{"id":2268,"date":"2021-01-04T22:51:39","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T04:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=2268"},"modified":"2021-06-24T16:50:43","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T21:50:43","slug":"hof-fess-mardi-gras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/hof-fess-mardi-gras\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 PostGenre Hall of Fame Inductee: Professor Longhair’s “Mardi Gras in New Orleans”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the mouth of the mighty Mississippi, New Orleans has always been a cultural melting pot. French, Spanish, Native American, African, and other influences blend to create art, music, food, and more that are unique and diverse. The city\u2019s version of the Blues was not immune. Most Blues forms lacked complex polyrhythmic structures. And the instrument of choice also differed.  In The Mississippi Delta, Chicago, and elsewhere, the guitar was king. In the Crescent City, it was the piano. And one of its finest practitioners was Professor Longhair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFess\u201d was born in 1918 with the name Henry Roeland Byrd. He began playing music as a boy upon finding a busted piano sitting in an alley. His distinctive style of playing was influenced by learning on an instrument that was missing some keys. By 1948 he dedicated his life to music. But as journalist Tony Russell \u201c[t]he vivacious rhumba-rhythmed piano blues and choked singing typical of Fess were too weird to sell millions of records.\u201d Unusual for the time indeed; he took 1930s boogie-woogie and added rhythms from rumba, mambo, and calypso. Longhair would also often kick the piano for effect, sometimes with such power that he would make holes in the instruments\u2019 base. The eccentricity of his music ultimately kept him from finding a strong following. It required him to give up on his musical aspirations and take a janitorial job at a record store. But he did find some well-deserved recognition later in life, with the help of the Allison Miner and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n

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