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| Author | Topic: Share Your Memories! |
| Carrie |
posted 2/10/04 4:08 PM
Were you lucky enough to know Professor Longhair or see him play live? Please share your memories of him here. |
| ken |
posted 8/28/05 9:46 PM
It had been a cold and dreary winter in St Louis 1979, and in an emotional busting loose from home and family (and a sale on bus tickets) I went to the Mardi Gras. Funny thing was I had a dream about a carnival and a sunglassed grinning figuire that it was all swirling around. I had read about P Longhair in Rolling Stone but I thought he had already passed, had no real idea of the scene doen there, was more interested in Rosie's and hardcore jazz. Passed through NO in 1977 and was impressed with the feeling of music that was there and the friendly ladies, so I finally went back just for M G and eneded up staying for 3 years, what an education I got.79 was the year of the police strike, but the city kept it together, and a mighty fine time it was. I remember sitting in Funky Butts bar on St Peter on a rainy day, eavsdropping on two hooker's conversation, nearly broke, and hearing "Going to New Orleans", a song that I could not escape, and putting up a good deal of resistance to that music, and the city in general, being a rank stranger, unable to find work, but NO worked it's magic on me, and the people, and the music, it's so strong, it just takes you over. First time I saw Fess was the last set at Jazz Fest, 79, couldn't get near the stage, the area was full of people, someone was filming part of it, some drunk fool was trying to stand on top of an upright trash barrel, and fell on top of some people, but all to the music, it was hilarious, no one hurt, Fess was grinning and swinging just a perfect capper to what was no less than an orgy of so many styles and great musicians. Here was a mature artist, well respected and loved by the people, giving everything he had. I ended up going off shore and working, got a job on my return washing dishes in the Quarter, and took a saturday night off to go see Fess, he played at Tipitina's once a month at that time. So I got there and got that corner seat at the bar on the left, Fess was there, kind of quiet, talking with friends. I had away of staring at people back then like I wanted to see in to their soul, and he just looked at me like who the hell are you? I just admired the sheer musicianship of the cat, I knew the songs by then, the perfectness of his timing, his chops, the band obviously loved him and the music, Tony and Andy, the cats from his last band, I loved the way he sang in the lower register of his voice, I think Elvis used to do that, and he got it from Fess. There was so much music going on at that time,in New Orleans, I was keeping body and soul together working in restraunts, quitting my job before jazz fest and mardi gras, soaking up the sounds. I saw him one more time, after work, came in on the last set at Tip's, and he was rocking the place,playe until 4 am, and I finnally understood what they were talking about, as he took the Qualudded drunken dancers in that hot as an oven wild ass club to what some religions call the exalted mood, AND i WAS DIGGING IT, MY BOOGIE STRING BROKE, AND THE FEELING TOOK OVER, FESS LOOKEDAT ME (i THOUGHT ANTWAY) WITH A BIG OL GRIN, NOW YOU GOT THE FEELING! We TOOK HIM FOR GRANTED, OH, THAT'S FESS, HE'S GONNA BE THERE, BUT A short while later, he was gone, but his music lives on, and I try to turn people on to it everywhere I go, and they all love it. Nobody like Fess. |
| jorma nikander |
posted 2/28/06 8:13 AM
thank you dad for exposing me to so many good tunes and musicians the stereo was always on blues music is in my blood after i had moved away from home he sent me a cd it was crawfish fiesta never had i listened to it on my own but i knew every beat every word the fess moves my soul thank you dad for the fess and so much more jorma keep rockin |
| Charlie Assaf |
posted 3/3/06 10:18 PM
Got to see Professor Longhair many times while I was in college.....he was a New Orleans Ledgend and will always be! Great artist. |
| Jane |
posted 2/2/07 6:30 AM
Does anyone know the date of the 1978 concert that Professor Longhair did in Baton Rouge around Mardi Gras? Dr. John was featured at the same concert. |
| Story Vogel |
posted 4/4/07 6:33 PM
I was listening to the Fess today and noodling on the net we I bumped into his web site. Thanks to tose who put it up and keep fess alive for the years to come. New Orleans in the early seventies was without a doubt the coolest place on earth and only those of us lucky to live there, knew it. We lived in a third world music haven alive with music only we knew about. Many a night I sat in the back of Fess's cadillac(actually only twice), a punk college kid hanging with the Fess doing what the Fess liked to do. I was absolutely entranced. Here was a guy who was and is the soul of New Orleans music, an innovator and the spiritual cortex of all New Orleans music was and has become to the larger world. From Jed's to the Maple Leaf to the 501 and then Tips and to all the joints that have disappeared under the waves of time, sweaty, dancing up a storm until the wee hours of the morning, we lived for the music and for seeing the Fess, Booker,Earl King, and so many more. I'm as old now as the Fess was when Quint Davis and Alison Miner found him sweeping out Joe Assunto's One Stop Record Shop. My life has been incredibly altered and made better by having lived through Fess and those amazing years before the world discoverd what so many brought forth in the early seventies. We were damn lucky and I think of the Fess often and remember the heartbreak when he died just as he would have broken nationwide with Crawfish Fiesta. I can remember the rental truck backed up to the side door at Tips when they were recording Crawfish Fiesta. Fess never lived to see it released but all of us who were there and remember his portrait being raised over the stage will forever be bound by that indescribable memory of those days. He lives in our hearts and our memories and we are all the better for having crossed his path and his music.! |
| Robert |
posted 9/3/07 6:35 PM
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| Robert |
posted 9/3/07 10:36 PM
There are few songs that I feel can not be improved at the hands of someone else. One of the few is 'Big Chief' by Professor Longhair. I have heard various versions and I appreciate everyone's efford and am grateful that the song is kept alive. It's a great song. But the first time I heard 'Big Chief' it was a spiritual experience.I am not exaggerating. The first time I heard the original version of 'Big Chief' I couldn't have been more than eight or nine years old. I was born and raised in Northern California so by the time real roots music got to me it was sanatized. Then professor Longhair slipped through the airwaves! I was hooked after the first three notes.it was as if Fess had become a stethoscope,amplifying my heartbeat and setting it to music. I wanted to dance because here was a beat that was mine. I didn't have to learn to dance to this song.All I had to do was move to the music. The next day at school I told all my friends about the great new song I heard on KDIA.I raved and told them what time it would come on.(Back then,if a song was in rotation you could tell what time the song was going to be played."Big Chief' would come on at about eight O'clock at night.) My friends heard it and didn't like the song.After that I lost my status as a'hit caller'!Be fore that my record was good as far as hearing and reconizing what my friends taste in music was. My friend started to look at me with looks that said"poe Bobby!He done lost his good taste!"(Another time I remember getting that look was when I wore bell bottoms for the first time in Marin City,my hometown.Bellbottoms were for white hippies back then so you can imagine the bad time I got for wearing them!The good ol' days!) I loved the song so much I did not care what my friends thought.That was my first 'breakaway moment'.When I decided what I enjoyed instead of my friends dictating to me what was cool. I need to mention that my mother was from Louisiana and I believe the music was in her dna so when I heard it for the first time it was like a coming home for me.Like I said,it was a spiritual experience for me. Now I have no shame in letting folks know that I love Professor Longhair,Robert Johnson,Howlin' Wolf and Sonnyboy Williams as much,if not more than I love James Brown,The Temptations,Marvin Gaye or John Coltrane and Charles Mingus. Professor Longhair gave me permission to stray outside boundries dictated by outside influences and showed me how to follow my heart. Otherwise I might be thinking Kenny G. is really good! Thank you Professor Longhair! Sincerely. |
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