Piano | All About Blues Music

CHARLES BROWN

Charles Brown is another Texan who made it on the West Coast, this silky voiced pianist with The Three Blazers took ‘Drifting Blues’ to the top of the R&B charts in 1946. Going solo two years later, he had a series of Number 1 hits, with ‘Trouble Blues’ and ‘Black Night’ both staying at the…

LITTLE BROTHER MONTGOMERY

Little Brother Montgomery was a little known but hugely influential Blues pianist from Louisiana. He learned to play piano just after he learned to walk and talk, and his endless stories of his long life on the road and on the club scene made him an invaluable source in the oral history of the Blues.…

SUNNYLAND SLIM

Albert Luandrew began pounding the keyboard in Delta juke-joints in the 20s, and when he moved to Memphis and recorded ‘Sunnyland Train’ in 1928, he got a new Blues name. He made the journey to Chicago, where he became a session pianist and bandleader, recording at least 250 tracks. Slim had a heavy left hand…

CURTIS JONES

Curtis Jones was a melodic, Texas Blues pianist with a distinctive light touch, who enjoyed a successful recording career in Chicago before WWII, and then had a revival on the 60s Blues scene. He developed his style in Dallas and the club circuit in Kansas City before moving to Chicago in 1936. During the next…

Jimmy McCracklin

Jimmy knew how to play a slow piano Blues, how to pound out a jumpin’ Boogie, a driving R&B tune and how to bring it down behind a smouldering Soul number. He could write in all these styles and he was very smart at changing with the times too. Jimmy was a founding father of…

PERCY MAYFIELD

Often called ‘The Poet Laureate of the Blues’, Percy Mayfield had a warm, rich voice that scored a string of hit Blues Ballads in the early 50s for Art Rupe‘s fledgling Specialty label in LA. His song ‘Two Years of Torture’ got Percy started when he sent it to Jimmy Witherspoon‘s record company and they…

ROBERT SHAW

Distinctive and influential Texan piano player Robert Shaw paid for his own piano lessons as a kid, because his parents didn’t approve. He would leave the farm and travel into Houston, where he picked up a liking for barrelhouse style playing, and earned a living on the ‘Santa Fe Circuit’, following the freight train routes.…

PIANO RED

A native of Atlanta who played piano with Barbecue Bob and Blind Willie McTell in his early days, William Perryman could really pound the 88s. William was the much younger brother of Rufus a.k.a. Speckled Red, who was also albino, and this accounts for both men adopting the tag ‘Red’. Emulating his older brother, who…

‘CHAMPION JACK’ DUPREE

‘Champion Jack’ was not a great piano virtuoso, a stunning singer or a prolific songwriter, but he could play a huge variety of piano Blues styles and he took them around the world, thrilling audiences wherever he went. His affable stage presence and endless supply of funny stories made him a great entertainer and a…

PINETOP SMITH

One Friday night in 1929, a great boogie-woogie pianist was rocking the joint at a dancehall in Chicago. A rumbunctious crowd was celebrating payday, when an argument at the bar led to gunshots. A stray bullet hit the piano player in the chest. Pinetop Smith was 25 years old when he was killed. Born in…