939. His father was a one-time dancer from
Bryan, Texas, who decided to change his life's work by becoming a Baptist
minister and relocating to New Orleans. His mother had been raised in
Mississippi and she was a member of the Baptist church Gospel choir. With such a
strong religious influence, it is not surprising that as a child,
James'
desire was to become a priest when he grew older.
While still an infant,
James and his sister
Betty
Jean were sent to live with their aunt in Bay St. Louis,
Mississippi. It was noted at a very early age that
J. C. (as
his family knew him) had musical skills. By the age of six, he was already
playing the piano, learning classical music, as well as the styles of pianists
Archibald,
Professor Longhair and family friend,
Tuts Washington.
At the age of 10, he asked his mother for a trumpet. Instead, she
purchased a saxophone for him. This did not upset young
J.C.
as he was still able to teach himself musical scales on the instrument.
That same year,
James was struck by a
speeding ambulance and dragged for nearly 30 feet. His leg was broken in
eight places. As a result he would forever walk with a limp. But,
even worse, he was given morphine for the pain. This was an early
introduction to drugs, which would play a hard role throughout his life.
Booker's father died in 1953 and he was
returned to New Orleans along with his sister to live with their mother.
Enrolled at
Xavier Preparatory School, he was classmates with
Allen
Toussaint and
Art Neville. He was a very intelligent
student, especially in math, Spanish and music classes. And, while still
in school, he put together his first band,
Booker Boy and the Rhythmaires,
which also included
Neville.
During this same time, his sister
Betty Jean
was performing as a Gospel singer on radio station
WMRY every Sunday
afternoon.
James began to frequent the studio while his sister was
on the air. Soon the station managers discovered that he could play the
piano and
James became a regular performer himself on a Jazz and
Blues show which aired on Saturdays. He was quite impressive, often performing
complicated numbers by composers such as
Bach and
Rachmaninoff.
Eventually, the entire
Booker Boy and the Rhythmaires became the
featured artists on the show.
The broadcasts also caught the attention of
Imperial
Records' renowned producer,
Dave Bartholomew. He invited the
band to audition and shortly afterwards they recorded the single, "
Doing
The Hambone."
Booker at 14 was the youngest artist ever
to record for the label. The single did not sell very well, but
Bartholomew
saw promise in the young pianist. In particular with his ability to play
in the styles of many of the popular artists of the time. One of
Imperial's
biggest stars was
Fats Domino, who was in demand for live
appearances constantly.
Bartholomew decided to put
Booker
in the studio to record the piano tracks for
Fats Domino, so when
he returned home, all the hit-maker would need to do was to lay down the vocal
parts.
Booker's talents were also noticed by
Paul
Gayten,
Chess Records' A&R man and a performer himself.
He decided to try his luck with
James and scheduled a session for
Booker
and
Art Neville. They were to be billed as
Arthur and Booker,
but
Neville was unable to make the date and was replaced by
Arthur
Booker (no relation to
James). The single "
Heavenly
Angel" was released, but much like "
Hambone", it did
not catch on either.
Over the next few years,
James took on work with many of the popular bands of the day. Unlike
Fats Domino's constant life on the road,
Huey "Piano" Smith did not like to travel at all.
Again, because of
James' gift for sounding like other performers, he went on tour throughout the South making appearances as
Huey Smith. It was a win-win situation for both of them and sometimes he even performed local gigs when
Smith accidentally double-booked himself.
James also did several tours with people like
Earl King, Shirley & Lee and
Joe Tex.
Through
Joe Tex, Booker was introduced to
producer,
Johnny Vincent, who signed him to a three-year contract
with
Ace Records. But, the partnership did not last long.
Booker
had recorded "
Teenage Rock" and "
Open The Door"
for
Ace, but still did not receive much fanfare. A third number was
recorded and
Booker discovered
Vincent dubbing it
with
Joe Tex's vocals over his own. That was enough for him and he
dissolved their contract based on the grounds that he was under-aged and could
not legally sign it for himself. Disenchanted with the recording industry,
Booker left New Orleans and enrolled in Baton Rouge's
Southern
University in 1960.
But, involvement with heavy drugs began to take its toll
on
Booker during this period also. So he returned to performing in
order to make money to supply his habit. Traveling to Houston, he began working
for
Don Robey at the
Duke/Peacock label. He recorded an
organ-driven instrumental single titled, "
Gonzo," named for a
character in the film "
The Pusher." The single hit the
charts on November 13, 1960, and remained there for 11 weeks, peaking at number
43. Unfortunately, it would be the only time in his career where he would
chart as a solo performer.
Throughout the 1960s,
James Booker would
work with a number of reputed artists on tour and in the studio. Among these
were
Little Richard, Bobby Bland, Junior Parker, Lloyd Price, Wilson
Pickett and
B.B. King. He traveled to New York, where he
recorded for
Atlantic Records with
Jerry Wexler, on albums
by
King Curtis and
Aretha Franklin (who included
Booker's
own composition, "
So Swell When You're Well").
Wexler
also spent time recording
James as a solo artist, but these tracks
have never been released.
During the late 1960s,
Booker also worked
with his life-long friend,
Mac Rebennack, known better as
Dr.
John. The two had known each other since the 1950s, often working
together in
Cosimo Matassa's New Orleans studios with
Dave
Bartholomew.
Booker's stage presence started becoming more
eccentric also, wearing wigs, capes, eye patches and even a glass eye for his
missing left orb. The story behind his lost eye varies, depending on who
tells it. Some say it was drug-related, but
Dr. John claims
in his autobiography that
Booker lost the eye after pulling a scam
on some record producers they'd written arrangements for.
Booker
had somehow conned the producers into paying for their services three times and
was pushing his luck with a fourth attempt. The producers caught on though
and had
Booker beaten up so badly that he lost the eye.
