A Professor Longhair Scrapbook

"The style came from Fess who has a lot to do with every piano player who’s ever worked out of New Orleans. Subconsciosly you might not be aware of it but this is the man who was behind it all." (Art Neville, in the LET IT ROCK magazine, April 1974, "Meter Man" by Bill Millar.)

"New Orleans produced a powerful school of laureates. But if the Nobel commitee ever decides to give a price in funk, as well it should, I pray they have to first elect Professor Longhair, the illustrious Henry Roeland "Roy" Byrd. He belongs in that rare company with Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Jelly Roll Morton, other Crescent City innovators whose contributions to our musical culture are immeasurable. His immortality is ensured not only by the records he made but by the few men who mastered his style, the apostles who carried the pianistic gospel according to Fess to the world : James Booker, Fats Domino, Huey Smith, Allen Toussaint, Art Neville, and Mac Rebennack. Longhair is the Picasso of the keyboard funk." (Jerry Wexler in: "Rhythm and the Blues - A Life In American Music." Jonathan Cape, London.)

The aim of the book is to document the wide ranging influence of Professor Longhair’s music on post war popular music in general and New Orleans R&B in particular.

The compiler and editor Per Oldaeus was born in 1946 in Sweden and has lived most of his life in this part of Scandinavia. His interest in New Orleans music started around 1961, but became more profound after his first New Orleans visit during October – December 1966. Since then he has made frequent sojourns to the Crescent City. He is also a semiprofessional musician. Having performed in New Orleans with amongst others Nicholas Payton, Greg Stafford, and Sadie Goodson. Oldaeus has written articles and reviews for the British NEW ORLEANS MUSIC, the Swedish music magazines ORKESTERJOURNALEN (jazz and blues) and JEFFERSON (blues, r&b and soul). He enjoys a broad spectrum of Jazz, Blues, R&B, Soul, Gospel, West Indian and African music. In collaboration with Claes Ringqvist he has done research on the New Orleans composer Spencer Williams (1889-1965), who was also a Swedish resident 1951-1957. The research was published by the Swedish Jazz Archive in September 2000. Oldaeus is a member of the Swedish Bunk Johnson Society.

CONTENTS:

* INTRODUCTION
Some information on how I became interested in Professor Longhair and my first and last live concerts with him in 1975 and 1979 etc. In addition there is a short discussion about the Tipitina’s club. The introduction ends with the death of Professor Longhair, his funeral etc.

* IN SEARCH OF PROFESSOR LONGHAIR by Jonas Bernholm
Bernholm writes about his search for Professor Longhair in New Orleans in 1968. He bought his first Prof. Longhair record in the sixties, when the Professor was an underground hero among R&B fans in England. Bernholm was one of the first to reissue the black R&B from the 1940s and early 1950s (pre Rock’n Roll.): artists such as Roy Brown, Charles Brown, Paul Gayten, Billy Mitchell and Billy Wright to name but some. Bernholm’s first label was formed in 1976 and over the years released around 150 LPs of music that had been largely ignored by blues fans in the early days of blues appreciation.

* FESSOLOGY
This chapter consists of quotes and excerpts from magazine interviews, articles and books. People who knew Fess tell about his importance on the music scene in New Orleans after the W.W. II. It’s mainly Fess’s former musicians who speak about him. I have been very careful to give information about the sources etc, (around 60 footnotes and sources). Some of the quotes are very short, just a couple of lines. The persons who narrates are: Isidore "Tuts" Washington, Alice W. Byrd, Robert Parker, Charles Connor, Charles "Hungry" Williams, Ahmet Ertegun, Cosimo Matassa, Jerry Wexler, Earl Palmer, Clarence "Frog Man" Henry, Milton Batiste, Alvin "Red" Tyler, Malcolm "Mac" Rebennack, John Boudreaux, Vernon "Dr. Daddy-O" Winslow, Alex "Duke" Burrell, Ronnie Barron, Walter Kimble (Kimball), Wardell Quezerque, Earl King (Earl Silas Johnson), Joseph "Smokey" Johnson, Mike Leadbitter, Reggie Scanlan, Bruce Raeburn, George Porter, Snooks Eaglin, Art Neville, Cyrile Neville, Johnny Vidacovich, Alvin Batiste, Henry Butler, Jessie Hill, Dave Bartholomew, Frankie Ford, Eddie Bo (Edwin Bocage), Allen Toussaint, Lars Edegran, Theodore Emile "Bo" Dollis, Robert Palmer, Johnnie Allan (John Guillot), Henry "Hank" Drevich and Bill Payne.

* BIOGRAPHICAL DATA ON THE MUSICIANS WHO PLAYED WITH FESS

* PROFESSOR LONGHAIR INTERVIEW #1 by three Swedes
The interview was conducted in New Orleans, October 1974. It has never been published before. It was done before the major blues magazines did any interview with Fess.

* PROF. LONGHAIR INTERVIEW #2
This is a short interview, which I have transcribed from a BBC radio show from 1978. The music of this show is included in the discography.

* THE NELSON FAMILY
I have carried out some research on Walter Nelson Sr. (1904–1980s). Longhair often spoke about and made acknowledgements to this obscure guitar player in his interviews. I will include a rare photo of Nelson Sr. plus comments on Nelson taken from a Prof. Longhair interview and a short piece about Nelsons Sr. and his two sons. Walter "Papoose" Nelson Jr. was Fess Longhair’s guitar player for a couple of years. He participated in a couple of Fats Domino films from the 1950s. Lawrence Prince "La La" Nelson was a singer...

* PROFESSOR LONGHAIR IS BACK
The contents are my comments plus articles and extracts from magazines and papers such as the Melody Maker, Blues Unlimited, the New Orleans Times Picayune/the Dixie magazine (of New Orleans) etc. They all narrate about Longhairs’ comeback and death (1971-1980).

* PROFESSOR LONGHAIR DISCOGRAPHY 1948–1980.
The thoroughly worked discography is actually the first of it’s kind to include all his recordings, plus unissued recordings as well as TV and radio shows, videos and some private recordings. There is also historical information about the origins of the tunes and the composers etc. Where possible, I include compiled additional information. Hopefully, this will shed some light on the recording sessions. I have listened carefully to Prof. Longhair’ s entire recordings in an attempt to find out if the given discogaphical information was correct. People from Sweden, Germany, England and the US have been of great help in compiling this discography. I have named all of them below: Acknowledgments.

* The discography ends with RECOMMENDED LISTENING and VARIOUS RECORDINGS WITH A PROFESSOR LONGHAIR INFLUENCE.

This book will be the standard reference work on Professor Longhair, it will be copiously indexed. I have collected many photos and images. The majority of the photos have never been published before. This web-page will give you more information on when the book will be published, so keep in touch.

Per Oldaeus

PS I'm still looking for a publisher so if you know anyone who might be interested, please contact me:
Per Oldaeus
Paternostervagen 64
121 49 Johanneshov
Sweden