Professor Longhair - The Bach Of Rock

JUMP TIME: In Praise of Professor Longhair

The mushrooms kicked in just as the Zulus were about to roll down St. Charles Avenue.

We had the perfect spot for parade watching that Mardi Gras morning of 1982. It was my first Mardi Gras and I was having the time of my life. We had seen pianist James Booker, “The Bayou Maharajah,” the night before at the Maple Leaf. The late Dr. John described Booker as "the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced" and all these years later I can tell you that description was an understatement. I didn’t know it then, but it was my introduction to the singular phenomenon of world-class New Orleans piano players…

For many decades The Crescent City has been renowned for its piano players; James Booker, Jelly Roll Morton, Isidore "Tuts" Washington, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack, Champion Jack Dupree and Henry Butler to name but a few. Most of them have passed on but when they were alive there was one man of whom they spoke of in reverential tones: ‘Fess. Henry Roeland Byrd (1910-1980) better known as Professor Longhair, was the Piano God of New Orleans. It can arguably be said that in a pantheon of giants he stood head and shoulders above the rest…

…so, there I was standing at the corner of St. Charles and Jackson in front of Igor’s, a 24 hour(!) dive bar that is still there to this day. To my delight I got a carved coconut Zulu “throw” from a float (one of the most treasured and sought-after at Mardi Gras) and then before you know it we started levitating off the sidewalk as a high school marching band from Corinth, Mississippi stepped off doing an incredible cover of “Controversy” by Prince. Wow. We stepped into the cool air-conditioned comfort of Igor’s and lo and behold it was packed with thirty or so off-duty members of New Orleans’ Finest – in uniform and drinking beer out of coffee cups.

“This is going to be good, “I thought… 

The boisterous crowd was loud - but the jukebox was louder. I recognized a lot of the tunes: “Matilda” by the Dixie Cups, “Jock-A-Mo” by Sugar Boy and The Cane Cutters, “Street Parade” by Earl King, “Mardi Gras Mambo” by The Hawketts, “Hey Pocky Way” by The Meters; but there was one tune that was played every three records or so that jacked up the “pawty” every time it came on. The rollicking piano and whistling intro literally drove the revelers into a frenzy. That was “Go to The Mardi Gras” by Professor Longhair.

Tripping intensely and with double White Russian in hand, I elbowed my way over to the juke where the acting DJ, a thoroughly trashed NOPD lieutenant swayed, bedecked with Mardi Gras beads and feeding quarters into the machine. “You must really like ‘Fess!” I yelled into his ear.

At this point he was shapeshifting into a Komodo dragon.

“Dat ain’t jes’ any old Mardi Gras tune, cher,” the giant lizard with a badge yelled back,

“Dat’s da fuckin’ National Anthem.”

That “National Anthem” in both studio (for the Dallas-based Star Talent label) and live versions is included here in this exceptional compilation, along with the majority of a great body work of perennially classic songs including “Big Chief,” “Tipitina,” “Bald Head,” “In the Night,” “Stagger Lee” “Junko Partner” and “Ball the Wall.”

These recordings greatly influenced the next generation of New Orleans piano acolytes for whom Longhair was guru, godfather and spiritual root doctor. As Dr. John stated in his autobiography, Under A Hoodoo Moon, Professor Longhair was the guardian angel of the roots of New Orleans music. He effortlessly assimilated blues, boogie-woogie, rumba, and the sounds of New Orleans’ second line and syncopated Mardi Gras Indian rhythms into what is now characterized as “the New Orleans sound.”

One of the many stories told about ‘Fess is that he learned to play on broken-down pianos that often had keys missing in the middle octaves - where the wear is heaviest - and that was the reason for him developing his uniquely rhythmic feel known as “jump time.”

Longhair died on January 30, 1980, just as his long dormant career was starting anew. His posthumous accolades include a Grammy award in 1987 and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. 

The late New Orleans producer, pianist, and songwriter Allen Toussaint once probably said it best:

 “There’s Professor Longhair, and then there’s the rest of us.”

-       Richard Luckett