Booker
was said to comment afterward, "If I lost the other eye, too, then I might
be able to play as well as
Ray Charles or
Art Tatum."
Booker was always a handful for
Dr.
John. He consistently upstaged the other performers in the band
and was quite open with his homosexuality, often hitting on those
assigned to share his room or to bringing men to the room who he picked
up on the road, much to the horror of his roommates.
Drugs also took their toll on his dependency to make shows. Finally,
Dr. John had enough and released
Booker, giving him two-weeks pay.
Dr. John claims that once he left the band,
James went to
Joe Tex, Fats Domino and
Marvin Gaye each and agreed to take a role in their respective bands. He was given two-weeks advance pay
from each, only to run off back to New Orleans.
There his life took a drastic change. Outside of the
city's famed
Dew Drop Inn,
Booker was arrested for
possession of heroin and was sentenced to serve two years at
Angola Prison.
While an inmate, he worked in the prison's library and also developed a musical
program within the system. His efforts paid off and he was granted parole after
only serving six months. When he returned to New Orleans, he found that the
music scene had hit a slump and was not very prosperous. Seeking work, he
violated his parole by leaving the state.
Booker returned to New York, where he worked
as session musician and recorded with people such as
Ringo Starr, Maria
Muldaur and the
Doobie Brothers.
Jerry Wexler
also recorded
Booker's vocals for the soundtrack of "
Pretty
Baby" on the
Jelly Roll Morton song, "
Winin' Boy
Blues." After spending two years in New York, he moved around the
country settling in locations such as Dovington, Pennsylvania (near
Philadelphia), Cincinnati and Los Angeles. While in L.A., he did sessions with
both
Charles Brown and
T-Bone Walker. In 1973,
he recorded sides in L.A. with a group of fellow New Orleans musicians who had
relocated to the city. That session would be released 24 years later, 14
years following his death, as the "
Lost Paramount Tapes."
Eventually, the charges for his parole violation were
lifted and
Booker returned to New Orleans in 1975. He
appeared at that year's
Jazz and Heritage Festival where he drew the
attention of record scouts.
Booker was suddenly regarded as the
talented musician that he was. He began tutoring a young politician's son by the
name of
Harry Connick, Jr., in whom
Booker saw a
resemblance to himself as a child prodigy. He recorded the album "
Junco
Partner" for the
Island label in 1976 and it received praise
from many critics with its fine showing of
Booker's dexterity,
performing music ranging from
Chopin to
Earl King,
alongside his own material (something that came quite easily for
Booker,
as he often combined classical and modern music in his stage act, as well, often
within the same song).
This also led to
Booker's traveling to
Europe for the first time to appear in several festivals. His performance at the
Boogie Woogie and Ragtime Piano Contest in Zurich, Switzerland was
recorded in 1976 and released as "
New Orleans Piano Wizard: Live!"
The recording was a triumph for
Booker, honored with the
Grand
Prix de Disque de Jazz award as best live album in 1977. He followed
that up with more European shows the next year, including the illustrious
Montreux
International Jazz Festival.
But, when
Booker returned home, he was a
changed man. He no longer adorned the extravagant capes or eye
patches and his mental condition was beginning to fail. He often checked himself
into the mental ward at
New Orleans' Charity Hospital. By the 1980s, his
shows were becoming more and more erratic. Though he was now a featured
performer at the
Maple Leaf Bar, working with the astounding team of
Johnny
Vidacovich on drums, bass player
John Singleton and
saxophonist
Alvin "Red" Tyler, the shows did not always
come across. When they did,
Booker was arguably the best the city
had ever seen (captured magnificently on the posthumous releases, "
Resurrection
Of The Bayou Maharajah" and "
Spiders On The Keys").
But, too often, he would refuse to play, or would walk off-stage mid-set and
occasionally even vomited onto his own piano keys. The crowds began to
disappear.
Rounder Records decided to record
Booker
in 1982. The sessions almost seemed doomed before anything even took
place. A week prior to the session dates,
Booker collapsed in a
seizure and was admitted to
Charity Hospital. His condition seemed to
worsen and he was transferred to
Southern Baptist Hospital where it was
determined that his liver had suffered irreparable damage after years of alcohol
and drug abuse. Miraculously, he recovered in time to make the recording dates.
But, the first day he refused to play, the second he appeared unable to; and, on
the third, he returned in spirits as if he had never been sick in his life and
laid down more than enough tracks for the album that would become "
Classified."
Two days later,
Booker disappeared, only to be found several days
later jailed for disturbing the peace.
Booker tried to take on a more acceptable
life-style. He took a job with City Hall as a clerk typing and filing in
1983. But, he soon began drinking again despite his liver ailment and lost
the job. He still had his
Maple Leaf gigs, but he began missing them
altogether. The last show he performed there was on October 31, 1983, with only
five patrons in attendance. For the next show on November 7th, he didn't show up
at all.
On
November 8, 1983,
James Booker
took a deadly dose of low-grade cocaine and passed out. He was driven to
Charity
Hospital and left in the emergency waiting room in a wheelchair where he sat
undiscovered for probably half an hour. When he was checked on, he was already
dead, having suffered heart and lung failure. He was only 43 years old.
New Orleans is known for its elaborate funeral
processions. Especially when it comes to its beloved musicians. The
funeral for
James Carroll Booker III was sparsely attended with
very little floral arrangements. He was laid to rest in a family plot at
Providence
Memorial Park (
I go visit the grave once a year or so. kc)in nearby Metarie, Louisiana. A sad farewell for a
musician now honored as one of New Orleans' true piano geniuses, regarded
perhaps only second to
Professor Longhair." Greg Johnson, Blue Notes 2002
