James Booker

James Booker 1978

James Booker (born December 17, 1939 in New Orleans , † November 8, 1983 ibid), real name James Carroll Booker III, was an American blues and gospel , boogie woogie and jazz pianist, organist and singer.

Childhood and youth

James Carroll Booker III grew up as the son of the Baptist preacher and hobby pianist James Carroll Booker II and the gospel singer Ora Cheatham only in New Orleans. The family later moved to Bay St. Louis Mississippi . After the death of his father, the family returned to New Orleans.

At the age of six Booker received a saxophone from his mother, but since he was more interested in playing the piano, he received piano lessons. Later he named the pianists Tuts Washington and Professor Longhair from New Orleans and also the classical show pianist Liberace as major musical influences . The organist made his first public appearances in his father's church.

At the age of nine, Booker suffered serious injuries when he was hit by an ambulance. He himself later attributed his lifelong drug problems to the pain therapy that followed with morphine . After the father's death, the family moved back to New Orleans in 1953, where Booker attended the Xavier Preparatory School. He began studying music at Southern University in Baton Rouge , Louisiana, which he dropped out after two years without success.

His sister, the gospel singer Betty Jean Booker, referred him to the local radio station WMRY while he was still at school. He worked as a professional musician from an early age and performed regularly with his band “Booker Boy and the Rhythmaires” in a Saturday afternoon show with a blues and gospel program. His school colleague Art Neville also belonged to this ensemble for a while.

Career

Under the name "Little Booker" was sponsored by Dave Bartholomew from 1954 , later Booker worked as a studio musician in the J&M Recording Studio in New Orleans, where he worked with Dr. Befriended John .

The pianist, highly valued by his music colleagues, was repeatedly hired by them as a studio musician. He has appeared on publications by Fats Domino , Wilson Pickett , Joe Tex , Roy Hamilton, BB King , Earl King , King Curtis , Aretha Franklin , Lloyd Price , Maria Muldaur , Ringo Starr , Jerry García , the Doobie Brothers , Huey Smith , Hear Phil Upchurch and Lionel Hampton .

At the same time, Booker tried to start a solo career from the mid-1960s. The psychologically unstable and chronically unreliable musician achieved a surprise success with the organ solo Gonzo in 1960 (number 3 in the R&B Billboard charts ), but his homosexuality and excessive drug consumption led to career breakdowns and increasing conflicts with the law. In 1970 he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for drug possession, of which he served a year in the infamous Angola State Prison in Louisiana before being released early for good conduct. He later contracted a serious infectious disease from using a dirty hypodermic needle that resulted in the loss of his left eye.

Booker's solo work is documented to a small extent by live recordings. From the mid-1970s he appeared repeatedly at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival , and concert tours have taken him to Europe several times (including appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival and Jazzfest Bern). In his concerts, the pianist played a wide-ranging program that ranged from blues and jazz classics to pop songs and - in some cases - classical music (especially Chopin ). The musical quality of these performances is inconsistent and unpredictable. Due to increasing depression and delusional attacks, Booker was repeatedly unable to perform at all. At the same time, he repeatedly achieved brilliant concerts.

In November 1983, James Booker died as a result of his heroin addiction in the waiting room of the New Orleans Charity Hospital, which he visited regularly.

His life story was filmed in the award-winning film The Bayou Maharajah by filmmaker Lily Keber from New Orleans and shown at numerous film festivals in America and Europe. In the film, Harry Connick Jr., Dr. John and Allen Toussaint James Booker as a great source of musical inspiration.

Recordings

Only recordings with Booker as a solo artist or with his own band are listed.

• Junco Partner , 1976: Iceland, 1993: Hannibal (re-issue)
• The Piano Prince Of New Orleans , 1976: Black Sun Music (re-issue)
• Blues & Ragtime From New Orleans , 1976: Aves
• New Orleans Piano Wizard: Live! , 1977: Gold, 1983: Rounder (re-issue)
• Classified , 1982: Demon, 1993: Rounder (re-issue)
• King of New Orleans Keyboard Vol. I & II , 1984–1985: JSP, 2005: JSP (re-issue)
• Mr. Mystery , 1984: Sundown
• Let's Make A Better World! , 1991: Amiga
• Resurrection Of The Bayou Maharajah , 1993: Rounder
• Spiders On The Keys , 1993: Rounder
• The Lost Paramount Tapes , 1995: DJM
• More Than All The 45’s , 1996: Night Train International
• New Orleans Keyboard King , 1996: Orbis
• Live At Montreux , 1997: Montreux Sounds
• United Our Thing Will Stand , 2000: Night Train International
• A Taste Of Honey , 2000: Night Train International
• Manchester '77 , 2007: Document

swell

• James Booker. The Blues Collection 58 , Hamburg 1996.
• Robert Santelli: The Big Book of Blues. A Biographical Encyclopedia , New York 1993, ISBN 0-14-015939-8 , pp. 51-52.
• Sidney Sheldon: Blues Who's Who. A Biographical Dictionary of Blues Singers , New York 1979, ISBN 0-306-80155-8 , p. 60.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Whitburn, Joel: The Billboard Book of Top 40 R&B and Hip-Hop Hits . New York, NY: Billboard Books, 2006, p. 54
2. ↑ [1] Allmusic.com, accessed November 6, 2019
3. ↑ [2] Sean O'Hagan: Cocaine boogie: James Booker, the tragic piano genius of New Orleans, in: The Guardian, November 20, 2013
4. ↑ James Booker's life story on the homepage of the film Bayou Maharajah In: bayoumaharajah.com , accessed on December 1, 2017. (English)
5. ↑ Bayou Maharajah In: bayoumaharajah.com , accessed December 1, 2017.