Professor Longhair : Big Chief
On January 30, 1980 Professor Longhair, the man Dr. John called "the guardian angel of the roots of New Orleans music", died in his sleep of a heart attack at the age of 61. Allen Toussaint called Fess the "Bach of Rock".
There are countless classic New Orleans tunes that owe their rhumba rhythm to Fess, whose left hand held down the bass while his right hand slipped up and down the keys, celebrating like every day was Mardi Gras. have the kind of rhumba beat Fess played on his piano. No, it wasn't the rhumba of the ballrooms so much as a starting off point for a special kind of New Orleans funk. Fess only had one national hit, 1950's "Bald Head", one of the songs he re-recorded before his death for the essential Crawfish Fiesta , which came out the day after his death.
After more than a decade of writing and recording New Orleans classics like "Mardi Gras in New Orleans", "Tipitina" and "Big Chief", Professor Longhair ran out of money and took a job as a janitor and played the cards. By the late ‘60s many people on the New Orleans music scene thought that Professor Longhair had either left town or died when a film maker discovered him in 1969.
In the 70's, his musical career revived, Professor Longhair played the festival circuit and recorded albums. A new nightclub opened uptown and named itself Tipitina's, after Fess's tune. Alligator Records signed Professor Longhair and got him into Toussaint's Sea-Saint studio with Dr John and drummer Johnny Vidacovich for a tight set of classics.
Fess wouldn't be around to see Crawfish Fiesta win the first W.C. Handy Blues Album of the Year award in 1980 or be voted as one of the Top 10 Albums of the Year by the New York Times. Maybe he's in heaven with Dr. John keeping watch over the New Orleans music scene.
In 1992, Aaron Neville inducted Fess into the Rock Hall of Fame.
