Henry Roeland Byrd (December 19, 1918 – January 30, 1980),

Biography

thumb|left|upright|Former home of Professor Longhair, in 2015

Byrd was born on December 19, 1918, in Bogalusa, Louisiana, He began his career in New Orleans in 1948. Mike Tessitore, owner of the Caldonia Club, gave Longhair his stage name.

After suffering a stroke, Professor Longhair recorded "No Buts – No Maybes" in 1957.

After a few years during which he disappeared from the music scene, Professor Longhair's musical career finally received "a well deserved renaissance" and wide recognition. He was invited to perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1971 and at the Newport Jazz Festival and the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1973. which was recorded on March 24, 1975, during a private party hosted by Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney on board the retired .

By the 1980s his albums, such as Crawfish Fiesta on Alligator Records and New Orleans Piano on Atlantic Records, which compiled recordings he made for the label in 1949 and 1953, had become readily available across America. In 1980 he co-starred (with Tuts Washington and Allen Toussaint) in the film documentary Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together which was produced and directed by filmmaker Stevenson Palfi.

Professor Longhair died in his sleep of a heart attack while the filming of the documentary was under way (and before the live concert, which was planned to be its climax).

Professor Longhair's manager through those renaissance years of his career was Allison Miner, of which jazz producer George Wein was quoted saying: "Her devotion to Professor Longhair gave him the best years of his life."

Accolades

Professor Longhair was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981. In 1987, he was awarded a posthumous Grammy Award for a collection of recordings produced by Quint Davis in 1971 and 1972 released as House Party New Orleans Style. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

Professor Longhair was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2016 at his former home in New Orleans.

His song "Tipitina" was covered by Hugh Laurie on the 2011 CD album Let Them Talk. Laurie is a long-time fan, having used Longhair's "Go to the Mardi Gras" as the theme for the pilot episode of A Bit of Fry & Laurie. Laurie used to perform these two songs regularly during his world concert tours of 2011–2014 with The Copper Bottom Band, and in March 2013 paid tribute to Professor Longhair in a special concert on board .

The New Orleans music venue Tipitina's is named after one of Longhair's signature songs, and was created specifically as a venue for Longhair to perform in his aged years. A bust of Professor Longhair, sculpted by bluesman Coco Robicheaux, greets visitors upon entering the venue.

Afro-Cuban elements

In the 1940s, Professor Longhair was playing with Caribbean musicians, listening a lot to Perez Prado's mambo records, and absorbing and experimenting with it all. He was especially enamored with Cuban music. Longhair's style was known locally as "rumba-boogie". Alexander Stewart stated that Longhair was a key figure bridging the worlds of boogie-woogie and the new style of rhythm and blues. In his composition "Misery", Professor Longhair played a habanera-like figure in his left hand. The deft use of triplets in the right hand is a characteristic of Longhair's style.

: <score sound="1" override_midi="Misery piano part professor longhair.mid">

{

\new PianoStaff <<

\new Staff <<

\relative c {

\clef treble \key f \major \time 4/4

\tuplet 3/2 { r8 f f } \tuplet 3/2 { f f f } \tuplet 3/2 { f f f } \tuplet 3/2 { f f f }

r4 r8 <e g> <d f>4 \acciaccatura { c16 d } <c e>8 <bes d>

\tuplet 3/2 { r8 f' f } \tuplet 3/2 { f f f } \tuplet 3/2 { f d bes } \tuplet 3/2 { f g gis }

a

}

>>

\new Staff <<

\relative c, {

\clef bass \key f \major \time 4/4

f4 d'8 a c4 d8 a

bes4. d8 f4 d8 a

bes4. d8 f4 d8 e,

f4

}

>>

>> }

</score>

Tresillo, the habanera, and related African-based single-celled figures have long been heard in the left hand-part of piano compositions by New Orleans musicians, such as Louis Moreau Gottschalk ("Souvenirs from Havana", 1859) and Jelly Roll Morton ("The Crave", 1910). One of Longhair's great contributions was the adaptation of Afro-Cuban two-celled, clave-based patterns in New Orleans blues. Michael Campbell stated, "Rhythm and blues influenced by Afro-Cuban music first surfaced in New Orleans. Professor Longhair's influence was&nbsp;... far reaching. In several of his early recordings, Professor Longhair blended Afro-Cuban rhythms with rhythm and blues. The most explicit is 'Longhair's Blues Rhumba', where he overlays a straightforward blues with a clave rhythm." The guajeo-like piano part for the rumba-boogie "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" (1949) employs the 2-3 clave onbeat/offbeat motif. The 2–3 clave time line is written above the piano excerpt for reference.

thumb|center|upright=2.5|Piano excerpt from the rumba boogie "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" (1949) by Professor Longhair. 2–3 clave is written above for rhythmic reference.

According to Dr. John, the Professor "put funk into music&nbsp;... Longhair's thing had a direct bearing I'd say on a large portion of the funk music that evolved in New Orleans." This is the syncopated, but straight subdivision feel of Cuban music (as opposed to swung subdivisions). Alexander Stewart stated that the popular feel was passed along from "New Orleans—through James Brown's music, to the popular music of the 1970s," adding, "The singular style of rhythm & blues that emerged from New Orleans in the years after World War II played an important role in the development of funk. In a related development, the underlying rhythms of American popular music underwent a basic, yet generally unacknowledged transition from triplet or shuffle feel to even or straight eighth notes. Concerning funk motifs, Stewart stated, "This model, it should be noted, is different from a time line (such as clave and tresillo) in that it is not an exact pattern, but more of a loose organizing principle."

Discography

Albums

  • Rock 'n' Roll Gumbo (1974)
  • Live on the Queen Mary (1978)
  • Crawfish Fiesta (1980)
  • The London Concert, with Alfred "Uganda" Roberts (1981) (also known as The Complete London Concert)
  • The Last Mardi Gras (1982)
  • Mardi Gras in New Orleans: Live 1975 Recording (1982)
  • House Party New Orleans Style: The Lost Sessions, 1971–1972 (1987)
  • Ball the Wall! Live at Tipitina's 1978 (2004)
  • Live in Germany (1978)
  • Live in Chicago (1976)

Compilations

  • New Orleans Piano (1972) (also known as New Orleans Piano: Blues Originals, Vol. 2)
  • Mardi Gras In New Orleans 1949–1957 (1981)
  • Mardi Gras in Baton Rouge (1991)
  • Fess: The Professor Longhair Anthology (1993)
  • Fess' Gumbo (1996)
  • Collector's Choice (1996), half an album of hits
  • Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (1997)
  • All His 78's (1999)
  • The Chronological Professor Longhair 1949 (2001)
  • Tipitina: The Complete 1949–1957 New Orleans Recordings (2008)
  • The Primo Collection (2009)
  • Rockin' with Fess (2013)

<small>Source: Professor Longhair discography, AllMusic</small>

Filmography

  • Dr. John's New Orleans Swamp (1974)
  • Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together (1982), award-winning 76-minute documentary film featuring Professor Longhair, Tuts Washington, and Allen Toussaint
  • Fess Up (2018), the feature-length interview with Professor Longhair

Quotation

References

Citations

General and cited references

  • Professor Longhair at Myspace
  • Professor Longhair Biography, originally published at the All About Jazz website, as reflected from the Internet Archive