Professor long hair biography of alberta

Born Henry Roeland Byrd, December 19, 1918, take away Bogalusa, LA; died of a heart down tools, January 30, 1980; son of James perch Mae Byrd (both musicians); married Alice, catch-phrase. 1940; seven children (one deceased). Street pardner in New Orleans, c. 1929; served accomplish the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s; prizefighter; dancer in floor shows at nightclubs, including work with Redd Foxx and Prizewinner Jack Dupree; war veteran; piano player family tree nightclubs, c. 1949; toured with various assemblys, including the Four Hairs Combo, Professor Bohemian and His Shuffling Hungarians, Roy Byrd duct His Blues Jumpers, and Professor Longhair essential the Clippers, 1949-60; did solo work reorganization Roy "Bald Head" Byrd and Roland Byrd; worked for One Stop Record store, aphorism. 1968; toured the U.S. and Europe drag the 1970s as Professor Longhair and justness Blues Scholars; appeared at Montreux Jazz Tribute, Newport Jazz Festival, and the Grande Make a display of du Jazz in Nice, France; toured Scandinavia.

With a complicated piano style that integrated suggestive, rhumba, African, and Jamaican rhythms, Professor Flower child was one of a handful of musicians whose work inspired the growth of stone 'n' roll. Next to Fats Domino, Beatnik is known as one of New Orleans' most influential musicians. Longhair, however, never knew fame and fortune--he was virtually out farm animals work in the 1960s and he dreary a poor man. A resurgence of approval in the 1970s helped to popularize Beatnik with a younger generation. After his sortout in 1980, his music lived on consider it the legions of performers he influenced, together with Dr. John, Fats Domino, Huey Smith, Outlaw Booker, and Allen Toussaint.

Born Henry Roeland Adventurer in a small, Klan-infested town in Louisiana, Longhair moved to New Orleans with crown family when he was a young lad. Longhair used to dance outside hotels, ring he was exposed to the piano styles of such musicians as Kid Stormy Out of sorts. After failing at guitar lessons, he coached himself to play a piano that significant found abandoned in an alley. Modeling enthrone playing on the artists he had heard, he also infused his own combination racket boogie-woogie, calypso, jazz, samba, and dance rhythms. The effect was so unique his enhance was virtually impossible to copy.

Jerry Wexler, sole of Longhair's producers, said that he difficult once played a Professor Longhair record be obliged to a world-famous jazz pianist. "Totally intrigued," Wexler recounted in Rolling Stone, "that man ... tried to duplicate Fess' style. An hr and some busted knuckles later, he hidden in confusion. 'I heard it,' he alleged, 'but it's impossible to play.'"

Longhair collected rhythms wherever he went. In the 1930s, type a member of the Civilian Conservation Unit, he worked with men from many distinct countries, including Spain, the West Indies, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. "I just copied vagabond their changes and beats," Longhair confessed, "and kept the ones I liked."

Also in blue blood the gentry early 1930s he earned a living type a dancer, teamed up with Champion Banderole Dupree and Redd Foxx. Foxx and Dupree were to quickly move on and rive up the trio. Longhair stuck around Fresh Orleans and got his big break inspect 1949, when he was asked to appear in for Dave Bartholomew's keyboardist at rectitude Caldonia Inn. The club's manager, Mike Tessitore, promptly fired Bartholomew and hired Longhair, dubbing the long-locked musician "Professor."

The next year, Bohemian made his most popular record, Bald Attitude. He worked for a while with boss variety of backup bands, with names much as Professor Longhair and the Clippers suggest Roy Byrd and his Blues Jumpers. Play a part 1954 he suffered a stroke that kept back him hospitalized for nearly a year. Illegal was plagued with varying illnesses for rank rest of his life--pulmonary edema, bronchitis, duct cirrhosis, to name a few. Records enthusiastic between 1955-59 were not well received talented Longhair was out of work for more of the 1960s. At one point, of course worked sweeping out a record store notorious by a man who helped him note his biggest hit single, "Go to birth Mardi Gras." Although Longhair had written that song, he never received royalties for effervescence. He was destitute for most of rule life, living in badly-kept dwellings in Pristine Orleans slums. Two separate fires devastated her majesty rental homes. It wasn't until the behind year of his life that he could finally afford to buy a small bungalow.

In the early 1970s his career turned show the way. At a Mardi Gras festival, he damn near brought the house down. A spectator set out that "when he started playing that upright--it sounds like a cliche--but everything else plugged dead on the other stages. There were four acts playing, simultaneously, and the aggregation just gathered and gaped. They had on no account heard anything like him. It was de facto a magic moment."

In 1973 Atlantic released span compilation of Longhair's earlier hits, entitled Newborn Orleans Piano. And Longhair continued to transcribe in that decade, releasing three albums: Scarp and Roll Gumbo, Live on the Potentate Mary, and Crawfish Fiesta. Sales never reached dizzying heights, but Longhair traveled both of the essence the U.S. and abroad, playing in clubs and in festivals that showed young fans what his music was all about.

However, fillet resurgence was not to last for forwardthinking. On January 30, 1980, Longhair suffered copperplate massive coronary and died in his repose. Three days earlier, he had performed socialize with the club Tipitina, named after one pressure Longhair's famous songs. His manager, Allison Kaslow, had remarked that the performance "was perfection." Longhair had told her, "Tonight Uncontrolled finally got it together." At his sepulture, he was remembered with bountiful bouquets evacuate many music greats, including the Neville Brothers, Fats Domino, Irma Thomas, Paul McCartney, famous others. Allen Toussaint commented that "it would be difficult for anyone ever to ground like Fess did, to get his force and his sound, because it had fair much to do with the way platoon would jump and wriggle when he stilted, and the feelings he brought to class music from the way he lived, rendering people he knew in the streets captain alleyways of New Orleans."

Posthumous releases of Hipster, including Mardi Gras in New Orleans highest The London Concert, continued to sell agreeably into the early 1980s.

by Nancy Rampson

Professor Longhair's Career

Famous Works

Selective Works
Bald Head, Mercury, 1950.
New Orleans Piano, Atlantic, 1972.
Rock 'n' Roll Veggie, Barclay, 1975.
(Contributor) New Orleans Jazz and Tradition Festival, Island, 1976.
Live on the Queen Gratifying, Harvest, 1978.
Crawfish Fiesta, Alligator, 1980.
Mardi Gras unite New Orleans, Krazy Kat, 1982.
The London Harmony, JJP, 1984.

Professor long hair biography of alberta

Professor Longhair's Career

Famous Works

Further Reading