James Carroll Booker lll was born in 1939 in New Orleans & passed in 1983 in the same city.
In the 1950s he recorded rhythm & blues, but had a much broader musical spectrum that included pop songs, the theme from The Godfather, and renditions of Chopin waltzes. Through most of his life he had drug problems, serving several prison sentences due to it and losing his left eye because of it in 1973. To me one of the greatest pianists to have ever performed. He recorded 20 albums and only less than a dozen 45,s. Acknowledged now as a genius pianist and rightly so. These are different cuts of some of the songs on his other albums hence my own tasters.
AMM
DEDICATED TO MY NEW ORLEANS PAL PMAC WHO,S GOING THROUGH A TOUGH TIME ATVB!
The Tasters!
22 comments:
New name to me , tasters sound great .
La tee tah tico tico! And all the best to pmac!
Thanks, AMM!
Thanks AMM for the lost Booker.
Always grateful for New Orleans ... Thanks for review, P.
New to me too yes please AMM
Thanks AMM for another great find, all the best to your friend!
Never heard this before, thanks for the review AMM
I've always admired Booker. What I didn't know about him was his drug problems. Thanks, AMM for the Lost Tapes and the review!
I do have some recordings of his but obviously not this CD which seems very interesting to me.
Thank you AMM for this discovery.
Yves
So Swell !
thanks for the Lost Tapes review AMM
thank you mate - great review
A great one
Very nice CD I'm guessing... many thanks for the review.
BigD
Many thanks AMM and all the best to pmac.
thanks AMM i too have this and many of his too; also all the best to pmac too
Thanks AMM for this set and add I hope PMAC breaks though to the other side speaking from my own experience over the last few years
Cheers Pedro
Many, many thanks AMM.
There's a great documentary about Booker which I beleieve is on Amazon,The Bayou Maharajah. I probably saw him perform at least 100 times over the 70s and 80s. Two stories stand out about him.
I'm friends with a great bassist in NO, James Singleton, who also played a lot with Booker. In the early 80s, Booker got his only major label record deal, and they booked time for him at a studio in NYC for him to record what ultimately became his "Classified" album. Booker brought James, and a drummer, Johnny Vidacovich, with him from NO for the week long session. All 3 flew up together and stayed at the same hotel, close to the studio. The morning of the first day of recording, they all were to meet in the hotel lobby, but Booker wasn't there. Thinking he had left early for the studio, James and Johnny headed there also, but Booker was not there either. They waited all day and he never shows. They had the hotel check his room, but everything was fine, except he wasn't there either. Same thing happens over the next 5 days, and Booker has simply disappeared. Last day of recording, Booker magically is waiting for them at the studio, never says a word to them about where he has been, and in one day, and for the most part, in one take, they record the entire lp.
Toward the end of his life, Booker's live shows were plagued by his mental illness, and while on stage, he would frequengly go off on rants about the CIA spying on him. One night at The Maple Leaf, a club where he frequently performed, he walked out on stage wearing only an adult diaper. He sat at the piano and stared at it for several minutes and then reached in the diaper, and pulled out a small handgun. He then yells at the audience,"some mfer better bring me a line of coke or I'm going to blow my brains out."
Booker spoke several languages fluently despite never having finished high school. His drug addictions were traced back to when he was about 7 years old, and was struck by an ambulance, shattering one of his legs in several places. He was treated with morphine, which many believe led to his life long addiction issues. Been blessed to see many great pianists in my life, but none can match what Booker did.
@Pmac
many thanks for this in depth info, common that lots of geniuses walk a thin line though this guy had a rough start in life...great story thank you m8!
Very interesting and informative review, thank you for allowing us to know of another artist who would go unnoticed if it weren't for you two. Gosh, so many genius that go by and we never get to appreciate their gift. Pmac, thank you for the contribution. This is better than a movie. Thank you both. Thank you Pmac and the host AMM.
More than interesting, just another rarity reviewed.
Just here to say that this is a must have item. Extremely funky! John Boudreaux on drums! Get it!
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