![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/james_booker_true.jpg\")
Though he passed at age 43, New Orleans pianist James Booker earned quite a reputation during his lifetime. The self-anointed Piano Prince of New Orleans had his own brand of r&b-meets-jazz, and counted Dr. John and Harry Connick Jr. among his admirers.<\/p>\n
Booker\u2019s early career as a musician focused primarily upon live performance, with a few singles released in the \u201850s and 1960s; his debut album wouldn\u2019t appear until 1974. Throughout the middle \u201870s he toured extensively in Europe, and by his return to the U.S. in 1978, he was less well-known than he had been.<\/p>\n
But his fire still burned brightly, and New Orleans audiences reacted in kind. Many of his live performances \u2013 often in bars and tiny clubs \u2013 were recorded. One of his regular gigs in that period was at New Orleans\u2019 Maple Leaf Bar, but he also played at Tipitina’s in the city\u2019s Uptown. One of those shows, an April 1978 date, was captured on tape.<\/p>\n
The new album is sourced from house recordings of Booker\u2019s three sets from that night. The nine cuts on True<\/i> are a mix of originals and standards. \u201cOne Helluva Nerve\u201d and \u201cSlowly But Surely\u201d had been featured on Booker\u2019s 1977 LP The Piano Prince of New Orleans<\/i>. Another classic-sounding original, \u201cWake Up Mr. Moon Man\u201d would appear \u2013 from a live date in Germany \u2013 on the 1980 live LP Blues & Ragtime from New Orleans<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The standards include familiar tunes (\u201cMalaguena,\u201d a flowery, dramatic and classically-tinged reading of \u201cA Taste of Honey,\u201d George Harrison\u2019s Beatles-era classic \u201cSomething\u201d and more), each recast into Booker\u2019s energetic and inimitable style. He\u2019s in spirited voice, pounding out a lively rhythm delivering rollicking solo breaks and generally projecting his larger-than-life persona into the ears of the gathered patrons at Tipitina’s.<\/p>\n
In Sonny Schneidau\u2019s liner note essay \u2013 printed on a 12×12 insert inside the record sleeve \u2013 he self-effacingly emphasizes that his words are \u201cnot meant to be a biography\u201d (he makes recommendations on that score). But his firsthand memories of seeing Booker onstage illuminate his writing. And Schneidau himself was the live sound technician for those shows, so listeners have him to thank for the sparking fidelity of this recording.<\/p>\n
Tipitina’s Record Club is a new subscription service offering limited-edition, vinyl-only releases of previously-unheard recordings from the legendary New Orleans music venue. Preceded by releases of music by The Radiators and Professor Longhair and a reissue of Galactic\u2019s debut album, True: Live at Tipitina’s, April 25, 1978<\/i> is the fourth album in the ongoing, semimonthly series. Tipitina’s Record Club releases are not available on CD, though some titles will be made available in digital format. And the vinyl records \u2013 often color, like the aqua swirl of James Booker\u2019s True<\/i> \u2013 won\u2019t be solid in retail stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Though he passed at age 43, New Orleans pianist James Booker earned quite a reputation during his lifetime. The self-anointed Piano Prince of New Orleans had his own brand of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,49,65,73],"tags":[1087,4686],"class_list":["post-21935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-james-booker","tag-tipitinas-record-club","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21937,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21935\/revisions\/21937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}