New Orleans Music: James Booker

Video Transcript

"In this clip we're going to discuss some of the styles of James Booker. Now, James Booker was a session musician coming up in the 50's and 60's. He's most famous for being the piano you heard on Fats Domino's recording. He also is the one that switched Doctor John from guitar to piano. And, even more recently, he was the teacher of world famous musician Harry Connick Jr. when he was a young child. Now, James Booker was a classically trained pianist which made him very different from the Fats Domino's and the Professor Longhair's of the world. He used a lot more elegant harmony and elaborate runs on the keyboard because of his classical training. And something he did do that stuck with the style was play the major and minor chords at the same time. But he also had a very unique style, he had large hands and was able to play a bass line using three fingers on his left hand and then comp a rhythm chord using other two fingers of his left hand. So when it came up with the appearance of having three hands playing a piano. And here's an example of how he performed this song "Junko Partner." (Demo)"