[Dixielandjazz] Happy birthday Henry Roeland Byrd

[Gary Kiser]

A New Orleans original, Professor Longhair.
Date: Thu, 1918-12-19

Professor Longhair was born this date 1918. He was an African-American 
blues and jazz musician.

Born Henry Roeland Byrd in Bogalusa, Louisiana, he lived in New Orleans 
from the age of two onward. As a child, he learned how to play on an old 
piano that had been left in an alley. He seriously began to master the 
instrument while working at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in 1937. 
After a stint in the service during World War II, he returned to New 
Orleans and began playing at clubs like the Caledonia Bar just outside 
the French Quarter.

It was here that he was called Professor Longhair, the "professor" part 
being an honorary nickname bestowed on New Orleans piano wizards. He 
first recorded in 1949 and scored his one and only R&B chart hit "Bald 
Head," released on Mercury Records. A year later, he was signed to 
Atlantic Records. As a vocalist, Professor Longhair was a classic blues 
shouter. As a pianist, he was a unique force of New Orleans.

It was a city whose sense of festivity he celebrated with such anthems 
as "Tipitina" (now the name of the city's most fabled music club), 
"Mardi Gras in New Orleans," and "Big Chief." Longhair remained locally 
popular as a working musician from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, 
rarely venturing off his home turf. He abandoned the music business in 
1964 to work odd jobs and deal cards for a living. After languishing in 
obscurity, Professor Longhair was rediscovered and enlisted to play at 
the second New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 1971.

His reappearance included tours of Europe and albums for major labels as 
a new generation discovered his inimitable "mambo-rumba-boogie" style. 
All the while he remained the patron saint of his city's Jazz-fest, 
closing out the final show each year until his death in 1980.

Reference:
Heart & Soul
A Celebration of Black Music Style in America 1930-1975
by Merlis Davin Seay, Forward by Etta James
Copyright 2002, Billboard Books
ISBN 0-8230-8314-4



Gary Kiser
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