The 500 - #222 - New Orleans Piano - Professor Longhair

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #222
Album Title: New Orleans Piano
Artist: Professor Longhair
Genre: Blues, New Orleans R&B
Recorded: New Orleans, November, 1949, and  November, 1953

Released: 1972
My age at release: 6
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all

Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Tipitina

A signature dish in Louisiana is a stew called gumbo. It is a meat or shellfish broth mixed with celery, bell peppers and onions -- often dubbed the "holy trinity of Cajun cuisine". Gumbo is complemented by a thickener. Most recipes call for okra, aka "lady's fingers", an edible green seed pod plant originally from East Africa but now cultivated in warm temperate or tropical regions. Other Gumbo dishes feature filé powder, a spicy herb seasoning from the North American Sassafras tree. The dish can be made more hearty with the addition of rice, shellfish, Andouille sausage, ham or chicken. Some versions contain duck, rabbit or even alligator and squirrel.

Gumbo is, in many ways, the perfect metaphor for Louisiana -- a beautiful, saucy, spicy mix of cultures and flavours. There are influences from West Africa, France (by way of the Nova Scotia Acadians), Portugal, Spain, Sicily and the Indigenous populations of the surrounding area (the Chitimacha. Coushatta, Choctaw and Tunica-Biloxi peoples). Louisiana, and New Orleans, in particular, is a melting pot of zesty influences from all these cultures. It can be found in their food, language, architecture and, of course, their music. New Orleans is often considered to be the birthplace of many uniquely American musical genres, including ragtime (Jelly Roll Morton), jazz (Louis Armstrong), Dixieland (King Oliver) and rhythm and blues (Fats Domino).

New Orleans native, the legendary Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong.

Professor Longhair, aka: "Fess" (birthname Henry Roeland "Roy" Byrd) was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, in 1918, a small town near the Alabama border. His distinctive style of piano playing came from his childhood when he learned to play on an instrument with missing keys. His style, a type of New Orleans Blues, was influenced by the jazz music he was hearing alongside a variety of Caribbean sounds, such as rumba, mambo and calypso.

Professor Longhair (c: 1950s).

In his book, The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, music journalist Tony Russell wrote "the vivacious, rumba-rhythmed piano blues and choked singing typical of Fess were too weird to sell millions of records." However, he served as an inspiration and father figure to the legendary Louisiana artists who followed him, including Fats Domino, Huey "Piano" Smith, Allen Toussaint and Dr. John -- who has two records on The 500 list (#404 and #143).

Malcom John Rebennack Jr. -- aka: Dr. John.

In March, 2010, my wife surprised me with a trip to New Orleans. We enjoyed a five-day adventure walking the lively streets of The Big Easy, enjoying the music, culture, history and cuisine of the legendary Crescent City. We ate po-boy sandwiches and jambalaya. One morning it was freshly baked beignets at the famous Cafe du Monde and in the afternoon, a traditional New Orleans Muffaletta Sandwich from the Central Grocery and Deli.

My wife, Angela, about to tuck into a Muffaletta Sandwich.

Without a doubt, the best night of music happened when we left the touristy French Quarter and Bourbon Street region (overrun by NCAA basketball fans who were there for the March Madness tournament). We took a long cab ride to the Vaughan Lounge in the Bywater neighbourhood on the east side of town. Every Thursday, since the 1990s, well-known jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins hosts his BBQ there. The New Orleans native spends the day at an outdoor grill, preparing the food. Then, as the sun goes down, he and his band, The Barbecue Swingers, take the stage. The show is an open jam with many talented locals joining the small stage for an improvisational session of riotously fun jazz and blues.

Exterior of The Vaughan Lounge.

During the intermission, everything comes to a stop and the BBQ is served. A long table is set-up at the back of the restaurant and everyone -- musicians, serving staff, cooks, bartenders and patrons -- fill their plates with white bread and scoops from giant metal pots containing rice, red beans and that day's barbecued meat. It is a wonderful, communal and culinary experience. After about a half hour, a piano is heard and, within minutes, Kermit and the band are jamming again.

Kermit Ruffins outside the Vaughan.

New Orleans is a city worth revisiting. It is a touchstone of many satisfying attractions –  music, food, history, art and culture. Next time, I will add the music venue Tipitina to our itinerary. It is at the corner of Napoleon Avenue and Tchoupitoulas Street in the Uptown district. The name was inspired by a song of the same name from Professor Longhair, his biggest hit and the second track on this week's album, New Orleans Piano. Constructed in 1912, it has been a gambling house, gymnasium, brothel, juice bar and restaurant. It is also a location where numerous live records have been recorded by many musicians of whom I am a fan, including The Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Jane's Addiction, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Radiators, Phish and, of course, Professor Longhair. He recorded Ball The Wall: Live at Tipitina's, fewer than two years before his death in 1980. It was a seemingly fond farewell to a mecca rich in southern heritage. Hopefully, we will return to New Orleans in the coming years. It will give us another chance to enjoy their traditional gumbo -- real and metaphoric.